20 Best Solar Charger For Trolling Motor Battery (2023 Updated)

The THUNDERBOLT 1. 5 Volt Charger is a real helper for this outdoorsman This 1. 5 Watt Solar Battery Charger is in daily use as a backup trickle charger for my UTV Mule. It sits on the dashboard everyday.

so that the battery for the UTV is receiving a recharge every time it travels outdoors. 3+ years of service and no UTV battery failures yet. Confession. it is not indestructible. I did let my 1st one slip off the dash once and I ran over it at full speed before I noticed it fell off! Oops! But at HF Prices.

a replacement charger did not break the bank. and is still putting out the needed battery help!.

First and foremost, before I actually review the product, there is something that you NEED TO BE AWARE OF. If your cigarette lighter (or power point if you prefer to call it that) is switched (meaning that when the key is off, the socket does not have output power), this charging panel WILL NOT WORK with the lighter socket adapter.

In such cases, the charging current won’t be able to make it to the battery (because it’s a dead circuit with the key off. and most modern cars are this way)! You MUST use the direct to battery clips for it to work!! NOWHERE in the instructions does it mention this fact.

That said, a little review. It so happens that my car is an older model in which the lighter socket remains “hot” when the key is off, so I’m lucky enough to be able to use it in that manner. Here’s what multimeter testing showed about the output of the device.

On overcast days, the charger (mounted to the inside of the windshield) is giving an output of 16-18 volts and a measly 5-10 milliamps of current, which when converted to amps is only about 1/10 of 1 watt.

However, in full southern US sun, it jumps to around and average of 22 volts and 75-85 milliamps, which converts to about 1. 75 watts. To put these numbers in perspective, my car has a parasitic draw of around 5 milliamps (probably to run the clock in the radio), so on overcast days, it will just barely keep up.

But on bright sunny days, the unit puts out enough power to actually put a slow charge on the battery. as much as 1/10 volt per day, which is quite a bit in terms of battery voltage. Yesterday was a bright sunny day, and I connected the multimeter directly to the battery terminals in the morning and got a reading of 12.

51 volts. at the end of the day, I checked it again and got 12. 62 volts. a little over 1/10 of a volt in just one day. Pretty impressive!Bottom line. it works. but only just barely on overcast days.

Overall, I’d say that, on average between overcast and sunny days, this unit will do a fine job of keeping your battery topped up, depending on how much parasitic draw your particular car has. You can do a You Tube search to find out how to determine what your draw is for your application.

I’m happy with my purchase!.

This seems to work as advertised. I see some people have indicated that the blue flashing light might be misswired in some of them. The voltage does drop when the light flashes but i would expect it to since it’s drawing power from an unregulated source.

Mine seemed to work well enough without disabling the light so I left that part alone. I do have a different issue however. I had previously wired up my cars so I could plug in trickle chargers to the same connector this solar charger uses.

I wired my other trickle charger connections so that the part that stays WITH the car when it’s disconnected will have the PLUS (HOT) connection protected in the recess of the connector so it can’t short out against something.

I noticed this solar chargers two prong connectors were wired up backwards of that. The part that would go “on the car”, such as the supplied plug for a cigarette lighter outlet winds up having the exposed metal prong of the connector “HOT” when it’s not connected.

This is a very bad way to wire it. Since I already wired up my cars with these plugs (the part that stays on the car) set up so they are safe when not connected I had to cut the wires for this solar charger and reverse the plug leads so that can’t happen.

Had to reverse the leads for the cigarette light adapter that comes with it to so it would work with the reversed leads on the solar part. Some of you may be saying that what I did means the exposed output plug on the solar charger is now going to be “HOT” when it’s disconnected.

You are right. I’d rather have that tiny little bit of power accidently short out than for the HOT terminal of my battery in the car to short to ground!!! If you are not going to use this solar charger with any other charger systems this isn’t something to worry much about just be sure you don’t leave the cig adaptor plugged in if you have disconnected the two prong plug.

This is only going to be a problem if you are planning to do what I did, use this with PROPERLY set up trickle chargers with a permanent connection already on the car.

