Anyone have good luck with solar chargers that keep batts at a good state? I always isolate my batts on my yellow and green iron by using the disconnect switch but they still degrade over longer periods. And my disconnects truly disconnect the batteries so there is no phantom or parasitic bleed, they just slowly lose charge from sitting so was wondering if there are good "hands off" solutions out there.
I am also interested in what others have found. I am thinking about doing something similar as I don't currently have utility power where I park all the equipment. I have a 10watt panel that works decent for a car battery, but doesn't seem to do much on the backhoe or dozer that may sit for several weeks between starts. I could mount as big a panel as I could find on the roof and run it to a charge controller, but I haven't looked into if you have to have someway to dissipate power when it is not on a battery.
Years ago, I had a solar maintainer I used to try to keep my dump trailer charged when I wasn't using it. It didn't work very well. Maybe the technology has improved and they work better now.
I bought a Battery Tender brand solar maintainer and was very disappointed with it. I had it in a truck that wasn't used regularly and the batteries still went dead. One year Sam's Club had an after Christmas clearance sale on Stanley battery maintainers (plug in) and I bought several. I have a car I don't drive in winter months and the mower that I put the maintainers on. They work great!! Previous to using the maintainer I had to replace the mower battery almost annually but with the maintainer I get 3 years from one. The car battery has lasted 5 years so far with the maintainer. You can pick one up for about $25, I feel they're well worth it.
Made my own. I think the trickle/maintainer was mentioned here. Keeps my old Ford L7000 charged up. Currently putting together a second one for my tractor.
I have 2 generic units I bought from Amazon on 1 loader. 24V system, so I bought 2 12V units. Don't know the wattage but they are slightly smaller than the 8d batteries they keep charged. Going on 3 years now with the solar chargers, 6 years on the batteries.
Husqvarna has one...expensive ($100+) it will de-sulfate, charge and maintain. I'm not real keen on trusting a 15 buck maintainer in from Walmart my shop... Ed
I do know, when it comes to bike batteries and mower batteries, I am firmly in the camp of pulling the batteries and storing them inside for the winter. We have had cock fights over this on the bike site and without a maintainer, I can and usually do get at least 5 to 7 years, out of a Deka battery. If I were to hook up a good maintainer, I would get 3 years sometimes less. Unless it’s got no draw, you are better off pulling and in spring, put on a computer controlled maintainer and top it off and good to go. I would like to find an answer to this thread because I just dropped 50 bucks to put a remote jump station in my old backhoe because the batteries are getting weak and they are 4 years old. I have a really good jump pack but hate having to take the damn cover off the batteries. I do annually check the individual batteries with a tester on everything I own. My backhoe batteries tested great in October but they seem to be dropping off a bit, this winter. Now admittedly, I haven’t messed with the cables or grounds, since I put the new batteries in. Might be time this spring to go through them.
Deka batteries are the best I've ever used. No matter what we put them in they lasted at least 5 years. Some lasted 8 or 9 years.
That’s interesting…I had constant problems with the atv (just a small 360 Kawasaki) not starting due to weak/dead battery. It is a support ‘vehicle’ and often sits for a month or more. I noticed the last battery I put in was a Deka; that was 3 years ago.… It has started every time since, including cold winter starts! Haven’t had to boost or put on a charger in 3 years! Sure is nice not having to mess with it, just turn the key!
While finding Deka batteries can be challenging, it’s always worth it. Never seen one larger than a farm and garden size though. I once put a genuine Duracell battery on one of my bikes and not only did it need those stupid cut spacers, it only lasted 2 years.
As far as solar maintainers we always used one on our Hitachi ZX120 over the winter (as it sat unattended in a remote location). It did seem to work as machine always started right up. But…the Isuzu in that machine started really easy regardless. The last six seasons with a Hyundai 210, have just turned the night switch off, with no issues come spring. On the other hand our Deere 50d mini is constantly having battery issues. Thought troubles were fixed after replacing the internally corroded positive cable, but must have other issues as battery going dead again.…
Going to put a Deka in our Miller Bobcat welder, as it sits a lot and is always dead when needed…
Any brand made by East Penn is good. And it is not only Deka. Interestingly Walmart use to sell them under their name. Now it is Johnston Controls, I think. Not sure if Costco still East Penn.
I always either disconnect or trickle charge on an appointment basis. Will say that the other thing I do is top up the water with distilled water annually. That being said, my 332G battery has a sticker over the filler caps to make them look like they are not there. I sliced the sticker with my Olfa and peeled up the sticker. They don't want you servicing the battery. Can get a few extra years this way. I always blow the top with air before removing caps to prevent dirt falling in. Then I put the sticker back over. A lot of the batteries have caps that are covered. They want you to just pay for new. As long as crank voltage test passes good why would I buy new. Simon C
And check the electrolyte ratio, especially before winter. They still sell those test kits in Autoparts storesz But - “ain’t nobody got time for that”!
