Sunforce50012 1.8-Watt Solar Battery Maintainer

Here's the scoop: Before you do anything, if you plan to use the Cigarette lighter output, test that your Cigarette lighter is ACTIVE WHEN THE ENGINE IS OFF. To do this, plug a cell phone into the lighter and see if it turns on (reads "charging") when the engine is off. If your cigarette lighter is not active with the engine off, there is no point in purchasing this. If you purchase this, have a cheap voltmeter to test whether the maintainer is actually outputting a charge. The flashing blue LED light on the maintainer only tells you there is enough light hitting the panel, nothing else. I called the tech line and they told me this info about the blue light. A cheap voltmeter that tests small batteries will suffice, just connect the + and - cables to the + and - terminals on the voltmeter. Do not trust the suction cups to mount the maintainer, mine fell after I thought it was secure, just lay it on the dashboard. I chose to return the 1.8 watt maintainer and purchased the 5.0 watt maintainer. I can fit the 5 watt size on my dashboard and it is not too large to fit in my rear window. The cables on the 5.0 watt maintainer are much more heavy duty than the ones on the 1.8 watt maintainer. Forget about the 15 watt maintainers to put inside a car, it is too large and requires a charge controller. The 1.8 watt and 5.0 watt sizes do not require a charge controller. I believe something in my car is slowly eating up my car battery since it died after less than a year of use so chose to go with a more heavy-duty maintainer to offset what could be draining it. Hope this helps.

For the past year my Miata has been sitting. It gets cold out here for several months. Every time I start it up after a couple of months, I first unhook the leads (since my car doesn't have an active cigarette lighter charger plug when the ignition is off and key is out), and then fire it up. It keeps the battery happy and topped off with juice, and has plenty of cold cranking amps. It also has a diode so during the night and darker days it will not reverse discharge the battery.I'm considering purchasing a few more for friends and family. Only issue is having to snake the wire through the firewall into the engine bay. In the Miata since the battery is located in the trunk I was able to pull back the carpet and there were already small holes in the metal to snake it through with enough length between the leads and and wire to have the panel sitting on the driver's side dash (this is an NA Miata).Because it comes with two adapters: (1) battery leads, (2) cigarette lighter it will work nearly universally in most situations. It is a big harder if your cigarette lighter is not "hot" (active) when the ignition is in the off position without a key. Also depending on your battery size, you may need a bigger panel to maintain the charge and depending on where you are located in the states it may not work as well. You probably need at least 250+ days out of the year of that are sunny or partially cloudy/sunny. Also don't expect this to revive dead batteries, it won't. It only has enough current throughput to keep a charge held, not to reestablish one.Overall very pleased with this product. Handle it with care and it should last you a while.

Just throw it on the dash and hook it through your cigarette lighter and forget it, just that easy. OK, well sure, you have to park in the sun or as close to it as you can get ;)My truck sits for long periods unused and I was ruining batteries with all the deep cycling from draining and recharging. Now, I just leave this on the dash when not in use and BAM, no more drained battery! Truck starts perfectly without hesitation every time and has done so for a year now (where the battery took 6 weeks or less to drain before from the alarm). I live in the Pacific Northwest, so we don't get a lot of sun in the Winter and Spring, but no problem, it still works fine!For those who have questions or misunderstandings:1. There is a diode in the circuit, so it will not drain power when the sun is "off", the circuit is one-way (read the manual, it's right in there).2. The blue diode may flash or stay on steady. According to the company, it does not matter, as long as it is on, it's charging, so don't worry.I find it works best to have this sitting as flat as possible and as far forward on the dash as you can get it, so it gets the most sun. If you want to use the suction cups (I don't recommend it), you will probably need to turn the unit lenghwise up and down as the curvature of the windshield will keep the suction cups from adhering if you try to mount it side to side.

It works OK, but not even close to 125mA. Under 90deg illumination in full california sun without a single cloud in the sky - I get 70mA. Wouldn't get my car battery past 13.05V. Still - it's better than nothing. I'm often gone for a few weeks (travelling on business) and I park my car in the street - cannot hook it up to a battery tender. This little thingy kinda does the trick. I would buy a little bigger one if I knew that this one doesn't give that much power.FYI: 70mA is achievable when it is outside the car, pointer directly towards the sun. In reality it has to stay inside the car and then you get ~55mA max (the windshield absorbs most of the UV and reflects quite a bit of Vis). Take into account that the sun is moving and you are not in the car to keep rotating the panel to face it directly... overall you don't get that much charge. But it's kinda enough to do the trick.On another note - black is not a good color (if you can call black a color). The frame gets really hot and the cable softens up a lot in the direct sun... But it keeps working, so I guess it's alright...

Excellent little product for low mileage drivers. I just put it on the dash when parked and plug it into the cig. lighter outlet. Modern batteries seem to just go flat rather than run down. People don't like to boost them because the cars are high tek. This is the solution and it's not costly.

Kept my Motorcycle Battery fully charged all winter ....perfect since it uses the sun not my electric bill...even though a trickle charger wouldn't use much - is free and green!

I attached this to my boat battery to keep it charged over the off-season. So far it seems to be keeping the battery from draining even though I don't get a lot of sun. I need to post an update after a longer test period.

Products always delivered as indicated

prompt delivery . . ok product