Just got this and set it up right away on our small fiberglass trailer to keep the battery charged while in storage. Indicator light is very helpful to know when it’s working, and the mounting holes are helpful for temporary or permanent mounting.

Keeps battery well-charged so far.

This item is being used to charge a boat battery that powers a bilge pump in an open boat. We finally tested it this week and it does a good job at keeping the battery charged. You will need to purchase a battery maintainer or you will most likely overcharge the battery.

8/23, I received a replacement unit. I haven’t had a chance to test it out (away on vacation). So, you wanted a blunt review, here’s some background- I have your solar panels/ controller and have had zero problems with them and think that they are a high quality product.

I even use the RENOGY stickers on my travel trailer. So, here’s the problem, i ordered the battery maintainer. it arrive somewhat timely, 8 days later. Upon arrival, I tried out the new panel – nothing.

And no visible damage. So, i called the help line which was pretty much impossible to to get through, so i emailed with my story plus test results and photos. after a number of email exchanges a few days in between each – a replacement panel was approved and shipped.

the replacement process in my opinion could have been handled better. Working through email slows the process considerably. A customer rep with knowledge of the material could have made a decision upon discussion/ review and supplied the customer with a working product sooner than 3 weeks after receiving the initial order.

ratings are based on previous purchases – i assume the battery charger/ maintainer will have similar quality ratings. thank you.

It seems to be working well. However it should come with some documentation. Because it is MPPT, there is no way to test it other than to see if it’s charging your battery. With other solar trickle chargers, you can measure the open circuit voltage and the short circuit current.

With this panel you can’t. Some documentation included could avoid a lot of confusion.

Seems good, but there is no indication that anything is happening. Maybe have some indication when there is a connection to the battery and/or if the panel is charging the battery. I will second the other review, longer cables would be nice too.

Might work better in the summer but a waist of time in the winter because there’s just not enough sun to make it useful.

I wanted this to maintain the battery on my truck while it is in storage. The storage building is 50-75 feet from electricity. I did not want to string an extension cord across my yard all winter. I have used this unit for a couple years and it does a fine job.

I am glad I purchased this charger.

Ive been using it since it came about 3 weeks ago. Charges 6 NAPA wet cell rv batteries with ease when sun is shining. Very simple and efficient quick way to charge your batteries.

I wanted to get started. This kit is a good way. I selected a inverter, and still have to buy a battery. Portable, and flexable. I am still new tho. You do not have to hire an installer, and if you move- you can take it with you.

I am excited to finally get it all together.

This was recommended to us by a FB group for our specific travel trailer. It worked fabulously while out West boondocking. Easy to set up

Bought this for two reasons. 1) to keep the battery in my motorcycle topped off. The MC sits next to a window so its perfect! Did a little VOM testing just to make sure that it was getting a charge to the battery and all looks good.

The second reason was to “test the waters” with Renogy. I’d really like to build a ground up “emergency power” system to power things like the furnace, fridge etc. but kinda wanted to see what the company was all about before I dove in.

This little 10W was on back order for a month, so that was disappointing but because the price was so good, it was worth it. I wish Renogy would have kept in touch better. After a couple of weeks, I put in a ticket to find out the status.

They got back to me but it was a few weeks later. I had already received my device. Still considering using the company, but may test the waters with another product before I commit to a lot of $.

The description reads that the charger is weatherproof which is why i bought it, but it isn’t. The manual says not to get it wet. The charger is supposed to trickle. That’s kinda true. It does trickle but well over 15.

5 volts!!!!!!!!!! You must purchase a separate charge controller to make sure your battery never goes beyond 14. 9 volts. It will work in a pinch, but longterm use will boil your battery. I do not recommend.

I bought two of these and I’m happy with how well made they are but I have a problem. Most cars today are wired so that the 12v accessory plug is shut off with the ignition. I’d like Renogy to offer a OBDII adapter.

I believe OBDII is always hot, and so this solar panel could be plugged it there, instead of stringing the wiring past the door and under the hood. Other battery charger manufacturers offer that adapter, and so should Renogy.

Reasonably useful and trying various uses to enhance the versatility of the unit. So far great purchase and addition to the many uses I have. Coleman is a trusted brand name and makes a great affordable products 👌.

