Trickle chargers
- Thread starter gangman
- Start date
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although with a good battery why is there a need for a trickle charger?
They're quite good as Christmas presents, but not for much else.
If you parked your car with a charged battery in a very sunny spot when you went on holiday for a month, it would probably still start when you came back, but not if the battery was old and weak.
If you parked your car with a charged battery in a very sunny spot when you went on holiday for a month, it would probably still start when you came back, but not if the battery was old and weak.
I fitted one for a family friend, who does very little motoring and then, usually, over short distances. She had been plagued by starting problems, even though the battery was quite new and the car in good condition. Her type of motoring meant that the alternator hardly put back what the starter took out. The permanently wired solar panel (from Maplins) has been a great success and there are now no starting problems. It is necessary to fit a removable switch/plug so that the solar panel is disconnected when the starter is operated. A very good device and well worth the money for this type of application.
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Thanks for the replies. What it is I've got an mx5 that spends most of its time in the garage, it's been in there now for about 3 months, and the battery's gone flat now. So maybe this will be a useful present. I remember these things appearing years ago but I've never heard much about them.
Cheers and a Happy New year to you all
Cheers and a Happy New year to you all
Neo
I thought I might be ok if I left a 60w light on all day as it's only a 1.5w charger. What do you think?
But really I built it originally to be a dojo so I made sure there was plenty of daylight. Quite hot on sunny days.
I thought I might be ok if I left a 60w light on all day as it's only a 1.5w charger. What do you think?
But really I built it originally to be a dojo so I made sure there was plenty of daylight. Quite hot on sunny days.
B
breezer
leaving a 60w lamp on to charrge a car battery via solar energy,
a car battery charger uses less electricity
a car battery charger uses less electricity
funnily enough, I got one of those solar charges from Maplins for my previous car... which, funnily enough was an mx5! I only ever used the car at weekends and as it was fitted with a car alarm which was drawing quite a lot of dark current it did fail to start on a couple of occassions.
If you have one of the original gel-type batteries in the mx5, you will find that it's actually quite a puny little battery - selected cos it's quite light weight compared to the wet cell batteries.
Anyway, I bought a cigarette lighter extension cable from maplin and snipped one end off and connected it directly to the battery (you might want to add a fuse to this too). This fed through to the centre cubby and I used to plug the solar charger in during the week. Worked quite well. Don't think you can plug it directly in to the ciggie lighter cos it's switched and doesn't work unless the engine is running.
If you have one of the original gel-type batteries in the mx5, you will find that it's actually quite a puny little battery - selected cos it's quite light weight compared to the wet cell batteries.
Anyway, I bought a cigarette lighter extension cable from maplin and snipped one end off and connected it directly to the battery (you might want to add a fuse to this too). This fed through to the centre cubby and I used to plug the solar charger in during the week. Worked quite well. Don't think you can plug it directly in to the ciggie lighter cos it's switched and doesn't work unless the engine is running.
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