Are cheap solar battery chargers safe over Winter

[SJMaye]

So I should be good for a couple months if I just disconnect the negative lead? That's NP.

[Chiefblueman]

So I should be good for a couple months if I just disconnect the negative lead? That's NP.

A wet cell battery has a static discharge rate of about 5% per month. Charge your battery to 100% and disconnect it. It'll be fine come spring.

[SGT ROC]

There are a lot of options on Amazon which have built in controllers. Most are relatively inexpensive. One I saw is made for a deep cycle battery a t$33.00 Mighty Max Battery 10 Watt Polycrystalline Solar Panel Charger for Deep Cycle Battery Brand Product. I have a unit on my lawnmower that has been in use several years. Works just fine. (Not this one).

[justdede]

Regardless of what you do, put in a battery disconnect switch so you can completely disconnect your battery easily. I don't like to mess with removing terminals, so one15 minute installation of a disconnect switch (at the battery) and then it only takes 2 seconds to disconnect the battery. Never put a solar charger on your battery without some type of controller. We have solar installed on the roof with a great controller so I rarely disconnect the battery on our 5er. We used to have a small popup and the battery shut off saved our battery, we could leave it for 4-5 months with no damage. It did discharge but not significantly. But we had our F250 diesel truck stored for a while and just didn't go get it for a couple of months. Well, the first time we went over to storage to get the truck, we had a very, very dead battery. After that we connected a battery tender jr solar controller to a 15 watt solar panel and it kept the battery in great shape during storage. No issues ever again.

[mdetwiler]

I won't use my tt for a couple months and I am afraid the battery will discharge. I don't have an outlet close and prefer not to remove the battery.

I have seen the little mini solar panels for car batteries sold at Harbor Freight. Are these safe for my battery?

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

Just take battery out and out on a float charger. Next Question. Lol

[LegacyFB38]

Disconnecting the battery is a good approach. Inside storage is not necessary. Cold temperatures are fine as long as the battery has a decent charge. A quality battery maintainer is ideal. Cheap chargers and solar controllers can do more harm than good.

[JMCFAN]

Regardless of what you do, put in a battery disconnect switch so you can completely disconnect your battery easily. I don't like to mess with removing terminals, so one15 minute installation of a disconnect switch (at the battery) and then it only takes 2 seconds to disconnect the battery. Never put a solar charger on your battery without some type of controller. We have solar installed on the roof with a great controller so I rarely disconnect the battery on our 5er. We used to have a small popup and the battery shut off saved our battery, we could leave it for 4-5 months with no damage. It did discharge but not significantly. But we had our F250 diesel truck stored for a while and just didn't go get it for a couple of months. Well, the first time we went over to storage to get the truck, we had a very, very dead battery. After that we connected a battery tender jr solar controller to a 15 watt solar panel and it kept the battery in great shape during storage. No issues ever again.

Can some folks show how they installed a battery disconnect...??

[sande005]

See this post (and the chart that accompanies it) I did a while ago. Even in warmer temps, you have a very long time before you have to worry about the batteries self-discharging. Just make sure they are really disconnected. The on/off switch does not turn everything off.

https://www.mygrandrv.com/forum/show...ight=discharge

[justdede]

Can some folks show how they installed a battery disconnect...??

There are a lot of YouTube videos that I looked at before I installed ours. Just go to youtube and search "install battery disconnect switch - rv"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5hIxEtZDDo&t=38s
[/URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2H9zU6o9fk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWZJtv2uoR8

[RLB348]

I kept several on my various sailboats throughout the winter and never had a problem. The last boat I owned had three batteries; 2 house and 1 starting, and I kept each one of them on small solar chargers but did use a charge controller. My recommendation is to use a charge controller, especially if you're not going to be able to check the charge state regularly and disconnect the cabling.