I have a car with a smallish battery, and it's gonna be parked up for a while.. so I'm thinking of getting a solar powered trickle charger.
I have seen models that plug into the cigarette lighter socket - anyone use one of these, and are they any good?
My uncle uses one on his old range rover. He lives on a farm and the car has no mot, insurance or anything and is just used for moving bits and pieces around the place. It lies around for ages at a time and he says the solar charger really makes a difference.
One thing to consider though is some cars power sockets don't work when the keys are removed, if you have one like that the charger won't work.
Aldi and Lidl do some really cheap chargers which are good ( about a tenner)
I use an optimate4 for the bike and cars.
Brian
This is relevant - I've just taken the battery out of my car to charge it which is an increasingly common occurrence. One problem that springs to mind is absence of daylight though - with the exception of the brief spell of decent weather around the the time of the Olympics, London has been mired in Stygian gloom for the last 12 months or so.
Thanks Brian, I've been reading up on the S2000 forum, and those cheapo solar charges are rubbish apparently. :(Originally Posted by Brian
This Optimate4 - what is this.. do you plug this in (without mains power) and it charges your battery??
After reading up... I think these can be hit and miss... can anyone recommend a portable jump started unit?
We used a solar panel charger plugged into the motorhome at le Mans.
It kept the lights on all week, ran the shower, ran the laptop, and recharged the phones.
It was suppossed to be 12 watt - but they calculate the wattage by multiplying the 18v max output by the amps.
You can knock 30% off that by multiplying the 12v charge rate by the maximum amps (i.e. my 12watt is really an 8 watt recharger)
Also - it seemed to be draining overnight, so I put a swich on ours to disconect the system when it was dark.
The Zener diode might be iffy on ours.
So - get 50% more than you think you might need.
It doesn't work in the dark.
And it doesn't get above 12v if the skies are dark and cloudy all day.
Overnight, it may drain a little bit of voltage back through the solar panel diode if you are really unlucky.
But overall it should keep the 12v battery topped up ready to start the engine.
This is the one I got from maplin for £50 in 2010 - it's more powerful than a trickle charger.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SOLAR-12W-...item2ec47a07e4
Last edited by Reeny; 17th March 2013 at 13:03.
I have one permanently installed on the bonnet of our cars.
I'm afraid you need mains power but it terms of worry free charging and maintenance charging they are the best. I paid about £39 for mine but I use it on cars and bikes.
http://www.optimate.co.uk/
Brian
I use one of these.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/CTEK-MXS-5-0.../dp/B004INGZR2
Its not the cheapest in the market but the best things never are.
Good luck.
I've got a Maplin one, it's crap
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I've got a Maplin one, it's crap
The cheap option is to disconnect the battery while it's not in use.
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