BatteryMinder - Solar

[Spargman]

Happy New Year folks!!
Currently tinkering with the Overland Tahoe again.!

For the past 6yrs+ I've been running the same dual Diehard Platinum (Marine Deep Cycle) through a Blue Sea isolator.

These Odyssey batteries have been pretty badly abused, yet desulfated every few months. Some abuse examples include running a fridge on the AUX battery for 3mo straight (off grid trek through USA), partial recharges, accidentally welding on the frame with batteries connected and generally not driving the truck for the past 3yrs. My Overland Tahoe literally sits for weeks at a time w/o being started and I live in New England; cold temps. Given that it's parked on the street, access to shore power is severely limited.

However, every few months I individually pull the batteries and let them sit on their AGM charger/desulfator (BatteryMinder) for a week or two.

With all the above in mind, I am a huge believer in my BatteryMinder AGM charger/desulfator. This little beauty, in my humble opinion, is a big reason my batteries are still alive and well today...plus the Odyssey line is an incredible product. I also have a BatteryMinder for flooded cells, so far so good, but those batteries have lived an easy life.

With the above in mind, I'm considering adding a solar panel to my truck, where it's primary duty will be to keep the batteries topped off when the truck sits for weeks on end. Given my love for desulfators and the BatteryMinder line, I was considering this http://www.batteryminders.com/12-volt-solar-battery-charger-SCC-180

Thoughts? Pros/cons to this unit and or my plan to essentially float charge my AGM's utilizing solar?

For the panel, still in the research phase...but considering 100w so it can power my fridge on my next adventure

 

[dwh]

Good stuff. Get the temp sensor.


(Don't choose the multimeter as your free gift. It's obviously the same one Harbor Freight gives away. The first one I had, had the +/- wired backwards. The second one, the on/off switch didn't work. Had to take the battery out to turn it off.)

 

[Spargman]

Agreed dwh on the temp sensor. Given how powerful a variable like temp is, it's surprising how few charging units take this into account.

I just came across the ctek 250S dual while playing around this morning. Anybody run one of these or can comment on the pros/cons of their charge/maintain science? Thoughts on how it compares to the BatteryMinder?

The Ctek has the nifty option of pulling from the alternator, but I have limited insight into how their 5-step charge process compares to BatteryMinder...esp when I throw in the variable of using an unreliable energy (i.e. sun) source for charging.

http://www.ctek.com/hu/en/chargers/D250S DUAL

 

[DiploStrat]

This subject has been beaten into the ground - at least for lead acid batteries.

Scan the posts in this forum or, if you prefer, the "documents" on my website and you will find several comprehensive discussions of the uses of a battery to battery charger like the CTEK D250S.

IMHO: If you have a GM product, an BlueSea ACR is just about the perfect weapon, assuming proper cable sizes. As to solar controllers, for a small array (300w or less, you would be hard pressed to find a more economic solution than the Bogart SC 2030, especially if paired with a TriMetric meter. Full disclosure, I have a TriMetric but not an SC 2030.

 

[Spargman]

This subject has been beaten into the ground - at least for lead acid batteries.

Scan the posts in this forum or, if you prefer, the "documents" on my website and you will find several comprehensive discussions of the uses of a battery to battery charger like the CTEK D250S.

IMHO: If you have a GM product, an BlueSea ACR is just about the perfect weapon, assuming proper cable sizes. As to solar controllers, for a small array (300w or less, you would be hard pressed to find a more economic solution than the Bogart SC 2030, especially if paired with a TriMetric meter. Full disclosure, I have a TriMetric but not an SC 2030.

Thanks Diplo --- great website by the way, I've already read one of your documents.

The BlueSea ACR is a beautiful piece of 500amp handling hardware. All of the heavy power wiring I leverage is either 0 or 2ga, very flexible wire I grabbed from an audio wire distributor/manufacturer. So far the BS ACR has held up to hundreds/thousands of cycles, including full water/mud immersion, sub-zero temps, 12k lb winch pulling batteries in parallel, etc and hasn't missed a beat.

Thank you for the Bogart SC heads up, they have not yet hit my radar but I love the design conceptually b/c it looks like they really focused on the unique charging requirements of a variety of battery types...which the big hitters like BatteryMinder and CTEK have not yet for AGM's with their solar chargers. With BM, I love their 2012 series chargers, but the solar controller is more generic.

Lots more to think about...I'll keep posting as more questions enter my sphere of knowledge acquisition!