I bought this kit to charge the battery in my truck while not in use. It’s essentially two components packaged together – the panel and its battery connectors and the charge controller. There are “quick connect” fittings on the panel and the alligator clips/cigarette charger wires that connect the panel to the battery.

Unfortunately there aren’t the same quick connects on the charge controller, just bare wires, and the included manual says to strip the wires on the panel to connect them or use quick connect fittings.

which it didn’t come with. I don’t understand why they would call this a kit and label it as an “easy install” when the panel and the charge controller can’t easily connect together. You either need to have some basic electric skill to strip/solder wires together, thus removing all the quick connects on the panel/battery accessories that otherwise make this great, or get a different charge controller that has the same quick connect fittings (they do exist).

It wasn’t worth my time to return this so I’ve had to discard the included charge controller. The kit I received was obviously returned by someone else so this must be an issue for other users.

Prices keep coming down on solar panels and this is my first. It works very well but one panel delivers only 18 watts. Used in conjunction with a large marine battery, I only consume what the panel can generate.

They say the battery will be harmed if your panels are insufficient to charge fully in one day. I might buy more as they get cheaper. The use is in an area that has no utility power. Otherwise, I do not feel that solar is a cost effective alternative to public utilities.

For a remote location – well worth the cost. I have no other experience to compare this panel to.

An important thing to be aware of with this charger: Once it is done with its bulk and absorption charging phases and goes into its float or “completion” phase, it will not see or compensate for any load or other cause for voltage drop that your battery may experience.

In other words, once it has completed these initial phases of charging, the battery can discharge completely and the supposedly “fully automatic” logic in this charger will not see it or apply additional charge or otherwise compensate or protect the battery in any way.

It will just continue to apply the tiny float input and assume that doing so will eventually complete its cycle. Out of curiosity, I discharged my deep-cycle battery to 50% state-of-charge while the charger was in this mode and it was clueless and attempted no response.

This makes it far less useful and not protective for any applications in which the battery being maintained may experience a load that does not correspond to the charger’s logic (RV’s, alternative-energy battery, etc.

) as the unit simply does not contemplate that possibility.

As many of the other reviews, I, too, would have liked to have some kind of an indicator light and/or a Guage to let me know when this is working. Another thing would be some kind of a controller, because the manual says to NOT have this attached while the engine is running.

Other that those two things, I’m pretty happy with this solar panel. It works better than I had hoped.

I bought this after buying a “Nforce” solar battery charger/maintainer. That unit seemed to worked. I had it tested before using it. It certainly charged during daylight but DISCHARGED at night ! I could have ruined my battery.

That is when I decided to go with a brand I have used for many years: Schumacher ! I did not even have time to ‘test’ it. I had to go on a ten day trip and leave my car at the airport. I was worried that my battery would be depleted, after my previous experience with “Nforce”.

What a huge and pleasant surprise when my car engine roared to life upon my return ! During the ten days I was gone, it rained and was cloudy all ten days ! This unit still maintained the battery ! I recommend you buy this as a battery maintainer — not as a charger.

It is great for someone who does not drive distances long enough to recharge a battery. If your battery is weak, then first have it charged at Wal Mart or your local auto mechanic. Ask them to evaluate the battery.

If it is still good, then use this to ‘maintain’ it. This unit will prevent your battery from dying a slow death if you park it for extended periods, or only make short trips every day. If you have any doubts about your battery, have it tested by Wal Mart or your local mechanic.

Got this thing yesterday and hooked it up to my Honda Rancher ATV, which would barely turn over from sitting a while. This afternoon it cranked up like a new battery. Very pleased with this product. Money very well spent.

P. S. to my review from May 2011: It failed to keep my car battery up during three months of parking (Feb-Apr 2015) – despite full-South orientation. Measurements reveal: no current anymore (in short-circuit, 0 V condition), no voltage anymore (in open-circuit, 0 A condition).

No visible damage to panel or plastic frame. Appears to have gone bad at some contact within the panel, or directly at the panel (i. e. wires are fine up to the panel’s glass). It was rarely used, and was treated well.

