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[markspark]

Hi all has anyone ever used a solar panel to keep their battery toped up when it’s not in use as i have car parked on drive it can be left for a month or so but the battery tends to go flat as its not being used/run on a regular basis.

[r1]

used one on a car before was about a tenner from maplins
your fag lighter has to be on all the time for it to work or you can run wires direct to battery
seamed to work okay

[david036]

We had one on a race car, worked really well.  had our wired directly into the battery as there was no fag lighter!!!

[MartinP]

I have a £10 one from Maplins, stuck to the garage window trickle charging 3 batteries one at a time.

Martin

[geoffr70]

I considered getting one of these. Whilst getting other batteries at my local battery specialist i enquired about them. The general belief there was that they are a total waste of time. Not my opinion, I've never used one.

[Richard P]

Bought one off Ebay a while ago to keep the battery charged whilst on holiday for 3 weeks. Came back to find the battery dead flat.

A waste of £15.

Richard.

[Jim]

I had one, waste of time

[hoofing it]

I had one, waste of time

agreed waste of time and money just disconnect batt

[Abiton]

I have one on my Golf.  £10 or £12 quid from Farnell, allegedly 1.5W.

Measured its output not too long ago, on an averagely bright day.

4mA.   
That's not nothing, but it's damn close. The quiescent current of my stereo is 20mA. 

The things are nearly as useless as those little plug-in windscreen de-mister heater/fans they (miss-)sell.

[steverubberduck]

I have one, for the simple reason that i work away all week.
So i park my car on a monday morning, and don't get into it until friday afternoon.
So i leave it connected all week on the dashboard, directly to the battery.
Never had any problems, a good buy i think 

[Kevin Wood]

I have a £10 one from Maplins, stuck to the garage window trickle charging 3 batteries one at a time.

Martin

If you've got the batteries wired in parallel you would be better off rotating them periodically and charging them one at a time. Lead acid batteries don't take kindly to being connected in parallel for long periods of time.

Kevin

[MartinP]

I have a £10 one from Maplins, stuck to the garage window trickle charging 3 batteries one at a time.

Martin

If you've got the batteries wired in parallel you would be better off rotating them periodically and charging them one at a time. Lead acid batteries don't take kindly to being connected in parallel for long periods of time.

Kevin

The batteries are not connected, I just transfer the crocodille clips periodiclly.

Martin

[Kevin Wood]

The batteries are not connected, I just transfer the crocodille clips periodiclly.

Martin

 

[zirk]

I bought a couple from Maps last year when they where special offer, wasn't convinced when I was paying for them, tried them a few times, now I know why I wasn't convinced, useless.

Having said that the more expensive and bigger Pro ones for Campers and Caravans work really well.
 

[markspark]

think ill pass on this idea and look at a maintenace charger the type used for motor bikes ect dont want to disconnect the battery as this would stop the alarm from working