Solar battery charger

I bought a Harbor Freight solar battery charger for 12v batteries, to keep my generator battery charged, but now I have become a little concerned as to whether it will overcharge the battery. Any thoughts?
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On Oct 20, 8:46�am, Ignoramus28797 <ignoramus28...@NOSPAM. 28797.invalid> wrote:

I bought a Harbor Freight solar battery charger for 12v batteries, to keep my generator battery charged, but now I have become a little concerned as to whether it will overcharge the battery. Any thoughts?

Buy some HF multimeters to keep an eye on the voltage and current.

Ignoramus28797 wrote:

I bought a Harbor Freight solar battery charger for 12v batteries, to keep my generator battery charged, but now I have become a little concerned as to whether it will overcharge the battery. Any thoughts?

yes, it will instantly kill your batery. Don't do it.

The harbor freight controller works, but a solar converters 12/24-5 MPPT controller works a lot better.

On Mon, 20 Oct 2008 07:46:12 -0500, Ignoramus28797 wrote:

I bought a Harbor Freight solar battery charger for 12v batteries, to keep my generator battery charged, but now I have become a little concerned as to whether it will overcharge the battery. Any thoughts?

1. Which charger?
2. What's the ampere hour (AH) rating of the battery?
If the output of the charger is no more than 5% of the AH rating, then it will likely not over charge.
John

news@picaxe.us wrote:

On Mon, 20 Oct 2008 07:46:12 -0500, Ignoramus28797 ignoramus28797@NOSPAM.28797.invalid> wrote:
I bought a Harbor Freight solar battery charger for 12v batteries, to keep my generator battery charged, but now I have become a little concerned as to whether it will overcharge the battery. Any thoughts?
1. Which charger?
2. What's the ampere hour (AH) rating of the battery?
If the output of the charger is no more than 5% of the AH rating, then it will likely not over charge.
John

Also figure in the less than 50% charging duty cycle, unless the sun shines 24 hours a day where you live.

"Pete C." wrote:

news@picaxe.us wrote: Ignoramus28797 wrote:
I bought a Harbor Freight solar battery charger for 12v batteries, to keep my generator battery charged, but now I have become a little concerned as to whether it will overcharge the battery. Any thoughts?
1. Which charger?
2. What's the ampere hour (AH) rating of the battery?
If the output of the charger is no more than 5% of the AH rating, then it will likely not over charge.
Also figure in the less than 50% charging duty cycle, unless the sun shines 24 hours a day where you live.

More like 20% re: peak output (which is what it'll be rated at).
Graham

On Oct 20, 7:46�am, Ignoramus28797 <ignoramus28...@NOSPAM. 28797.invalid> wrote:

I bought a Harbor Freight solar battery charger for 12v batteries, to keep my generator battery charged, but now I have become a little concerned as to whether it will overcharge the battery. Any thoughts?
-- � �Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention � � � to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating � � � �from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by � � � � �more readers you will need to find a different means of � � � � � � � � � � � �posting on Usenet. � � � � � � � � � �http://improve-usenet.org/

What is battery voltage, 12.8 is a normal full charge. You may or may not need a controler, monitor voltage first.

On Oct 21, 5:04�pm, "Vaughn Simon" wrote:

n...@picaxe.us> wrote in message


That charger can be left connected forever, as its output is less than 1 amp. �If the charger is in a sunny location, it may keep up with the battery's self-discharge curve.
� �I have totally ruined some really nice batteries with 1 amp trickle chargers. YMMV.
Vaughn

What type and capacity battery did you ruin with 1 Amp?

On 2008-10-20, news@picaxe.us wrote:

On Mon, 20 Oct 2008 07:46:12 -0500, Ignoramus28797 ignoramus28797@NOSPAM.28797.invalid> wrote:
I bought a Harbor Freight solar battery charger for 12v batteries, to keep my generator battery charged, but now I have become a little concerned as to whether it will overcharge the battery. Any thoughts?
1. Which charger?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=44768

2. What's the ampere hour (AH) rating of the battery?

It is a automotive battery, but I would say 30-50 AH, making a guess.

If the output of the charger is no more than 5% of the AH rating, then it will likely not over charge.

Output of the charges is in amps, I am not sure how to compare it to amp hours.
i

John

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On Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:51:24 -0500, Ignoramus24384 wrote:

On 2008-10-20, news@picaxe.us wrote: On Mon, 20 Oct 2008 07:46:12 -0500, Ignoramus28797 ignoramus28797@NOSPAM.28797.invalid> wrote:
I bought a Harbor Freight solar battery charger for 12v batteries, to keep my generator battery charged, but now I have become a little concerned as to whether it will overcharge the battery. Any thoughts?
1. Which charger?
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=44768
2. What's the ampere hour (AH) rating of the battery?
It is a automotive battery, but I would say 30-50 AH, making a guess.
If the output of the charger is no more than 5% of the AH rating, then it will likely not over charge.
Output of the charges is in amps, I am not sure how to compare it to amp hours.
i
John

That charger can be left connected forever, as its output is less than 1 amp. If the charger is in a sunny location, it may keep up with the battery's self-discharge curve.
John

wrote in message

That charger can be left connected forever, as its output is less than 1 amp. If the charger is in a sunny location, it may keep up with the battery's self-discharge curve.

I have totally ruined some really nice batteries with 1 amp trickle chargers. YMMV.
Vaughn

On Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:04:04 GMT, "Vaughn Simon" wrote:

news@picaxe.us> wrote in message
That charger can be left connected forever, as its output is less than 1 amp. If the charger is in a sunny location, it may keep up with the battery's self-discharge curve.
I have totally ruined some really nice batteries with 1 amp trickle chargers. YMMV.
Vaughn

That solar panel is 1.5 watts, so it provides something like 150ma max - not likely to overcharge even a small SLA battery...
John

On 2008-10-21, news@picaxe.us wrote:

On Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:04:04 GMT, "Vaughn Simon" vaughnsimonHATESSPAM@att.FAKE.net> wrote:
news@picaxe.us> wrote in message
That charger can be left connected forever, as its output is less than 1 amp. If the charger is in a sunny location, it may keep up with the battery's self-discharge curve.
I have totally ruined some really nice batteries with 1 amp trickle chargers. YMMV.
Vaughn
That solar panel is 1.5 watts, so it provides something like 150ma max - not likely to overcharge even a small SLA battery...

Would it be enough to maintain it?
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"Jim Wilkins" wrote in message

What type and capacity battery did you ruin with 1 Amp?

They were standard automotive-type starting batteries, probably 60 to 80 amp/hour in three identical installations. I killed them using standard, cheap, 1-amp trickle chargers on the theory that the chargers were too small to hurt the batteries.
Since I was not the person paying for the batteries, or even the person actually replacing them, it took a while for it to dawn on me that I had a problem. This was before good float chargers were available, so when I finally wised up to why the batteries were failing so fast, I installed time clocks and ran the chargers for only a few hours a day. That solved the issue. After that, I got several years on my batteries.
Batteries do not self-discharge at anything like the 5% rate that one poster seems to be suggesting. If that were true, any fully-charged battery left by itself would be dead in a matter of days. Actually, it takes several months for a good battery to self-discharge (depending on several factors).
The following is my opinion based on decades of hard knocks. take it for what it is worth (or not): If any lead acid battery is to be left on float, there is no substitute for a float charger, or a proper charge controller.
Vaughn