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Solar Charger


racer808

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Any of you recommend a good solar battery charger for my trailer?  The one I have I think drains the battery even though the controller checks out.  Always coming back to a dead battery on the weekend but the only thing on is the CO detector.  Would also like enough juice so the fridge doesn't drain the battery while we're on the water.  But outside of that we are always on generator when there so it doesn't need to run anything but the fridge on the weekends, we shut everything off when we leave on Sundays but the battery is always dead when I return.  

Also, I am adding a second battery so enough juice for both & should I run them in parallel or just have the switch on 1 / 2 so if one dies I switch to the other?

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I run two deep cycle batteries parrallel. My fridge is only gas and 110v. Usually just run it on gas until we plug in. Never have an issue on gas, seems to cool down faster too. With everything off it will run almost three weeks before the CO detector has drained them. Have you load tested the battery?  Maybe a dead cell or two. Maybe a sulfated battery. 

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Even on gas, an RV fridge will straw draw some 12 volt.

On my 5er, I have two 12 volts, and I can go a week with the fridge on, everything else off, and my batteries are still fine.

If you replace your batteries, I would consider AGM.  That will be my next set.

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My fridge is on gas.  I do think my battery is toast but I am concerned the solar charger draining it & only being charged by the generator on the weekends is what killed it, don't know.  Guy said the battery was brand new when I got it but that could've been a lie.  I did a battery tester & some days it says it's fine one day it say's it's bad.  I think it's bad & will replace.

 

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On 2/15/2018 at 8:30 PM, RyanB said:

Even on gas, an RV fridge will straw draw some 12 volt.

On my 5er, I have two 12 volts, and I can go a week with the fridge on, everything else off, and my batteries are still fine.

If you replace your batteries, I would consider AGM.  That will be my next set.

So I ordered an AGM battery.  Should I throw that thing on a trickle charger / tender right away or leave it till close to summer then start trickle charging before I use it?

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6 hours ago, racer808 said:

So I ordered an AGM battery.  Should I throw that thing on a trickle charger / tender right away or leave it till close to summer then start trickle charging before I use it?

I'm not an expert on batteries, so take this with a grain of salt.  I upgraded to AGM on my fishing boat last year.  They stay plugged in to the onboard charger 24/7.  My charger has a high charge rate when the batteries are low, and a tender when they are not.  If you have a trickle charger, I don't see a downside to plugging them in.

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  • 1 month later...

I have one of these in my RV, it is not the best and not very efficient but it help keep batteries topped off with a decent panel. Plus its cheap.  https://www.amazon.com/ALLPOWERS-Charger-Controller-Intelligent-Regulator/dp/B01MU0WMGT/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1522725566&sr=8-3&keywords=20+amp+solar+charge+controller

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12 hours ago, twitchee2 said:

I have one of these in my RV, it is not the best and not very efficient but it help keep batteries topped off with a decent panel. Plus its cheap.  https://www.amazon.com/ALLPOWERS-Charger-Controller-Intelligent-Regulator/dp/B01MU0WMGT/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1522725566&sr=8-3&keywords=20+amp+solar+charge+controller

That looks promising.  What panels do you use with it?  I only need it to keep the battery topped off while we're gone.  From what I've been reading is some panels & some controllers bleed the battery dead once the sun goes down.  Just trying to avoid that while we're away & keep the battery tended & full.

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22 minutes ago, racer808 said:

That looks promising.  What panels do you use with it?  I only need it to keep the battery topped off while we're gone.  From what I've been reading is some panels & some controllers bleed the battery dead once the sun goes down.  Just trying to avoid that while we're away & keep the battery tended & full.

Diode?  Pretty simple and cheap.

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31 minutes ago, racer808 said:

That looks promising.  What panels do you use with it?  I only need it to keep the battery topped off while we're gone.  From what I've been reading is some panels & some controllers bleed the battery dead once the sun goes down.  Just trying to avoid that while we're away & keep the battery tended & full.

I have a cheap 15W panel from harbor freight i bought a few years ago. I do not recommend it.  Just do some reading online/amazon and find what suits you. I would probably get at least 50-100W worth.  I did leave that charger plugged into the battery for about a month without a panel hooked up and it did drain the battery because it is powered by the battery. But it will not kill it over night.  I camped for 5 days with no issues.  Just put a disconnect in line when you are not using it and everything should be good.

Edited by twitchee2
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3 minutes ago, twitchee2 said:

I have a cheap 15W panel from harbor freight i bought a few years ago. I do not recommend it.  Just do some reading online/amazon and find what suits you. I would probably get at least 50-100W worth.  I did leave that charger plugged into the battery for about a month without a panel hooked up and it did drain the battery because it is powered by the battery. But it will not kill it over night.  I camped for 5 days with no issues.  Just put a disconnect in line when you are not using it and everything should be good.

When you disconnect when not in use.  So don't leave it plugged in & charging when we are not at the camper for a week?  We leave our camper set up at our lake, we just roll up Friday night, button camper up Sunday afternoon & head home.  It's Fridays I keep coming back to a dead battery.

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6 minutes ago, racer808 said:

When you disconnect when not in use.  So don't leave it plugged in & charging when we are not at the camper for a week?  We leave our camper set up at our lake, we just roll up Friday night, button camper up Sunday afternoon & head home.  It's Fridays I keep coming back to a dead battery.

I didn't have the panel mounted anywhere so I had to take it down when traveling.  I just never plugged the panel in when I parked the camper. I also left the battery connected and it was drained, but it took well over a month. 

Your situation is different, you will be leaving the rig all setup.  Just leave the panel plugged in all the time and you should be all set.  

 

Edit: There are two ways of charging btw, PWM and MPPT.  Pwm is cheap but works well enough (what I went with). Then there is MPPT which is the "right" way to do it and is much better but also significantly more expensive. You can read up for weeks on this as well.

Edited by twitchee2
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