A word about solar chargers and a realistic way to figure the needed size: (w=watts, hrs=hours, a=amps, v=volts, 1kw=1000watts) The 5W panel will recharge 5W into the battery for about 15 hrs of daylight, for example.

So to figure the input power 5w x 15 hrs = 75 Watt hours of input. So If you had used a 15 watt lamp the night before for 5 hours you used 75 watt hours of energy. Then it would take the whole next day to restore the used energy to the battery using a 5 watt panel.

If you use more than that amount of energy to say run a TV or something else from the battery that has used more than the 75 watt hours of recharge capacity for one day, the battery will eventualy run down and will have to be charged by other means or by solar panel over several days.

Think of the battery as a storage tank for water. if you use 100 gallons of water per day but only refill it with 75 gallons per day, the tank will eventually run out of water completely until you refill it.

Depends on the capacity of the tank or (battery). Also to be realistic about inverters, The power to run the inverter is about 20% more than the appliance that it runs, due to inneffiencies that are spent to run the inverter itself.

So if that TV is 200 watts and you run it for 2 hours from an inverter you have used 400 watt hours x 1. 2 = 480 watt hours. To recharge with a 5 watt solar panel you will need 480 / 5 = 96 hours of sun to restore the battery to full charge, or about 6.

5 days. In order to use greater amounts of energy more batteries may be needed in addition to higher capacity solar charger(s) with charge controllers so that the batteries are not overcharged in times of low power usage.

You can guestimate the needed recharge by adding up each power using item watts x the number of hours you think it may be used. Add up all of the watt hours and divide the total by the watts rating of the solar panel.

You need this number to be less than 15 (hours per day to recharge fully). Of course it pays to over estimate possibly as much as 50% so that you can be ready if use goes up unexpectedly or the sun does not cooperate.

To figure watts, multiply amps x volts. or to figure amps divide watts by volts. I have a 5 watt solar panel on my electric-hydraulic boat hoist and it works great. The motor is powerful but it only runs 20 seconds per 2 days, yet it has all day to recharge.

The beauty of the 5W panel is that it doesn’t need a charge controller. Each 12v Auto/RV size battery can handle 5w continuously without a charge controller.

This is the second set of two panels I have purchased. The only reason for the second purchase is I have accidently pulled out the connections from the panels, otherwise they would still be used. The new set provides the option of either using alligator clips to the battery terminals or a cigarette lighter male plug to a DC outlet on the boat.

They seem to be better constructed and at the SAME price I paid 10 years before. My trailerable sailboat is stored in an RV lot without available AC power. Once the boat batteries are at full charge, these panels provide a tickle charge to maintain that level depending on the amount of sun.

The leads are long enough for me to place the panels on top of the boat cabin and run them through the opening left by the sliding hatch and the companion way cover to the two on board deep cycle batteries terminals.

Because the panels are only 5 Watt rating, a regulator is not required. The batteries are always ready when I am.

Thanks to my battery volt display on my USB charger, I can verify that this product works. I can see the drain my phone and other electronics had on my battery, but with this product attached I can also see it level out and replenish.

It’s worth every penny.

I purchased two of these things, bd used them on two different things. One was on a vehicle, and the other was on a lawn mower. Solar panels will drain a battery during the night, so that is why you need a controller.

I bought and used controllers with both of the setups listed above. Neither one charged any battery at all, in fact both batteries were ran completely dead from being hooked up to these stupid things.

As much as I like Harbor Freight, it pains me to say that I will stay away from any of their solar products. Batteries cost too much to try to save any money on keeping them charged. To be honest, their are better solar systems that cost about the same or less on Amazon.

What a shame!.

I use this with a $50 garden tractor battery and power an entire set of shortwave radios and mobile weather station. I’ve had a similar panel for years and was thrilled to find this one. It will definitely keep a battery topped off.

As with any battery charging operation, never leave unattended and use volt meter to monitor voltage.

I replaced one which was over 10 years old. Perfect replacement. If you have a vehicle which is not used frequently, the battery will run down, but with this Coleman solar maintainer it is never a problem.

The battery is always fully charged and ready to go!.

