Solar battery maintainer

[woody367]

I am looking m
to get a solar battery maintainer. I have 2 plow trucks that sit most of the time. The batteries are sometimes dead when I go to start the. One is a Jeep and sit in front of my house. I would like one the plugs into the cigarette lighter and can just be left there with out worrying about over charging. Can anyone suggest a good on that will not break the bank?

 

[rayra]

I've been using this one successfully for 2yrs for my old pickup that is rarely driven / started. Working fine. $36.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W97ZBXT/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[nadogail]

I have been using a Schumacher (SP?) Battery Maintainer solar panel on my 1999 Chevrolet Van for years with no problem.

 

[mikedodge]

I've been using this one successfully for 2yrs for my old pickup that is rarely driven / started. Working fine. $36.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W97ZBXT/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I also have one similar to that on my trailer and have another for the cars.
But for long periods of sitting on one of my trucks I have a battery disconnect on it.

 

[landlord30]

I would want to have a charge controller in there also for protection. Those cheap units do not have that.

 

[kbeefy]

I would want to have a charge controller in there also for protection. Those cheap units do not have that.

They are less than 1A. They can't generate enough current to harm a car battery. If it was a 100w panel I would agree.

 

[kerrynzl]

I am looking m
to get a solar battery maintainer. I have 2 plow trucks that sit most of the time. The batteries are sometimes dead when I go to start the. One is a Jeep and sit in front of my house. I would like one the plugs into the cigarette lighter and can just be left there with out worrying about over charging. Can anyone suggest a good on that will not break the bank?

I have had bad experiences with those "stick-on" chargers causing a chip in the Windshield to run [the heat up against the glass is the problem.]

Also make sure your 12v cigarette lighter socket is live when the key is off.

Build your own! This is the GJ.

I used a Deltran solar battery tender/controller and a 18v 45w Solar panel [this will charge and also float]
Here is the controller https://www.batterytender.com/Battery-Tender-Solar-Controller

I also have a 230v [NZ] C-Tek battery tender for my "F" car that used a special socket in the trunk.
So I purchased a C-Tek extension cable and cut the "Male" off one end and Attached it to the Deltran Solar Controller.
The Female end of the extension was spliced to the Ferrari plug.
The original Female end that I cut off the Ferrari plug was spliced to a cigarette lighter male plug.

The end result is I have a Solar and a Plug-in Charger/tender that can be used on different vehicles. The C-Tek charger also had a female plug with 2 alligator clips and another that can be hard-wired to my Race-car.

This allows me to use Solar or 230v [NZ] on all my vehicles.













I will later make an extension lead between the solar panel and controller, then I can hang the solar panel off my garage Tilt-A-Door
[hence the white plugs on the input side of the controller]

 

[crewchief888]

We use the solar panels in all our snow rental machines. Most of them we get from northern tool. We hard wire them in.

 

[Metallitubby]

I've been using this one successfully for 2yrs for my old pickup that is rarely driven / started. Working fine. $36.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W97ZBXT/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I have similar ones in our race cars during the off-season. So far, so good.

 

[woody367]

Thanks for the info. I will look at them. I want to make sure it has a reverse diode so it will not drain battery at night. Do I need to worry about a over charge issue with these?

 

[hoarder]

I've had issues keeping batteries alive in vehicles that don't get used very often. I bought a stack of those small cigar lighter plug in solar panels, the first were from a trade show, the second batch were from Harbor Freight. I started using them in a few vehicles, but found several had somehow shorted and then somehow created a draw and wiped the battery out
It happened on both brand solar panels. Both had some sort of circuitry in the lighter plug that had failed but not blown the fuse in the end of the plug. Yet both panels still made power to the two wire plug.
The residual draw on either vehicle was around 23 milliamps. In both cases the batteries were stone dead in two days and the lighter plug was dead and would no longer transfer current to the car but was causing a significant draw on the car's battery when connected to the panel. A third panel, from HF, did the same but after a few days I found the panel all discolored, the solar cells looked as if someone had poured ink in around the edges and it was hot to the touch from a short.
Surprisingly, after removal, the panel still made 12vdc at the leads but the plug was dead with a good fuse. I replaced that panel in the same vehicle and found that if I started the vehicle with the solar panel still plugged into the cigar lighter, the plug would get red hot and start to melt before burning out, and that took only a few minutes. So I'm thinking that there's a problem with current flowing back toward the panel somehow

I have one set up without the lighter plug adapter on it to charge some older 12v tool batteries that I don't care about and it does fine. I suppose the current is low enough that it can't overcharge the old NiCad batteries I've got it hooked to. They sit in a metal pan I hooked on the basement window sill, hanging over the edge of a metal window frame with a piece of galvanized steel over top attached to the floor joists above. If something did overheat, its not likely to cause a fire. I basically took a bunch of old Dewalt chargers and gutted them and connecting them all to the solar panel directly with a diode in between to prevent batteries from cross charging from one another.
I've been running them like that for about 8 years now on one of the solar panels from HF that had problems in a car.

I did buy one of those three panel solar arrays from HF (bought it for $10 at an auction still sealed up in the box), each panel is 12vdc and rated at 25w and it comes with a charge controller and hub. I've yet to find a way to make use of it that I trust. The panels don't look very robust for outdoor use, the frames are just cheap plastic. A buddy bought one of those kits and put one panel on each of his work trailers to charge the onboard batteries. Each one is wired direct with no controller. It seems to work fine but I have no idea what his long term result will be. Each panel is supposedly 25w, and from what I measured on one of his trailers its providing about 1.5a to the battery in full sun.
They're amorphous type panels, not monocrystalline, and the panel frames are cheap plastic that feels a bit flimsy. Time will tell.

