Solar battery tender/chargers

[SmokinM]

I have a couple deep cycle marine batteries that I need to keep charged up and aren't always easy to get a charger to. Have any of you used one and if so how well did it work? Any particular brand or feature to look at? Also how much do they actually charge with good sunlight? Appreciate your help.

 

[sstterry]

Also how much do they actually charge with good sunlight?

I think it would depend on the size of your solar panel.

 

[wbvs58]

I have a couple deep cycle marine batteries that I need to keep charged up and aren't always easy to get a charger to. Have any of you used one and if so how well did it work? Any particular brand or feature to look at? Also how much do they actually charge with good sunlight? Appreciate your help.

Do you need to put much into them or do you just want to maintain them fully charged. The size of panels and charger is mainly related to what you are pulling out of them. If it is just maintenance something similar to electric fencer charger would probably suffice but at the other end of heavy useage the sky is the limit. Just as an example my Cat D4D's alternator is not working, it has 2 big 12 volt cranking batteries in series and I just hook it up to a cheap Aldi 160 watt array with a charge controller after a few starts for a couple of hours and it does the job well. I had to change the wiring a bit to deal with the 24 volts. Always remember to hook the batteries to the controller first before feeding in from the panels as the battery voltage sets what the controller charges at.

Ken

 

[SmokinM]

I would like for it to compensate for some usage in a camping situation ideally. Is something like this what I would be looking for?

300 Watts Solar Panel Kit 100A 12V Battery Charger With Controller Caravan Boat | eBay

Solar Panel Kit Solar panel powerï¼200W. Suitable for: bicycle, mountaineering, hiking, camping, traveling, etc. 1 x Solar Panel. -The car converter suitable for DC12V and Car ONLY, not applied for DC 24V and airplane.

duckduckgo.com

 

[wbvs58]

I would like for it to compensate for some usage in a camping situation ideally. Is something like this what I would be looking for?

300 Watts Solar Panel Kit 100A 12V Battery Charger With Controller Caravan Boat | eBay

Solar Panel Kit Solar panel powerï¼200W. Suitable for: bicycle, mountaineering, hiking, camping, traveling, etc. 1 x Solar Panel. -The car converter suitable for DC12V and Car ONLY, not applied for DC 24V and airplane.

duckduckgo.com

That should do the job. It includes an inverter to give you some 110/220 volts to run low power draw items and that is what they are advertising as 300 watt. The actual solar panel is 200 watt so not what they make it out to be but is still useful to put a bit back into your batteries. Your needs depend on your useage and of course cloudy/sunny weather but in a camping situation you start off with full batteries and with just running things like lights and maybe a small water pump and charging your phone the batteries should last several days. On sunny days that solar setup should put back what you take out. If you plan to run a fridge from your batteries then some additional panels would be needed if you were staying out for several days.

Ken

 

[SmokinM]

Thanks for the help Ken!

 

[Texas Ranch Hand]

I use "Battery Tender" - get the smallest one. I swear by these - they will not boil a battery dry, keeps them ready to go, plugged in 24/7 when not in use. Cost about $40. I've got about 8 of them connected to 4 wheelers, SxS's, tractors, dozer, jeep.

They will take forever (if at all) to bring back a completely dead battery but for maintenance they can't be beat.

Where I don't have power I use 12"x 16" solar panels connected directly to the batteries. I use them on my remote fuel tanks.

 

[Atimm693]

Solar is ~15 watts per square foot of panel. 15 watts is essentially a trickle charger or maintainer, nothing more. For light use, you might get by with it, but recharging will take days, not hours. Use that rule while shopping, I've seen some pretty outrageous ratings from tiny panels. If they're claiming 100 watts out of a 15x15" panel, not likely.

We have one setup on an excavator that sits a long ways from power. The batteries are huge and suck to remove. Have not had dead batteries since it was installed a few years ago.