Solar Chargers

[huntingmaxima]

I want to get a solar charger. Am i waisting my $$$?

[Whoaru99]

Depends on how much power must be returned to the batteries, how much time you have, how large of solar panel, and how much sunlight there is.

[gofishingtom]

the panels do charge as long as there is daylight but to get any charging power u would have to buy the ones that cost 600-1000 dollars the little ones basically charge at a trickle charge pace.so if u dont need your boat for weeks and ur battery is dead it would take that long to charge back up..

[maxx rpm]

Yep, waste of money.

[Tom7227]

Disagree. I bought a setup from Northern for around $130 and it keeps the boat battery and the winch for the lift battery right up to snuff. I have a boat on the lake and so I don't run the motor long enough to do much to recharge the battery. Once I set up the solar rig I never had to carry the batteries back to the house again the whole season.

[Whoaru99]

Disagree. I bought a setup from Northern for around $130 and it keeps the boat battery and the winch for the lift battery right up to snuff. I have a boat on the lake and so I don't run the motor long enough to do much to recharge the battery. Once I set up the solar rig I never had to carry the batteries back to the house again the whole season.

All depends on the duty cycle. Consider that a 15W solar panel at max output/direct sunshine is roughly equivalent to a 1A battery charger, all it takes is math to get an idea of whether or not it works for what you want to do.

Dunno how often you use the boat, but I could see a solar boat lift charger working fine. The lift doesn't get used that much and when it does it's only for a relative short time. It's a low duty cycle application...doesn't use much juice and there is plenty of time to put it back. That's good use of a small solar charger.

However, if you sit at the fishhouse all Friday afternoon/night and burn up most of the battery, don't expect a small solar charger to have the battery fully charged again by Saturday afternoon. Maybe next Saturday afternoon...

[Swimmer]

Agree that it is a question of application. I have only a 5W solar charger ($50?) on the back of my passenger boat seat and it came in very handy on a week long "wilderness" trip. I purposefully lessened the use of the trolling motor, but this panel moved frequently to face direct sun allowed me use of my electronics and judicial use of the Minnkota 50 for a week. I know I couldn't have done it without the solar panel.Probably not the greatest use for ice-fishing unless you invest in the $130 Northern unit. PS, since then, 6 years ago, it has deteriorated I'm guessing 30% in output.