San Diego Battery Distributers/Optima Batteries.

[dwh]

dwh said in the other forum I might look at a panel about 50w for battery maintenance.

At least.

 

[dwh]

Very good information. For now I will buy a 120V battery charger and stop off places to charge my battery, but I will totally be investing in a solar panel soon. Thanks!

Forget the 1a Battery Minder. 1 amp just ain't enough.

Forget the 7a C-TEK. The "recondition mode" is an overcharge up to 15.7v (what other chargers call "equalize") and I dunno how well Optima batteries will like that. Equalizing is okay for flooded batteries with vented caps (only IF they need it), but certainly NOT recommended for AGMs. You could end up overcharging and blowing the seal and voiding the warranty.


If anything, get the 15a from West Marine.

 

[Basement Yeti]

And will something like this work for solar battery charging, for BOTH my batteries? (The one Michael linked)
http://www.amazon.com/HQRP-Monocrys...=UTF8&qid=1310778678&sr=8-1&tag=5336653594-20

If not can you point me in the direction of a kit/company with the panel and controller?

Thanks.

 

[dwh]

And will something like this work for solar battery charging, for BOTH my batteries? (The one Michael linked)
http://www.amazon.com/HQRP-Monocrys...=UTF8&qid=1310778678&sr=8-1&tag=5336653594-20

If not can you point me in the direction of a kit/company with the panel and controller?

Thanks.

That's a single battery charge controller. There aren't that many with dual outputs.

It's also the really old style...it just connects the solar panel to the battery until the battery gets to 14.4v and then disconnects and doesn't reconnect the solar panel until the battery gets down to 12.5v.

The newer ones are called PWM, which stands for Pulse Width Modulation and they generally monitor the battery and any time the voltage drops, it will connect the solar panel to the battery. It'll do it a hundred times a second so as long as there is sun, the battery voltage isn't allowed to drop.

The very newest is MPPT - Maximum Power Point Tracking - but MPPT charge controllers are expensive and IMHO not worth it for a sub-200w rig.


A good 3-stage PWM controller designed to do dual batteries is the Morningstar SunSaver Duo (this is the one I'd buy if I were going to put solar on my van):

http://www.solar-electric.com/modubachco25.html

 

[Basement Yeti]

Awesome, now to find a panel. I am going to dip into my savings and invest in solar next month.

 

[OptimaJim]

Basement Yeti, if you're having trouble finding a battery professional, who won't charge you an arm and a leg for a battery test, you can also do a relatively-simple test yourself. If you can disconnect your batteries from your vehicle and fully-charge them, they should be able to hold close to their maximum voltage for 12-24 hours. If they can hold close to their maximum voltage after being fully-charged and disconnected, they should be ok.

As for the charger, Optima does not officially endorse specific manufacturers, but I have heard of many folks, who have experienced excellent results with the CTEK unit you mentioned and our batteries. We do not recommend charger settings for our batteries that exceed 10 amps and proper charging regulation is recommended for solar units.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.facebook.com/optimabatteries

 

[Basement Yeti]

Jim my red top was fried, only testing out at 12.6V. I bought a yellow top for my starting battery and it's doing very well, it charged really fast!

 

[OptimaJim]

Basement Yeti, what kind of test did you perform on your RedTop? That voltage level sounds just fine. I'm glad to hear your YellowTop is performing well.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.facebook.com/optimabatteries

 

[bfdiesel]

12.6 is the max voltage a battery can put out.