Has anyone ever purchased a solar trickle charger or something like this to keep their battery charged during the winter months? The location where my machine is doesn’t have power. I have a 555e that I use every 2-3 weeks during the winter and every time I go to use it, it’s either very hard to start or I have to jump it. I know the obvious answer is to get a new battery and it should fix my problems, but it still won’t help the fact I’m only using the machine every few weeks. I found a few on amazon that seem to be nice and will work for what I wanted, but figured I would get y’all’s opinion first. Thanks.
I prefer Battery Tender. I think they are still made in the USA. DeLand Florida for the win! But, I've purchased a lot of Solar brand stuff from Napa and their little trickle chargers seem to work good.
Yes, they work great for that purpose. But you shouldn't have any problem if it's only a couple of weeks. A good battery will NOT discharge enough over winter to matter for starting in the spring. It will over summer. The battery is shot, or the system/alternator is draining it. Could try disconnecting the ground cable to see if the battery holds a charge better. Or take the battery home with you and set it in a warm spot with a tender, or just hook a cigarette lighter charger on the way home and back with the battery sitting on the floor by the heater.
Delmer, I agree I shouldn’t have a problem and that the battery is on its last leg. I have a battery disconnect and I make sure that is off anytime I let the machine sit, so I know it’s not draining from something actually on the backhoe. When it’s 40-45 degrees or above, the backhoe starts fine. Below that, it doesn’t want to crank like normal and usually requires a jump or a little battery pack assistance. Once I get it started, no issues. I shut it off last weekend 3-4 times while I was using it for 6+ hrs and it started up perfect. Unfortunately pulling it out every time to take it home isn’t an option that’s why I was inquiring about the solar tender.
100 W panel from Renogy with a 20 amp PWM (Pulse Width Modulator) charge controller from same place and let it go. Though you might want to keep an eye on it as to not dry out the battery. I power my home/RV through solar panels and batteries with back up genset so ask away.
Granted, I bought 2 brand new batteries for mine at around the same time I got my solar tender (less than 20 bucks, I think, from Harbor Freight, I think it's the 12v model), but since putting it on I have zero hesitation upon startup. Batteries or the tender? I don't know, but the tender stays on the dash in the front window, and connected all the time.
My cold weather starting problem turned out to be bad cables. I have a 100w panel with a china pwm controller on a battery for some lights I never use. Every time I look it has 13 volts thereabouts. I also have a 30 w panel with a 5 amp battery tender controller. I have a long cord on it and swap it between a car, my backhoe, and my tractor. When I see the light is green I turn off the switch I added to the panel leads and swap it to a different machine. One thing all the charge controllers seem to have in common is they want a charged battery connected before the panel is connected.
I found a cracked 360 watt panel on Craigslist for $50 and got a charge controller and have it charging my single 1000 cca battery. If it’s below 30F , a spritz of ether and maybe even a 2nd battery is necessary to get my 580se started. The real solution is two new batteries and connecting cables. A solar panel charger of some small size would certainly help to keep them topped up especially if the period between use is a month or more. My 360 watt panel is overkill but I’m experimenting and am thinking of getting enough batteries to run a block heater which would also solve the hard-to-start-in-cold problem. I like the idea of having a small off grid solar system that can provide silent power for charging phones and running a few lights, when the grid occasionally goes down.
I went through the double or single battery discussion a while back. The general consensus was those with a single battery and good cables had no problems with cold starting. Living in FL I can't say if the double battery is a solution but it stands to reason that double batteries means double starting current. BUT you also have double the cost and if you don't need it it seems pointless to have two batteries and double the chance for a bad cable connection. I can say that my single battery spins my machine like a top tested down to 30 degrees so far with new cables. I bypassed the negative cable cut off switch and ran both new cables directly to the starter. I have also verified my chassis to ground cables are good. To edit my above comment on the Battery Tender brand controller, I have the small 5-45W controller on a 30 watt panel. The damn edit window is awful short on this forum. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004Q820UK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
10-20 watts is plenty to keep a battery charged up, at that size with the right panel, there's no need for a charge controller, just a built in diode to keep it from draining back over night. Nothing wrong with 100W if you use a controller, with that much power you can keep going with a dead alternator if you only use it once a week. (disconnect the feed to the alternator so it's not consuming power if it's dead already) I still think you're barking up the wrong tree in this specific case, to test if the battery is draining and the solar panel will help your situation, hook up the jumper cables for 20 minutes when you get there in the cold, then disconnect one clamp so they're not helping, and then try to start it. In my experience a battery that loses any charge in a week or two is not going to last long enough to mess with. More likely the starter, cables and/or engine are weak and need more amps at low temps than your battery is willing to provide at low temps. Now if you're talking about leaving the backhoe for two to three months over the summer, that is where you want a trickle charger on the battery.
As Delmer has suggested, I've used a 20 watt panel without a controller to keep a tractor battery charged at a remote location. It worked like a champ.
Coaldust, Bad news...Florida via china! I have a multitude of these chargers as does my kid, and they perform very well even though they come from a foreign country...of course I wish they were made here! I do not have the solar model that NH575E linked, but would expect it to perform long term flawlessly like mine have.
I have a 15 watt solar cell through a charge controller to a battery that powers a diesel pump and some lights. Had this system for 12 years. I use a changed out battery. Good enough for a fuel pump but weak for a starting a machine. Hey ! .... it's cheap like me. Some things I learned.... Definitely need a charge controller. without it, the battery drains when the cell isn't charging. without it, the cell will overcharge and cook the battery. The charge controller has to have the battery as a load before connecting the solar cell. Otherwise the controller gets damaged. The system works very well to keep the battery charged and ready to go.
bummer. I think they started out as domestic.
Coaldust, Don't feel bad...I recently purchased an Ingersoll Rand 1" drive impact to avoid China. Wouldn't you know, when delivered it said made in China. Could have saved like $300 if I bought Harbor Freight, but would have known going in it was China.
Same here, only it was a Metabo angle grinder... my ten plus year old made in Germany one is still plugging away like a champ, so I thought I would buy a second one, bit heavier duty with variable speed... sure enough, the fine print says "Made in China" for Metabo. Works fine, just a bit disappointing. All the US brands I know of had gone there already.
For what it's worth the printers used to make a lot of personalized junk mail and short run custom printing, like packaging for food stuffs, cigarettes, scratch-off lottery tickets, etc. are still made in the good ol' USA. They tried to send it to Chiner but the tech is funky enough that they couldn't hack it... (Ha! I meant hack in the old way, like they couldn't do the work, but also, I guess, in the new way, in that they couldn't figure out how to steal the tech.)
Should be a diode in the circuit to prevent reverse flow. I do know that early panels had a problem with this.
Built a 12/24 volt solar battery tender. Two 25 watt panels, cheap Renogy charge controller and a cheap set of jumper cables. Worst part was wiring the series/parallel switch. Just put it on my D6B yesterday.
Oh, no. I haven't used a solar battery during the winter months. Once a year we camp by the sea and use a solar device to charge phones, echo sounder, pump up the kid's swim lap. I heard about some device made by polycrystalline technology, capable of delivering enough voltage in cloudy weather, when the solar activity is not so high, and even in winter, with timely clearing of snow from its surface. But, unfortunately, I heard about it a long time ago, and I can't say exactly what kind of device it is. But one thing I do know for sure is that a solar charger and a solar light on a flag pole is something I won't go camping without. A flashlight is needed for our family flag so we have light at night and can see our campsite. And I also want to say that there are solar battery chargers, and they would probably work for you if you use your car once every 3 weeks. It will have time to charge in that time.