Solar Panel to Maintain Battery

Sam Spade wrote:

D.E.Bishop wrote:

We now have the Winnie and it does have the disconnect and I have the some draws but haven't had the inclination to check how much.

It doesn't really matter how much; the battery disconnect switch should eliminate ALL of them.

Your battery tender, whatever kind it is, should be wired to a point at or very near to the battery where it will NOT be disconnected by the switch.

IF....it appears that your batteries are losing charge with the switch in the disconnect position, then either your batteries are going bad or something is mis-wired.

My solar battery minder is wired directly to the batteries and even with the disconnect activated there are parasitic draws such as the CO detector and outside entertainment center. I have not and do not care at this point as since I performed a full battery maintenance, inspection and cleaning, I have full charge when I park it in storage and full charge when I return to prep it for a trip.

I do have some background in battery maintenance from my Navel career. We had two batteries on my boat and they were capable of putting our 1500 amps for a considerable period of time. While I was not an electrician in the Navy we all at one time or another had to clean and inspect the 526 cell battery occasionally. Batteries that big do have a certain leakage due to condensation from gas off and the atmosphere. To minimize that, we had to wipe down the cell tops and all connectors, that is where I learned that sulfuric acid does not effect wool cloth.

Mine came with a 55 watt and is connected to the disconnect switch. Keeps the batteries up fine. Guess some one could mess with my landing jacks, but it's parked in a secure location.

The Battery Tender, manufactured by Deltran, is the only one at the present time in which the controller is connected directly to the solar panel. The brains for the solar is the controller. Solar panels are dumb, supplying power constantly, unless connected to a controller.
The Battery Tender controller has a three stage charge control and overcharge protection, along with a blocking diode.
It is engineered as a plug and play, connected directly to the battery/batteries.
They are available in 5-10 and 15 watt configuration.

D.E.Bishop wrote:

We now have the Winnie and it does have the disconnect and I have the some draws but haven't had the inclination to check how much.

It doesn't really matter how much; the battery disconnect switch should eliminate ALL of them.

Your battery tender, whatever kind it is, should be wired to a point at or very near to the battery where it will NOT be disconnected by the switch.

IF....it appears that your batteries are losing charge with the switch in the disconnect position, then either your batteries are going bad or something is mis-wired.

Sam Spade wrote:

Craig A wrote:
I just purchased a Battery Tender 15W solar panel and am setting it up tomorrow to charge and maintain my deep cell battery. Do you have any suggestions?

Since this is "Battery Tender" brand I assume that it has a smart controller built-in. If that's the case it should be fine.

Be sure the batteries are fully charged first.
Check the water level....unless they are AGMs.
Disconnect all parasitic loads.

Check the water level again at least every 60 days.

I'm with Sam. I have the same setup and in my 1990 Bounder with fully charged house batteries it would keep the charge up. I had eliminated all the parasitic drains because I did not have a battery disconnect.

We now have the Winnie and it does have the disconnect and I have the some draws but haven't had the inclination to check how much. I haven't really had any experience with it keeping the charge up but I am hoping it will keep fully charges batteries charged.

Many folks have talked about using the 120 volt Deltran Battery Minder on their batteries when they remove them for the winter so I expect the solar charger will do the same for my house batteries.

wantabe351 wrote:
Go for the 100w for keeps battery fully charged plus .....

Sure extra capacity is good IF you will actually use it AND the kit includes a controller/voltage regulator.

If all you want/need is something to keep the batteries up during storage then 100W is WAY overkill.

Renogy store sells many RV kits.. my choice is the 100w kit, with everything you need for setup priced around 150-200$ depending where you buy it...Go for the 100w for keeps battery fully charged plus during the summer its enough to leave the Frig running all season, or to turn on a day before u leave.

I had a similar setup on my class A. As others have noted, bypass your disconnect switch, which should be "off" excluding all parasitic loads while in storage. And number two, make sure your controller will prevent overcharge! Also, from time to time, clean your solar panel, to ensure it is getting all the solar power it was designed for.

Craig A wrote:
I just purchased a Battery Tender 15W solar panel and am setting it up tomorrow to charge and maintain my deep cell battery. Do you have any suggestions?

Since this is "Battery Tender" brand I assume that it has a smart controller built-in. If that's the case it should be fine.

Be sure the batteries are fully charged first.
Check the water level....unless they are AGMs.
Disconnect all parasitic loads.

Check the water level again at least every 60 days.

reluyog wrote:
The more watts you can get when in storage, the less you'll have to be concerned about your batteries.

This is BAD advice unless the solar panel is connected to your batteries through a smart controller.

When in "storage" you can over-charge, fairly easily.