Sunforce 50022 5Watt Solar Battery Trickle Charger
March 28, 2010 by SolarInfo
Filed under solar panels
| Brand: | Sunforce | ||
| Average Rating |
|
The Sunforce 50022 5 Watt Solar Battery Trickle Charger gives you another reason to love the sun -- it'll help keep your vehicle's battery charged. Just plug the this helpful 5-watt trickle charger into your vehicle's 12-volt lighter socket and position the panel to pick up the most daylight possible. Or, if you prefer, use the included alligator clips to connect it directly to the battery, so you can keep your lighter socket open for cell phone chargers or other accessories. Regardless of how you hook up the battery charger, you'll never get caught off guard without the juice you need to start your car. You can also use this device to maintain the charge on any 12-volt battery for clean, silent operation of various electronics, such as deer feeders and landscaping pumps. The 50022 features a built-in ultra-bright blue LED charging indicator, and is a great choice for automobiles, recreational vehicles (RV), tractors, all terrain vehicles (ATV), boats, electric fences, telemetry and more, and it is even effective on cloudy days. This trickle charger is made of durable ABS plastic and amorphous solar cells, measures 14 x 0.75 x 13 inches (WxHxD), weighs 4 pounds, and has a maximum temperature range of -40 to 176-degrees Fahrenheit. more info
Perfect for my campsite
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I live on a river and built a campsite on an island across from my house (the dog loves it). I bought a deep-cycle marine battery but am getting too old to lug it in and out of the canoe for charging. So I got this little panel and, so far, have not run out of juice. And it’s cheap enough so if someone steals it it’s no big tragedy. I run a laptop, TV, fluorescent light and charge my cell phone. I even have a 12v car-vac to clean the sand out of the tent.
Of course, I’m not there 95% of the time so 5 watts is probably adequate. And I don’t have to worry about overcharging. I screwed it to a big log in pretty open sun. So far, it has survived, even some small hail.
BTW, I use the power cord from an old vacuum cleaner and a 4-way 12v splitter to distribute power from the battery.
Completely drained my new battery
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I have a 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser, the factory outlets are off when the ignition is off. I have added my own outlets that are always on, like most American branded vehicles. I installed this device into my 12v outlet, left my FJ for 5 days (as usual) and it completely drained my new battery. The battery was so depleted that the dome lights and the power locks did not work; this battery was only 1 month old and working great. I don’t know if this was a defective unit or an issue with my vehicle, the manufacture did not return my voice mail, nor did they answer the phone. I have returned this product and currently waiting for my refund from Amazon.
Capt Steve – “Breaking Wind”
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Performed as stated. Keeps my deep cycle marine battery charged. When I
leave my boat after sailing for 2-3 hours my 12V LED volmeter reads system
at 11.85 volts and the next day it is charged to 12.80 after receiving sun
for 10hrs. Tops it off – trickle charge as stated.
Keeps my RV starting easily.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
After a long winter in storage, my chassis battery (Ford Econoline 450) on my RV wouldn’t stay charged for more than a couple of days. I bought this, put the panel on the dashboard and plugged it in to the cigarette lighter. Now it starts right up every time, even after a couple of weeks sitting idle. I haven’t yet tried it with my house batteries, but I will be dry camping later this summer and will be able to see how it works for them. If I need larger ones for my house batteries, I will definitely look to Sunforce again.
Great Product
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have a ’02 Kia Sedona. During the winter if I didn’t start my vehicle every 2-3 days the battery would be drained to the point of not starting. This was hard on batteries(even more so in the winter time) and they would be no good in a matter of months. After looking for a solution on the net I stumbled across this product. I had to hook it direct to the battery due to my power source not working when vehicle is off. No big deal, ran the sturdy looking wire through door and right under the hood. Cant even see the wire. Also i bought a new battery just for a fresh start.
4 days later I go out to start my vehicle cringing that I might have to call roadside again. And it fired right up. This product was worth every penny. As other have mentioned, it is a bit rigid and looks like it can break easy. My dash is wide so I just put an anti-slip mat under it and it stays put.
Melts under the sun
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
First, there is no way to know whether this model is properly hooked up unless you happen to own a voltmeter.
Second, there are no instructions showing you how to hook it up to the battery. The clamps came off the battery, but I think I just didn’t do it right and when I laid them a different way they looked fine.
BUT – the plastic casing melted when I left the unit on the dashboard! Hello – this is a solar battery but it can’t be left in the sun?
So disappointed because it got so many good reviews but I am returning it. I have left my car the same way under similar weather conditions for over 10 years, and I can guarantee you that the car never gets near the 175 degree maximum temperature rating in the instructions, which do not, by the way, suggest cracking the windows.
I am returning it – my battery is now totally dead and I can’t see keeping something which has started to melt after 2 weeks on the dashboard.
arrived broken
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
sent unit back as the glass on the unit was broken when I opened package. Decided to ask for money back as I thought the unit would be to fragile for use!