 

[woody367]

I was told I will need a regulator on these solar panels or it will damage the battery by over charging it without it?

 

[kerrynzl]

Thanks for the info. I will look at them. I want to make sure it has a reverse diode so it will not drain battery at night. Do I need to worry about a over charge issue with these?

Whatever you do, make sure your charge port [cig lighter] is live with the ignition off.

And be careful of stone chips in the wind shield, the heat can cause cracks.

 

[markrenner371]

I've had issues keeping batteries alive in vehicles that don't get used very often. I bought a stack of those small cigar lighter plug in solar panels, the first were from a trade show, the second batch were from Harbor Freight. I started using them in a few vehicles, but found several had somehow shorted and then somehow created a draw and wiped the battery out
It happened on both brand solar panels. Both had some sort of circuitry in the lighter plug that had failed but not blown the fuse in the end of the plug. Yet both panels still made power to the two wire plug.
The residual draw on either vehicle was around 23 milliamps. In both cases the batteries were stone dead in two days and the lighter plug was dead and would no longer transfer current to the car but was causing a significant draw on the car's battery when connected to the panel. A third panel, from HF, did the same but after a few days I found the panel all discolored, the solar cells looked as if someone had poured ink in around the edges and it was hot to the touch from a short.
Surprisingly, after removal, the panel still made 12vdc at the leads but the plug was dead with a good fuse. I replaced that panel in the same vehicle and found that if I started the vehicle with the solar panel still plugged into the cigar lighter, the plug would get red hot and start to melt before burning out, and that took only a few minutes. So I'm thinking that there's a problem with current flowing back toward the panel somehow

I have one set up without the lighter plug adapter on it to charge some older 12v tool batteries that I don't care about and it does fine. I suppose the current is low enough that it can't overcharge the old NiCad batteries I've got it hooked to. They sit in a metal pan I hooked on the basement window sill, hanging over the edge of a metal window frame with a piece of galvanized steel over top attached to the floor joists above. If something did overheat, its not likely to cause a fire. I basically took a bunch of old Dewalt chargers and gutted them and connecting them all to the solar panel directly with a diode in between to prevent batteries from cross charging from one another.
I've been running them like that for about 8 years now on one of the solar panels from HF that had problems in a car.

I did buy one of those three panel solar arrays from HF (bought it for $10 at an auction still sealed up in the box), each panel is 12vdc and rated at 25w and it comes with a charge controller and hub. I've yet to find a way to make use of it that I trust. The panels don't look very robust for outdoor use, the frames are just cheap plastic. A buddy bought one of those kits and put one panel on each of his work trailers to charge the onboard batteries. Each one is wired direct with no controller. It seems to work fine but I have no idea what his long term result will be. Each panel is supposedly 25w, and from what I measured on one of his trailers its providing about 1.5a to the battery in full sun.
They're amorphous type panels, not monocrystalline, and the panel frames are cheap plastic that feels a bit flimsy. Time will tell.

thanks for so much information

 

[rsparks64]

I bought one from Suner Power for my small diesel motorhome and I let the panel sit outside to get better sun but I did buy an extension from them and connect to the battery connects under the hood. I got this model- BC-10W Solar Battery Charger Pro × 1.

It seems to work so far. They have some panels on sale right now

 

[smackey05]

I have had bad experiences with those "stick-on" chargers causing a chip in the Windshield to run [the heat up against the glass is the problem.]

Also make sure your 12v cigarette lighter socket is live when the key is off.

Build your own! This is the GJ.

I used a Deltran solar battery tender/controller and a 18v 45w Solar panel [this will charge and also float]
Here is the controller https://www.batterytender.com/Battery-Tender-Solar-Controller

I also have a 230v [NZ] C-Tek battery tender for my "F" car that used a special socket in the trunk.
So I purchased a C-Tek extension cable and cut the "Male" off one end and Attached it to the Deltran Solar Controller.
The Female end of the extension was spliced to the Ferrari plug.
The original Female end that I cut off the Ferrari plug was spliced to a cigarette lighter male plug.

The end result is I have a Solar and a Plug-in Charger/tender that can be used on different vehicles. The C-Tek charger also had a female plug with 2 alligator clips and another that can be hard-wired to my Race-car.

This allows me to use Solar or 230v [NZ] on all my vehicles.













I will later make an extension lead between the solar panel and controller, then I can hang the solar panel off my garage Tilt-A-Door
[hence the white plugs on the input side of the controller]

I use a setup almost exactly like this. Works really well.

 

[Max]

I would do something like smackey05 suggests as you will have a real controller that will not overcharge the battery. Be careful of “built in” controllers with panels - I bought one that said it had a built in ”controller”. Nope - just a simple series diode, so over time it cooked and overcharged my battery. When I bought the new battery I tossed the **** panel and used a real controller.

 

[engineer2]

I had the idea of running a small fish tank filter pump from a solar panel. Works great in direct sunshine, but any cloudiness or shading and the panel won't put out enough power. The panel wattage is twice what the pump requires.

I also have an older HF solar battery maintainer. It doesn't appear to have any voltage regulation. Voltage can be anywhere from 0 to 15, so I don't use it.

 

[frankd]

I've been using the "battery tender" brand solar charger for my ATV with good results. It wasnt the cheapest option at the time...and now there are quite a few of options out there. But mine is probably close to 10 years old now and I'm very happy with it.

 

[66HertzClone]

I use one of these for my Quad which is sitting outside under a tarp, I put some strong magnets on each end rest it on the cargo rack on the rear. I ran a pair of wires directly from the battery to the seat cushion latch pocket, used a weatherhead 2 prong connector so I can plug it in or remove without any headache. This has worked really well as I may not use it for several weeks.