This 2 watt unit is great for inside car not outside. It’s not weather proof. In addition there are series issues with the way the quick connect plugs are wired by the manufacturer. They have wired the positive lead to the bare exposed pin of the quick disconnect plug, therefore, if you unplug the quick connect plug before you disconnect the battery clip or 12V plug inside your car you may blow a fuse if you touch the exposed pin of the quick disconnect plug to any metal inside or outside the car.

In addition if it’s the battery clips that you are using there is no fuse to blow and the clip wire will burn up in a puff of smoke. This is a bad design by Coleman. This really needs to be fixed. In addition the new Coleman 2 watt units manufactured now do not have a flashing blue LED to say the panel is outputting voltage.

I find that to be frustrating as I like to know at least the panel is working. Please bring that back Coleman. The LED only uses a minimal amount of power and I would gladly sacrifice that to get the blinking LED light back.

I like the unit so far, it’s just automatically keeping the van fridge cool for the past week. Install was easy, though there could be a few improvements. For installation, with the side covers on, there is no way to route the wire connections out the sides – there’s plastic in the way.

In my case, this meant I needed to route the wires straight down for it all to fit. The conduit on the right side wasn’t quite big enough for my cables to fit through, so I had to sort of jam it on. Making it possible to pass larger cables in all directions would be great.

Second, I had to buy a separate $40 module to get any sort of detailed status, and again consume valuable install space. Given that a bluetooth module is like a $5 part, why isn’t this just built into the device? You built it into the batteries.

Third, there could be some clarity in the install manual on where a third DC source should go. In my case, I have an alternator, solar, and a builtin charger. It’s not clear if the builtin charger should be connected to the alternator input, or just wired in parallel to the output.

Either seems to work, but it seems like a common case that should be in the manual.

READ THE SPECS! Great concept, but it has a couple of important drawbacks. While it’s a 50amp charger, you’re maxed at 25amp on either the solar or alternator side. With 40-50amps plus available on either side it seems a waste to limit the charging ability.

25v solar input is a real bummer, especially when you’re purchasing this to upgrade your existing system. Specs identify a working temp of 19f, but the low thermal cutoff is 35f, whereas the cutoff on my batteries is 20f.

Looking at the bright sun this morning and no charging. Would be nice if this was adjustable via the app? The DC Home app looks like it has a lot of useful features, but it’s basically a remote battery monitor, without the ability to tell you much about battery usage.

Connection is tough with the bt2 Renogy should be marketing this to a specific group of folks, with small systems looking to integrate hard parts. Renogy spend a little more money on components and charge a little more money for the unit before someone else does and you’ll be a class leader again!.

Installed in my truck camper along with two new Renogy 100AH self heated batteries and the DC to DC monitor. I also installed a 4 AWG charge wires from the main battery of our Ram 3500 truck. The DCC50S keeps the batteries charged with solar and up to 25 AMPs of Alternator power.

Also able to run down the road with the refrigerator running in DC mode. Tested the whole system including Renogy’s 2000w inverter this last weekend on a three day camping trip. Everything worked flawlessly.

Ran the fridge in DC mode on the way home and arrived with batteries in a 100 State of Charge. Awesome!.

Been using these for years and as long as you protect the wires from raccoons, they live forever. I have a couple that have been in use 24/7/365 for over 8 years. Since it is a real solar cell with glass on front, they don’t get cloudy and start losing output like some plastic covered ones on the market.

Coupled with a nice 6v7ah SLA battery, it is about as trouble free as you can get. Do try to mount the solar panel above the spinner as corn dust will settle in it and decrease efficiency.

Very good product for keeping your 6V feeder batteries charged. Panel shipped earlier than expected. The only issue I had was the size of the alligator connecting clips. I also have alligator clips on my feeder so connecting both sets to the battery was a problem.

I solved this problem by removing the panel alligator clips and replacing them with 2 female disconectors. Now works like a charm.

Very dependable and last for years! Replaced current one that has been up for about 7-8 years.

If you are looking for a reasonable wattage/amp panel, this is as good as it gets. Priced right, multiples can easily be added but additional connectors are needed to increase wattage or voltage. Rated at 12v but three in series will give you about 89 volts no load.

