Solar Battery charger? Good idea or rip off?

[madcatters]

Boat is configured with a 2 battery bank, plus a 3rd for the trolling motor. We use the boat pretty much only on weekends, and we store it on the trailer outdoors in a storage facility.

There's no handy way for us to charge the batteries without removing them and taking them home to charge. Obviously, that is a PITA.

I was considering buying this solar charger:
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... sku=339973

And connecting it to the battery bank in the back whenever we parked the boat, with the thoughts that this would pretty much keep the batteries fully charged.

Any opinions? Would this work? Is this a bad idea? The reviews are pretty positive, but I don't know enough about either this technology or boat electrical systems to know for sure.

Another question... Boat has a battery selector switch to select battery 1, 2, both or off. We normally store in the OFF position. With the solar powered charger, and battery clamp cables, should I keep it off, and alternate which battery I charge, or keep it set another way?

Thanks for any advice.

[jimrs]

I dont think that that will have enough power to do you any good. These trickel chargers will keep a battery up but won't recharge a low battery. I have used one on a few boats and they do a great job to make sure you have power when needed but if the battery is low it won't recharge it. I have never used a solar one though. I think it said .5 amps is all it puts out. Good for holding a charge but not enough to charge one.

[dockholiday]

Think it might work, but would just use it for the dedicated starting battery, first anyway. From what I can tell it is .35 amps. might be enough to keep it topped off. It has a good many reviews so it must be working good for some of them. Being a little over one foot square it should collect well, considering the solar outdoor lights are 3 inch square or less. Might even be enough to keep more than one topped off.

doc

[WaltF]

Ya, those solar things are good for maintaining a charged battery, but no so much if the battery actually needs charging.
For that, youll need a BUNCH of panels...
Prob 4x6 foot worth, which will prob cost ya a grand...

[madcatters]

Ok, so the consensus is that it might work pretty well to keep my starting battery charged and ready to go, but if I'm running it down playing the radio and such, I'd better plan on dragging it out of the boat to charge.

Does anyone have any personal experience with something similar?

[WaltF]

yup... thats about it.

BUT.. why not use the motors alternator on the boat to charge both up?
A perko switch would send a charge to both of em while your driving back to the dock....

Then use a little solar thingy to keep it topped off while away....

Thats what id do if i had multiple batteries.

ps make SURE you dont flip though switch settings such that EVEN FOR A SPLIT SECOND you have NO battery on the system. Itll fry the boats alternator if the engine is running when you do this...so they say...

[madcatters]

yup... thats about it.

BUT.. why not use the motors alternator on the boat to charge both up?
A perko switch would send a charge to both of em while your driving back to the dock....

Then use a little solar thingy to keep it topped off while away....

Thats what id do if i had multiple batteries.

ps make SURE you dont flip though switch settings such that EVEN FOR A SPLIT SECOND you have NO battery on the system. Itll fry the boats alternator if the engine is running when you do this...so they say...

We have an outboard... I don't think that they have alternators. On the other hand, this is my first non-pull start engine, so I could well be wrong... Anyone know? Have I been wasting my time carrying the battery home to charge it?

[dockholiday]

if it starts with a battery, probably has an alternator.

[badmoonrising]

Yep.

[oldmn19]

Not probably but for sure it has an alternator! Also as said above DONOT switch between batteries, or off with motor running, a guarantee you will blow the alternator. I have 2 battery's with a switch and leave the boat in the water all season. I switch to both when running, and if we are sitting in a cove relaxing listening to CD's or radio for any period of time I switch to the #2 battery. That way I always have a fully charged #1 starter battery. We only go to lake on weekends mostly also. The only time I ever had a problem was when grand daughter left Nav lights on and dumb me for got to turn off battery switch, Duh! Too much commotion with grand kids and family's. Came up 2 weeks later to 2 dead battery's. Had to take my small Yamaha generator down to dock and recharge both. No biggy, but delayed getting on water for many hours.

[jimrs]

One of the disadvantages of being on water is power. This is not a new problem only to you but years old problem for us all. You have gotten a lot of good advice just keep the batteries charged up as much as possible and then keep the solar charger on the rest of the time and it should eliminate any problems. There should be one battery on the boat charged all the time so if you get into a problem on the water you can change out the battery or switch over to the other if you have the switch. It is almost impossible to push start a boat.

[FloterBoter]

buy a little jumper box and keep it under one seat.
take it home and charge it once a month or so.

or use the solar panel to save us from the doom of global warming.

[scfishnman]

My boat has two batteries with the Perko battery switch. I leave the boat in the water all year around. When the boat is not goiing to be used within 24 hours, I place the Perko switch in the "off" position. When running, I put it in the "#1" or "both" position depending on the charge that the voltmeter indicates for the "#2" battery which is a deep cycle for powering accessories when the engine is turned off.

The boat and batteries are four years old now, and the only time I have had a dead battery is last week when I left the Perko switch in the "#1" position and left the main power switch on the console turned on while the boat was not used for a couple of weeks. Something drained the battery down then. I just put the Perko switch in the "Both" position and started the motor and let it recharge the #1 battery.

The boat has set unused over the winter months each year for up to 5 months at a time without the batteries running down. I have never hooked up a battery charger to this boat.

I suspect that the batteries will start giving me trouble soon because of their age.

[PeteF]

I used one for several years to keep my one and only battery charged during the week and I needed it. It worked great.