=
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have a 22′ motor home with a Ford 350 V8 engine, and keep forgetting to disconnect the battery when I store it, so it’s always dead when I go retrieve it from the storage lot in the spring. So, I decided to buy this to keep the battery from dying. However, when I received it and went to install it in my RV in the middle of April, the battery was dead, dead, dead! Not even a murmur when I tried to start it, couldn’t even turn on the lights. Absolutely nothing.
So, just for kicks, I decided to see just what it could do, even though the FAQ on the manufacturer’s site says
“A35: This solar panel is ideal for trickle charging all types of vehicle batteries and power packs. If the battery or power pack is completely drained, use a larger Solar Power Panel (11-1881-0 or 11-1882-8). ”
I plugged it into one of the 12v outlets and placed it on the dashboard facing south (I live in the mostly overcast Pacific Northwest). A couple of weeks later when I checked, there was enough juice in the battery to turn on the lights, but not start the engine. Today (end of May), I went to get the RV, assuming I’d have to jump start it from my car. I was pretty amazed when I turned the key and the engine started right up.
Needless to say, I am 100% thrilled with this item.
(And, of course, not everyone may have the same experience as me.)
Might be okay for small batteries
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I bought this Sunforce 5 watt solar charger to keep my RV battery “topped off” and it MIGHT do ok if the sun shined 24/7…but it doesn’t. If you’re looking for something to help keep, say, a gate opener battery charged up it might work fine. There is no light as claimed to indicate it’s charging so I checked the output with a voltmeter with full sun and it puts out about 25v and that’s a good thing. The downside is you might be disappointed if you buy this to keep a normal size deep cycle battery charged. Hindsight tells me I should have gone with a MINIMUM of 10 watts (and that might be cutting it to close).
Sunforce 50022 5 Watt Solar Battery Trickle Charger
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The Sunforce 50022 5 Watt Solar Battery Trickle Charger is a great item. I use it on my boat to maintain 2 batteries while in port. Highly recommend this item. Aloha;Rodney
Excellent Solar Panel
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The Sunforce 50022 5W amorphous solar panel is fantastic. Rugged, exceeded all of the manufacturer’s claims, and is reasonably priced. I highly recommend this product.
what a beautiful use of technology!!!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is a great product …it simply does the job….I was having battery problems… even new batteries were going flat…and the dealer could never
find the problem…finely it was I didnt drive my car enough or long enough or
far enough to keep the batteries charged…they said systems always require
some energy….so here it is……..I tried this product and bam! the problem
was more than solved!!!!!!! my bsttery was better than new…a fantastic product
get it …use it!!!!!!!!! Why doesnt the auto industry use this…build it in
the dash top…..or for electric cars build solar panels on the top of the car..
are they stupid?
Great product but annoying company ordering procedure
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I have had this for over a year and it has held up like a champ though I do worry at times about breaking it as there is no protection for the glass covering the photoelectric cells.
The only reason this is not a five star review is the way Sunforce handles internet orders. Instead of allowing you to place your order with your credit card like any intelligent company does you have to send your contact information and they contact you.
**This defeats the whole purpose of having an online ordering option, Sunforce!**
Worse they say that they will contact you the next business day and instead waited until early the day after that to contact me and the person I talked too didn’t understand why having it set up this way was stupid. All I wanted was to order a replacement part for one that was broke by accident not to talk to a salesman who would likely try to get me to order stuff I didn’t need. I lucked out and found a local place to get a replacement from but Sunforse really needs to fix their online ordering system.
Excellent Time Saver For My Boat
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought one of these to charge my cranking battery in my bass boat. A month later I bought another one to charge my trolling motor battery. They work excellently, slow charging the batteries within 48 hours. I keep my boat at a storage facility, so I used to have to lug each of the heavy batteries out of the boat and to my house to charge in preparation for my next trip. Now I just hook up the solar chargers with alligator clips (included) right at the storage facility and next time I have fully charged batteries. Best $100 Ive spent in a long time.
Excellent solar trickle charger
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’m afraid I’m guilty of buying impractical transportation. Sports cars are just not made for Wisconsin winters. Fortunately I also have a 1997 Isuzu Rodeo as my winter vehicle which is very practical for winter driving. The one drawback is that left on it’s own the battery will be useless without either putting it on a charger or starting the truck every couple weeks over the summer. Between the slow drain and the harsh winters the battery is toast. I bought this charger to see how well it would work for me over the summer. I just remembered to test how well it maintained the charge on my vehicle since installing it in late April. I turned the key and my truck started right up.
This didn’t help me
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I bought this because my car has a GPS device to record where I go. The device is on all the time. When it is cold my battery would be dead on Monday morning from no driving during the weekend. This did not solve my problem. I do not fault the product.