This was my second purchase of this particular solar panel and I plan on purchasing more as soon as funds come available for my solar system expansion. I’ve chose to go with 100W Panels just in case I decide to split up the system for use of other set ups in different locations on the property.

As for the Panels they seem to be a quality produced product with a strong frame around the Panel. I haven’t tested their output or checked my readings on the Solar Controller but they’ve kept my batteries charged paired with a Epever MTTP 40A Triron Controller.

and they work quite well. You will hear that 100W isn’t enough and that hotter panels can be had for not much more money but as of now, 4-2017, by the time you pay for the often quite high shipping costs, the price can be more per watt.

ALSO the tradeoff and the reason for the high shipping is that the higher wattage panels are usually simply BIGGER, as well as being higher wattage and shipping a BIG glass object is always going to be more.

Always compare physical dimension when shopping for panels.

Good Quality Product. Decent quality for the Price point. I’m not so sure about this product having a solar controller or not. It’s not in the description and and the product itself doesn’t seem to have one visibly or internally.

I would recommend buying a solar controller to be on the Safe side.

I have installed several of panels these on vehicles that I don’t use regularly and it saves me time and frustration of dead batteries, when I go to start my tractor, boat, collector and beater cars.

I have found a fuse tap works well on vehicles that shut off the lighter outlet with the ignition.

I bought this solar charger last summer to keep my fish feeder battery charged. I also bought a rechargeable battery. I noticed in the fall of the same year that the solar stopped charging the battery.

I put a test wire on the charger and I was not charging at all in the full sun. I went and purchased another one and when I got home I put the test wire on the new one and it would not charge. Call Anerican Hunter they were no help.

I will be taking it back very soon for money back.

I use this in the garden to keep a 12v battery charged for running a pump to pump water from two large 300 gallon water totes. I have no electricity there, and catch rainwater for watering plants and for providing water to a poultry pen.

Much better than just using gravity feed.

This charger is connected to a 6 V. sealed lead/acid battery for a deer cam in northern Michigan. The problem is, when a lot of flash pictures are taken, even this battery cannot keep up with the power demand over time.

Since we cannot make it up for weeks at a time, the deer camera became unreliable. Purchasing this solar panel, mounting it to a tree near by and connecting it to our battery, this charger keep the charge up while we are gone.

Testing it, in full mid-day sun, this solar panel’s output is 10 volts and just over 100 ma. In shade and other times of the day, output drops to the mid 6 volt range. This unit is diode protected, so the panel itself will not discharge the battery on its own.

In all, I’m pleased with the purchase and it appears to have solved our battery power maintainence problem.

supposedly, this is a good product to have if ur needing to keep ur truck battery topped off. my battery would not crank after 8 days of not driving because of those draws it gets while sitting. (all newer vehicles have some kind of draw from the battery with radio presets, alarm system, time clock, etc.

)in my case, i wasnt driving my truck maybe once or twice a month so that the alternator could recharge the battery. when i went to crank it, it would just click. i installed this solar maintainer. the box stated that it keeps the battery in charging status, notifies you of when the battery is over 85% charged and then when its fully charged, it goes into a float mode.

when the draws start draining the battery again, it kicks back on to charge. this is solar which means that it does not charge in the dark but will charge when its daylight even if there is cloud cover.

well, it turns out that it wasnt doing any charging to my battery after all. i let it sit for about 3 weeks and when i unhooked it from the battery, i noticed that the lights were still on the maintainer stating it was charging.

i went to crank the truck and it would not crank. apparently the lights were only lighting up on the panel to let me know that the sun was out. i ended up returning the product for a full refund to amazon and getting a jump starter instead.

I needed a battery maintainer that could be used in a parking lot without power outlets. This unit fits the job. Used on a vehicle that’s not driven a lot. The size works with front or rear windows. This is a maintainer not a full-on charger !!!.

It works great for my needs.

This is a very good tender and what I mean by that is if you have a good charged battery it will maintain the charge with average use. if you have a low charge on your battery it has a hard time charging the battery to a full charge with minimal use even.

Perfect for maintenance, average for camping use.