 

[Ducky's Dad]

I have been thinking about adding solar to my truck, primarily to keep batteries topped off when parked. My primary battery is an Odyssey Grp 31 Extreme and it won't hold a charge when the truck is parked for a couple of weeks (new-ish battery, big alternator, fat cables, 2W solargizer connected, parasitic drain within spec, frequent conditioning charge on shore power), and my two Optima house batteries hold a charge just fine but could use the solar when I'm parked in the desert with the fridge running. The Ctek 250 looked like a good option until I noticed that the charging voltage is 14.4V. Odyssey says their batteries need 14.7V+ to stay happy. Comments?

 

[Spargman]

Ducky -- I had a similar concern over the lower voltage ans charge profile in general. The solution from Bogart engineering that Diplostrathe published seems to be a really good option.

I spoke to the guys at Bogart and they are going to update their manuals to include the profile for Odyssey batteries. This update will essentially show us how to program their charger specific to our battery line.

I'm also going to ask them about adding an onboard desulfator (i.e Pulsetech) and if there is any benefit or concern to this given their equipment will also be installed and charging the battery.

 

[jschmidt]

After trying to get Battery Tender to correct an error they made, I will never buy another product from them.

I use Schumacher solar panels to maintain two vehicles in Arizona that can sit for up to three months. Schumacher also sells an inexpensive inline regulator.

This setup has been great for five years.

 

[dwh]

Battery Tender and Battery MINDer are two different companies.

As to desulfation...If it's powered off the battery, it consumes power. Anecdotal unconfirmed reports indicate that some desulfator's pulsing can interfere with some MPPT's operation.

The Bogart is PWM, not MPPT.



And...

"2w solargizer" !?

Two watts won't even keep my phone charged.

 

[Ducky's Dad]

"2w solargizer" !?

Two watts won't even keep my phone charged.

Careful calculations indicated that it would be enough to offset most of the parasitic drain during most of the year (sunny So Cal climate). Two-watt panel was the biggest I could fit on the cowl without modifying something. Manufacturer claims that it also desulfates. A friend has the same truck with an FLA battery instead of AGM, and when he was on six-month deployments, the same model worked on his truck, started right up. Solargizer manufacturer said it would work. Odyssey said it wouldn't. I figured it was worth a try. It works, as in actually putting out current when sun is shining. It does not work, as in keeping the battery healthy.

 

[dwh]

Heh, I wasn't even kidding. I have one of these, 5.5w, and with the short winter days, it barely keeps up with my droid turbo.

http://mysolartab.com/

2 watts at 14v would be..uh..1/8 amp? I'd be surprised if an Odyssey even noticed 1/8a.

 

[Ducky's Dad]

I'd be surprised if an Odyssey even noticed 1/8a.

The Odyssey does not seem to notice it, but I wanted something that I could hard mount and direct wire and just leave on 24/7/365. Solargizer had a panel that was a nice fit on the cowl, no interference with wipers or vents, completely innocuous to the casual observer. It was about $100, but the kicker was that it worked on my buddy's truck, same truck, same year, but with a Grp 65 FLA battery. I had previously tried three different Noco panels (on three different vehicles) that plugged into the cigarette lighter socket and they proved to be completely useless. My experience with small solar panels has so far not been positive, hence the plan to mount a larger panel on the roof rack. I'm tired of dragging extension cords around to condition and charge AGMs with shore power.

 

[No Ma]

As to solar controllers, for a small array (300w or less, you would be hard pressed to find a more economic solution than the Bogart SC 2030, especially if paired with a TriMetric meter. Full disclosure, I have a TriMetric but not an SC 2030.

The Trimetric and SC2030 work together extremely well. The pre-defined charge profiles in the SC2030 covered the Concorde Lifeline I used in a recent house battery build for our Jeep, as well as a lot of the other frequently used deep cycle batteries. If you have the full charging specs from your battery manufacturer, you program your own too. The manuals gave me the initial feeling that setup would be hard, but after programming it for the first time, it's really not bad at all. This combination is more programmable than anything else I found in its price range. Charging goes beyond the usual 3 stage bulk/absorption/float and can include 1 or 2 levels of finish charging to end up with a total charge returned to the battery of whatever was used + an extra programmable percentage based on the battery type or factory specs. You can only do that if you have an accurate way to record what gets used in each discharge cycle, which the Trimetric does very well. Might be overkill, but it was interesting stuff, and I don't mind spending some time and a few $$'s more on something that should keep my electrical system healthy.

 

[ajmaudio]

I have the bogart combo on our camper as well.. works pretty well. Lived off of it for a few weeks last year....12v fans in camper, lights, water pump, chargers for misc devices, etc on on group 31 and 200 watts of solar. It is very configurable and can achieve very thorough charging.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

I have a Battery Minder solar set up using a small panel permanently at my house for charging batteries. I have had the set for several years with the only complain it does not like Optima battery's.