Keeps me charged in Michigan
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this because I have a ’99 dodge dakota that I only use sparingly. At most once a week, but usually it sits 10-12 days between use. With the drain of the theft system I would always have to give it a jump to get it going, or put the battery on a charger the night before.
Now I can just hop in and go. It keeps my battery fully charged. I just put it on the dash when I park it.
I live in northern Michigan, so I am not blessed with the most sunlight, but it’s enough.
Amazon, get rid of the blister pack!
Sunforce 50022 5 Watt Solar Battery Trickle Charger
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
In the past after a couple of weeks in the hot Florida sun the battery on my boat would be dead. Now that I have connected the Solar charger battery has a full charge when I get ready to go. No having to plan ahead and connect a battery charger over night and disconnect the next morning before leaving.
Works Great Not a bad price either.
Nice for beginners
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This solar panel is fun to play with, but you will soon find it doesn’t supply enough power to be very useful.
It’s probably adequate to charge small batteries or run small motors or electronics, but not enough to keep a car sized 12v battery charged.
I think its intended to be left in a stationary vehicle that starts out with a charged battery, and it simply compensate for the natural battery voltage loss over time.
If you are thinking of using a battery every day and charging it back to full power with the solar panel, you’ll need to get a bigger one.
Trickle charger
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is an excellent product. I now have 5 of these. I keep one on each of my marine batteries for my boats, and it always keeps the batteries charged and ready to go. 2 of them only get about 2-3 hours of sunlight per day, yet still keeps it charged great. I highly recommend this product.
A nice tool for those who take long trips away
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
In 2006 I took a 3 week vacation out of the country. I left my car at the airport and away I went. Upon my return, I had to have the battery boosted for 15 minutes before it would turn my car’s engine on. I have no idea what caused the drain (Sattelite Radio memory, car’s other computers, etc), but I had to do something to prevent a $50.00 boost call in the future. A coworker told me about these devices and how his brother uses them to keep his mobile home powered when parked. Higher wattage products are sold, but if all you’re doing is keeping a car battery charged, 5 watts is plenty of power for the job. No other devices (charger controllers) are needed. The charger comes with a couple of ways to hook up to the battery (direct battery terminal clips, cigarette lighter plug). I used the cigarette plug. Just plug it in to the power port, and lay the solar energy collector side face up on your dashboard. For those with heavily tinted windshields, I have no idea if the tint would cause a problem with the panel’s energy collection.
This year, after returning from another 3 week trip (and using the solar charger), my battery started better than it did before my trip to the airport!
Shines like the sun!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I had problems keeping my tent camper battery charged until I installed this unit, and it works like they say it does! GO SOLAR!
Good product, good price.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I took this on my one month trip to the Colorado mountains and used it daily. It kept my batteries charged that I use to run my pop up, and they never did run down. After 10 days of using one I switched to another battery just because I wanted to, but the one I was using was still working fine. I wasn’t using a lot of power, but at the same rate of use I’ve never gotten more than four days out of charged battery before without a solar charger. This works very well at a great price. I got it soaked several times with no problem. I’d recommend it highly.
solar panel
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
works great. weak link is the cable connection, which pulled out under gale force winds at my winter yard in Maine. I fixed it, and am reapplying the technology.
Solar Panel a Go!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought the solar planel in hopes that it would supply enough power to my battery to keep it from dying. Well. Without the solar panel my car sterio among other things would have my battery completely drained. I went out yesterday and two weeks later the car started right up. Keep in mind this charger will not charge your battery from completely dead. It will however keep your battery from dying as fast. I’m impressed!
Great product, great service
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
My Sunforce 5 watt trickle charger is used to keep up a battery on my travel trailer while is sits not being used. It works great and does just what I wanted it to do. As far as the company I bought it from, it got here promply and is just what they said it was.
Great size.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
These solar panels were great for my project. They are bigger than ones for charging small electronics, but they are significantly smaller than roof-mounted panels. Three of them fit perfectly on the back of my bike. They are very straight-forward to use, and are well constructed.
Great Panels
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I used this solar panel for my science experiment. Even though it was amorphus, it still provided excellent electricity for my cars that I used in the experiment. Though the panels produced little electricity, it was still very good and perfectly understandable. Amorphus doesn’t really provide much electricity and probably won’t be good to use for powering very intense electrical wares. But, if you are using this for an experiment that requires little energy, this is a great solar panel to use. It’s also very cheap.
compact and reliable charger for stanby battery
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I get this panel for temporary use in charging circuit for 120 amps/hr acid battery. That panel drive 320 mA aver. and keep my battery in a good chape, even I don`t drive my car for 5-7 days.
works fine
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this item to keep the battery topped off on a handicap van I have. So far I am pleased with it. Before I got it the battery would run down if the van sit longer than 3 days now starts right up even after a week of sitting, also it fell off the dash once and hit hard but seems to be working fine with no damage to it
Not enough power
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
My wife’s car got one for Xmas. The device was easy to install.