I do all the necessary maintenance, and my Miller 325 EFI Trailblaser lasted 9 years on the battery, and my compressor battery lasted 8.5 years. My last Toyota Rav4 battery lasted 7.5 years with the annual maintenance. Maybe I am just fortunate. My Chev 3500 had a non servicable battery and yes junk in 3 years, but got warranty on it with 1 week to go. The warranty one lasted only 4 years, tested not so good right from the get go. I put a Noco 3500 battery tender on it, which may have helped. Simon C
West marine batteries are made by Deka/East Penn. Don't buy them there as they're crazy expensive, because they're for marine use. Same battery just marked up. They do make them up to 8D.
Dekka does the sticker on the fill caps also..... Ed
Amazon has a deal on battery switches, $8, down from $40 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00558LSJE?tag=atomicindus08-20&th=1
I just bought a 100w panel with a charge controller off eBay for $100 or less. It's keeping my diesel heater battery charged up in the field and so far it has kept up to the 12v 40w load. The panel might be a tad big for equipment, it's probably the size of a cab roof.
That's interesting, they show as $27 on my amazon. You must have bought all the $8 ones?
Pushing maybe 9Ah at peak sunlight below it's rated coefficient temperature rating and then drop down .35% every temperature degree above it. Just keep an eye on the fluid level.
They were $8, I bought 2. Not shipped yet so who knows if I'll get them. Joe H
I remember the Army used to have solar trickle chargers on all the Hummers and some of the bigger trucks in the 90's. These were small solar panels, less than a ft square in area and being it was the 90's, I bet they were less than 10 watts output. But fast forward to the 2000's, almost every trickle charger I saw had the wires cut and I never saw trickle chargers going forward on newer or rebuilt vehicles. Since I have not seen solar trickle chargers recently, my guess is the Army either 1) doesn't need them anymore (which I doubt) or 2) they haven't found any that are useful or cost effective. I was really hoping there was a simple 'buy and plug in' system but it looks like everyone here is tossing components together. I'm good with disconnects and I generally only buy Cat batteries for my toys. Just really wanted something to maintain and keep my batts at optimum level while some of the toys sit for a few months at time.
I have 2 of these, one on backhoe & one on pickup that doesn't get much use. First one I bought was June 2022 according to my amazon order, still going. 12V, not 24V https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QBY8FLQ?ie=UTF8&th=1 Joe H
We have a small solar panel bought from china freight that charges a lawnmower battery which runs our base station. Base station doesn't need a lot of juice but works very well and eliminates having to charge the small batteries. This base station will tear through those.
Too late for an edit, but the amazon charger above keeps 2 parallel 12V batts in the backhoe up to snuff. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QBY8FLQ?ie=UTF8&th=1 Joe H
Edit - topic already covered.
I finally found the device the military used to keep their batteries charged when vehicles are sitting in the motor pool when I first got into the Army. It's called the Solargizer and it appears to not be a charger, per se. I attached the installation manual I found. Instead, it's designed to prevent sulfating of the battery plates by sending pulses of higher voltage instead of a constant lower voltage needed to charge. Looks like the small solar cells just pump up the circuitry in the control box to a point where it sends a voltage spike or pulse into the battery. My guess from the price and from that fact I didn't really see those hooked up in the last 20 years or means to me they don't work or at least don't provide a value for batteries sitting unused for long periods of time. Just sharing the info since I brought up the subject to begin with...
Probably pay $300 just for military green paint.
I had a boat with two batteries that could be isolated. I kept it in the water spring though fall. The bilge pump was hard wired to one battery and after a while I noticed it wasn't holding a charge like it used to. I bought a solar maintainer that desulphates and it brought the battery back to life. I never tested it to see how much it improved but I sold the boat a couple years later without having to replace it. Unfortunately I don't remember what the maintainer was but I'd love to find another.
I have a solar trickle panel on my fuel tank battery, I really should mount it on a pole but it just leans against the battery box, regular ford truck battery with some life left in it. Its a generic 2amp one off ebay. Now this has a red/green led, turns green in full/partial sun but red at night so its going to have a small draw, been working to keep the battery pretty full for a year between fill ups every couple weeks. One gotcha for heavy equipment, have run into this, you get a one or two amp charger, that'll be enough to keep up with most of the vehicle computer needs but if you get one battery with an impedance difference or a small short then you're hooped! One way to find this is isolate the multiple batteries from each other for a week and then check the voltages. Just recently, truck would not start if parked for a month, well isolate batteries from each other and one was 2 volts lower than the others, 2017 napa group 31 batteries, no complaints there. One thing is to verify the charger is charging, voltmeter before and after hooking up and see where it peaks out, I have seen one that looked like a printed panel on plastic in a nice plastic case, had a blinking LED that would flash every 10 seconds or so. Turns out it was entirely fake wire leads not hooked to anything and the led was on a pair of 2032 batteries and a little capacitive flasher.
Love it, fake blinking LED hooked to batteries. Almost as good as the fake cameras 30 years ago, with a fake recording LED.