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MG MGB Technical - Solar battery charger

Has anyone used this trickle solar powered charger from Maplin?
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=98358&C=Froogle&U=98358&T=Module
c cummins

Yes, mine was marginal, despite its claimed 1.5W i.e. 125mA when the drain was about 80mA. If you have an alarm installed of many types it will only slow the rate of discharge, not eliminate it. Didn't help with my V8 with ultrasonic and microwave detection even though it was facing south so I ended up fitting a battery cut-off switch (NO bypass fuse of course) which solved my problems of the battery flattening in two weeks and croaking in 18 months. I wired a bypass circuit for the clock. Started to get the same problem on my 2004 ZS which gets little use in the summer, so dragged it out again, only to find it went phut after a few days. So the ZS now has a battery cut-off switch this time with a bypass circuit just for the clock and radio. If you have no drains then a decent battery should last two or three months and still start the car.
Paul (too many pauls own MGBs) Hunt

They simply don't put out enough power, at this stage of their development, to maintain the needs of most cars today. RAY
rjm RAY

I tried one here that looks exactly like that. Didn't work for me either. I have one of these plug in trickle chargers now and it seems to work well:

http://www.thebatterywizard.com/prod32.htm

Simon Jansen

My brother had one of them, as his Midget was stored in a garage with no power. It failed after a while, only producing about 9v.
He bought another one and it went the same way.
Dave O'Neill 2

I removed batteries from 2 cars in the garage, fully charged both, then connected both to 2 of these chargers that were suckered to a south facing window. After 3 months both batteries were still fully charged, and I assume both in good condition. It just saves a bit of hassle as I belive batteries last longer if stored fully charged?

Colin
C Martin

The batteries will definetly last a lot longer if kept fully charged. My last pair of 6 volts lasted 13 years when kept on a Battery Tender while in winter storage. RAY
rjm RAY

This thread was discussed between 06/03/2010 and 08/03/2010

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