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Solar Battery chargers

S

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Greetings
My poor girl lives outside in the fresh air and doesn't get used as often as I would like[:(]
So when an opportunity presents itself I rush outside brandishing the car keys only to find the battery is waving its white flag at me[:mad:]
I trickle charge it overnight and all is well for a couple of weeks untill I get the white flag again[:eek:]
So has anyone used a solar powered trickle charger successfully?
I'm looking forward to confiscating that dreaded white flag.
Cheers guys
Alex
 
+1 for the Ctek charger - brill bit of kit with q/r harness and cigar lighter input options.
 
Hi,
If you only use your car occasionally and it's outside why not disconnect the clock which tends to be the biggest drain on the battery??
I use my car at weekends and just disc.the battery with a disconnect but this is no good when outside.Not too keen on trickle chargers.
 
ORIGINAL: phil pullinger

Hi,
If you only use your car occasionally and it's outside why not disconnect the clock which tends to be the biggest drain on the battery??
I use my car at weekends and just disc.the battery with a disconnect but this is no good when outside.Not too keen on trickle chargers.
Click to expand...

good idea and good point about the clock -
but the battery is affected more by lo-temp and not getting any charge into it (ie using it will cause it to fail) this is why the ctek chargers are good as they are conditioning chargers not just trickle chargers

cheers

adam
 
I have a Maplin Solar Battery charger sitting on the dashboard of my motorhome which keeps a very small charge going into the starter battery during the hours of daylight. You might like to look at one of these which costs about £10 and can either be clipped onto the battery or plugged into the cigar lighter socket (if its permanently live). Although the charge is very small it is continuous and free.
 
I use a Draper Trickle Charger which does the same job as the units mentioned above. However I have the luxury of a garage and wouldn't want to use it outdoors! SO I have in the past used a solar charger (indeed it is now sitting unused in the garage) and found it to be perfect for keeping the battery topped up. It even worked OK on cloudy days. Hope this helps.
Alan
 
I use one of these in conjunction with a solar charge controller. Seems to work fine but I do give it a blast with the CTEK from time to time - just in case!

http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk/icp-solar/se-500-solar-battery-charger.aspx

Shopped around and got it much cheaper than that price though.[:D]
 
Do you need to change any wiring?

as I'd been told if the lighter socket only works with the ignition on, then when parked up with the ignition off the solar charger won't work?
T[&:]
 
Not on mine Tim as the cigarette lighter socket is live all the time. I guess where that is not the case you have to go straight to the battery, which could be a bit of a faff, but I suppose is the same whether you use a solar charger or Ctek type.
 
Greetings
Cheers guys, looks like a CTEK charger or similar is the way to go.
Thanks for the feed back[:)]
Alex
 
Look out for the "similar" though. An important difference between CTEK and the copy Benton is that Benton does not "remember" the settings if unplugged or if the power supply is interrupted. So if you just leave it for months you would not know if the correct setting is still there or if it is connected at all. I have both in different cars and I will change the Benton to a CTEK.
Martin
 
Looks like you are sorted Alex, but for the record my solar charger connects direct to the battery.
Alan
 
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