Solar Battery Charger

[1977dodge]

I am looking for a solar battery charger for AA and AAA batteries
most of the ones i have looked at seem to have very low out put 
taking upwards of 2 days to recharge if you have good sunlight 
perhaps i would be better to get a small 50 watt panel and CC from HF
anyone have a solution
Thanks
Roy

 

[MikeRuth]

http://familystorehouse.com/products/guide-10-plus-adventure-kit

Possibly

 

[Wabbit]

The HF 45w solar kit puts out about 3 amps in good sunlight. If you can get it for under 150$ it's not a bad buy. I got mine for 130$ and was happy with how it worked. Had to resolder one of the panels connections, but that was after 6 months of daily use and moving it to follow the sun. For a good DC battery charger, I love this one. Mine is an older version, but works good. With 2 batteries in it, it pushes .75amps x 2, with 4 batteries it is .375 x 4.

http://www.amazon.com/NITECORE-Inte...nkCode=w13&linkID=&ref_=assoc_res_sw_result_1

 

[SternWake]

The HF panels are not worth it.  They take a lot of space for 45 watts, and one can get more wattage for less money with a little shopping around.

The Nitecore intellicharger can be fed by a 12v source, like from a ciggy plug, but it does not come with a ciggy plug.

It is not the best charger for AA or AAA Nimh batteries though.  It can charge them but it more oriented toward li-ion cells.

I think a solar panel to feed your car battery which feeds an AA/AAA battery charger is a better way to go, unless of course you are hiking.

 

[Wabbit]

The HF panels are not worth it.  They take a lot of space for 45 watts, and one can get more wattage for less money with a little shopping around.

The Nitecore intellicharger can be fed by a 12v source, like from a ciggy plug, but it does not come with a ciggy plug.

It is not the best charger for AA or AAA Nimh batteries though.  It can charge them but it more oriented toward li-ion cells.

I think a solar panel to feed your car battery which feeds an AA/AAA battery charger is a better way to go, unless of course you are hiking.

I would be interested in a better deal than that HF Solar kit if you know of one. The HF does sell for 129.99 at times, currently it is 138.99 this month. At that price, the kit is a pretty good deal. It is a bit bulky maybe, but I a piece of plywood 4" off my floor in the back of a minivan and it would slide under there just peachy. With a cheap deep cycle marine battery from Walmart(80$ish), it would keep cell phones, radio, ecig batteries, tablet, portable dvd player, and other odds and ends charged with solar to spare. Plus it comes with 2 x 12v low amp lights and cords so we had light at night in both screen tent and sleeping quarters. I liked it, but there might be a better deal.

And just FYI, that i4 Nitecore does come with a DC plug in(ciggy plug). As to the not working part, I love mine and it still going strong after two years.

G'luck finding what your looking for. Post back with a Linky if you find what you need. Be helpful to have just a small solar charger for batteries if I ever decided to go hiking for a few weeks.

 

[SternWake]

My Nitecore I4 v2 did not come with a 12v plug.  A receptacle for 12v input, but no ciggy style plug that also inserts into 12v receptacle on I4 unit.

I happened to have one which though.

I did not say it did not work charging NiHM batteries, only that it was not an ideal charge algorithm for Nimh batteries.  It will not fully charge them, IIRC.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...-SysMax-NiteCore-Intellicharger-i4-V2-Charger

A few people here have tried the HF panels.  They do not recommend them.

Go for a minimum of 1 watt per 1 AH of storage capacity when charging lead acid batteries.

45 watts of Solar on a 100 amp hour battery will not make for a happy  battery.

I'm not doing any panel shopping for you, but there are renology kits on Amazon where you get a lot more wattage for the same space.

The additional inverter and electronics that come with the HF kit, are junk.

 

[Wabbit]

My Nitecore I4 v2 did not come with a 12v plug.  A receptacle for 12v input, but no ciggy style plug that also inserts into 12v receptacle on I4 unit.

I happened to have one which though.

I did not say it did not work charging NiHM batteries, only that it was not an ideal charge algorithm for Nimh batteries.  It will not fully charge them, IIRC.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...-SysMax-NiteCore-Intellicharger-i4-V2-Charger

A few people here have tried the HF panels.  They do not recommend them.

Go for a minimum of 1 watt per 1 AH of storage capacity when charging lead acid batteries.

45 watts of Solar on a 100 amp hour battery will not make for a happy  battery.

I'm not doing any panel shopping for you, but there are renology kits on Amazon where you get a lot more wattage for the same space.

The additional inverter and electronics that come with the HF kit, are junk.

I apologize if I made it sound like I wanted you to do my leg work/shopping for solar panels. What I meant is if you had any ideas off the top of your head about a better solar kit.

 

[akrvbob]

Renogy sells a complete 100 watt kit for $185. It's far, far better than the HF!!

http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-100W-Mono-Starter-Kit/dp/B00BFCNFRM/

They also sell a 100 watt suitcase kit for about $245:

http://www.amazon.com/RENOGY®-Foldable-Suitcase-Without-Controller/dp/B00LXG4AXS

Bob

 

[Wabbit]

Yeah that 185$ kit is nice. Renogy is what I plan on going with for solar panels. Reviews look real good.