Solar trickle charger

[AlaskaRV]

Any suggestions for a high quality trickle charger powered by solar?

[Xkuzme1]

I can't say anything about a high quality one... but I've got a smaller one from the dreaded harbor freight that keptmy campers battery very well throughout the year. I didn't want anything that would actually charge... just sow down the parasitic draw. It worked very well.

X

[lr172]

2 comments.

First, do research on trickle charging. Odyssey and similar sealed lead acid/AGM batteries have a very low self-discharge rate (i.e. you shouldn't need to trickle charge within a 6 month window) and those that trickle charge seem to have more longevity issues than those who don't.

I think you'll struggle to find any sophisticated charging circuits on Solar setups and you may struggle to get the exact float voltage you want with moderately priced setups. Also you don't get a lot of amp hours from a fairly large panel at the moderate price points. I looked into these for my sailboat and I needed a 2' X 4' panel to give me anything over the self-discharge rate on two large batteries.

Flooded batteries are more tolerant of trickle charging methods and solar works well for these. Not so sure about sealed lead acid though.

Larry

[Tbutler]

How about this? I've been thinking of buying one for an ATV that doesn't get used often. Decent reviews as far as far as I've seen. Anyone here ever used one?

http://products.batterytender.com/So...ontroller.html

[Jrskygod]

Go to Arizona wind and solar website. Get a 10 w solar panel and a charge controller. Tape the charge controller to the backside of the solar panel and interconnect (just 2 wires) add some cord and a couple of alligator clips from Lowes and you have what they're selling for less than $70.00 freight included. Easy peasy

Actually you really don't need a 10 w panel for maintaining a battery a 5 will do just fine it'll just take a bit longer to charge a partially depleted battery.