Unfortunately, without disconnecting the battery, it doesn’t provide enough power to keep the battery charged in the winter, when sun hours are few, even in California.
Works As Advertised!!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The Sunforce 50022 does what it is suppose to and that is trickle charge. I hooked my multimeter to it in full sunlight and got a constant 24v charge. I bought this to trickle charge a UTV at my ranch because there are long periods of no use, and often times it is cold starting. As for the solar charger it is extremely well built and solid. It comes with quick change neg/pos clamps and cigarette lighter adapters and mounting screws.
Working good so far…..
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Bought this solar charger to keep my deep cell battery in my Ford Expedition charged. I have an alarm that would drain my battery in about a month and a half if I don’t drive it; With the price if gas I only drive if I have something big to move or am taken a trip to the mountains so most the time it sits out in front of the house not being used. It’s been a month so far and it looks like it works very well, I’ve set my charger in the back window facing the sun and have plugged it into a D.C. outlet in the rear storage area. So far so good…..
Motorhome charger
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This little 5W panel is a replacement for a “too low drive thru” situation. It literally is a Plug-and-Play unit. It keeps all of my 6 batteries (4ea 6volt and 2ea 12volt) stable during storage.
Ron Dionne
An Overperformer!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This unit has consistently performed _better_ than it is rated for. It routinely generates over 140% the rated voltage – and even generates the Rated Voltage on overcast days. A *streetlight* at night caused it to generate a measurable voltage (~50% rated, as I recall). Also, it is weather/hailstone resistant. I am very pleased with the performance of this item.
Keep my car battery charged
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have a 98 Camry that is rarely used, and often when I tried to use it, the battery had been drained (not sure by what) to the point that the starter would only make clicking sounds. Since I have hooked up the Sunforce 5watt trickle charger the car starts up every time! Very cool product.
My only complaints would be that it is a bit large, but still rests on the dash when the car is parked, and I had to connect direclty to the battery (with provided clips) since the cigarette lighter is turned off when the ignition is off – but I just ran the wire around the door frame and under the hood.
Good electric output but fragile / bad packaging
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I recently ordered one of these panels (June 2007). The first one arrived shattered – the manufacturer packaging does not protect the panel much and it was inadequately packaged in the shipping box by Amazon. The replacement unit was also badly packaged for shipment.
I tested the electrical output in full sunlight and got 20V out into a 100 ohm load -> 4 watts which is pretty good.
One thing to consider though is that this product is not very rugged. The solar panel has a plastic frame but the middle is unprotected on the back (and front). So unless you handle it very carefully it is likely to break.
Someone using this on a car dashboard would need some sort of protective carrier (like those insulated pizza boxes) to protect the unit when it was not being used.
———— Update Dec 2007 —————-
Panel stopped producing electricity in November. Had to send it in to Sunforce at my expense for warrantee replacement. They promptly tested it and sent me a replacement. One thing I did notice is that the plastic housing on the unit that I returned had developed some small cracks. I am using the unit on my car dashboard to keep my battery charged.
Seems to work well on my boat…
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I am very happy with the overall performance of this solar cell. It provides a steady 400ma of current into my deep-cycle marine battery (I have two of them, each wired to a separate battery). This is plenty to keep the batteries topped of between visits to my boat. The only issue I had was one arrived broken due to some pretty light packing. Amazon made good with a quick, free return and replacement so not much harm done. Overall I am very happy with my purchase.
Love my Sunforce 50022
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I have had this product a little over 1 month. I bought it for my RV which sits idle most of the time. Previously, when going out to start it after only a few days sitting, my husband would have to jump it with his car. The dealer suggested a trickle charger so I bought the Sunforce. Now, I no longer have to use my car to start my RV. One turn of the key and it starts right up. I wish someone had told me about trickle chargers a long time ago.
Great product, new cars defeat it
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
The product itself is great. I own several. They used to work wonderfully, but my newer cars disconnect the lighter socket when they are not running. Therefore, the charger doesn’t do anything. Yes, I could get the lighter socket rewired. The thing I loved about this was how easy it was. Taking my car in to be rewired to use it is not what I consider easy.
Great Product. Lousy new cars.
Solar Collector for Boat Battery Maintenance
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Sunforce 50022 5 Watt Solar Battery Trickle Charger This is my third generation of solar collectors for battery maintenance. Technology has continued to improve the quality and performance with each new purchase. Higher output, for the same size unit, in the most noticable improvement with this model.
Battery Saver for my car!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This product works well in keeping the battery in my Audi A6 charged and ready to start after a couple weeks. It gets about 2-3 hrs hours direct sunlight per day and this is fine to keep the battery healthy.