Customer Reviews

Sunforce 50013 1-Watt Motorcycle and Powersports Solar Battery Charger

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased this array to charge an accessory battery on my golf cart. It seems to be well made and is water proof, which is why I bought it. It comes with ample cords and is small in size.

I would have given it 4 or 5 stars, but, it has no LED or any way to know if and when it is working. Some of these arrays ( some cheaper) have at least an LED to let you know the thing is functioning. A serious draw back IMHO!

This unit is a must for any vehicle that sits for an extended period of time. As long as the battery has a full charge this will maintain the battery and it will keep the charge topped off. Over the winter my bike sits for long periods and with solar maintainer the battery fires the bike up every time. A weather proof unit is what I needed since it is mounted outside of my garage. It also has a 15' extension for it. Beware that the positive and negative terminals are reversed on this unit as compared to most other battery chargers and maintainers so you will have to pay attention to that if you are swapping cables or you are integrating it will another charging device.

I had my motorcycle battery in my room dead hooked it all up to the panel and 3 days later went out and started my bike.

I use this to keep my lawn tractor's battery fresh, it works like a charm. Highly recommended!

I bought two of these and mounted them to my PWC trailer tongue. During the day, there is anywhere from 7-18 volts DC flowing to my batteries keeping them fresh. Taking out pwc batteries and bringing them home to keep on a trickle charge sucks. My PWC's are kept in an open storage lot and these work perfectly to keep the batteries fresh with NO maintenance.

Sunforce 50013 1 Watt Motorcycle & Powersports Solar Battery Charger
I have a 1972 Moto Guzzi motorcycle with a Fiat car starter that draws a lot from the motorcycle's battery. My commute to work is only 4 miles at 30 MPH (all in town) so the battery does not get a chance to regain its charge. When I got out of work before obtaining the Sunforce 50013 1 Watt Motorcycle & Powersports Solar Battery Charger, the only way that I could start the motorcycle was to roll it down a hill & "pop" it into second gear & get it started. Now with the Sunforce 50013 1 Watt Motorcycle & Powersports Solar Battery Charger, I just hook it up upon arriving at work and I have not had a problem starting the motorcycle since. The one discrepancy (exception) that I note is that I have mounted the supplied wiring that has the metal "O rings" permanently onto the battery but there were no insulated terminal end caps provided so the positive side of the wiring connector could possibly "ground" out & leave you with a discharged battery while riding - I had to make an end cap cover out of a piece of wire insulation to prevent this. My son's trickle charge "Battery Tender" has insulated caps attached to every wiring connection point - it would have been nice if the Sunforce 50013 1 Watt Motorcycle & Powersports Solar Battery Charger had the same. Other than this, my battery charging problem has been eliminated and the Sunforce 50013 1 Watt Motorcycle & Powersports Solar Battery Charger works great.

I have been using the Sunforce 50013 Solar Battery Charger for 3 weeks to trickle charge 2 lawnmower batteries. It has kept them going. I charge one battery every night using the light from my grow lights. Even with low light the charger has enough output to trickle charge. During sunny days I move the batteries outside to be charged.

I chose this one as the power was right for a small boat/hovercraft size battery (7Ah) and is totally waterproof so can be left out. Great price too.

The one thing that annoys me about it is that the polarity of the standard plug is opposite of that of the other battery minders. No idea why - anyways I normally rewire to match so I can connect it to all my batteries as well as my battery tender.

Last year once the spring rolled around and it was time to start mowing grass again, I found out the battery to my riding lawnmower was dead. I also recently bought a Harley and feared that the same thing would happen. I store both of these items in my shed where there is no electricity run to it. The cheapest option I found was to use two of these solar power battery maintainers to keep the charge in my batteries fresh. So far I have been using them for several weeks and have had no discharging issues with my batteries or starting either pieces of equipment. I used a multimeter to check the voltage on the solar panels to ensured both worked prior to placing them on my shed. The true test will come this winter to see if the batteries stay charged. This kit comes with clamps as well as cables to permanently install a quick connect. I chose to use the permanent connects directly connected to the batteries. The only reason I give this four stars is that the positive connect on the quick connect is not covered. I'm not an electrical professional but I do believe that the bodies of lawnmowers and motorcycles are grounded to the negative terminal. Therefore if you disconnect the quick disconnect and it touches the body of the vehicle it will be like connecting the positive and negative terminals. I've been careful enough not to let that happen, I'm assuming it would blow the fuse. The solution for this is before you disconnect the solar charger quick connect, remove the inline fuse from the cable. If someone knows electricity better please correct me.

The polarity is backwards fail.

The problem is the battery connector positive goes to the exposed male end of the quick connector. There is a fuse on the battery connector but it makes a permanent battery connection dangerous with the risk of sparks if the quick connector touches anything metal. The aligator clip connector is of course backwards too. The positive battery side goes to the exposed male end of the quick connector.

Its just stupid because I have a trickle charger Stanley BC209 2 Amp Sealed Automatic Battery Charger and Maintainer that uses the same quick connectors and it has the correct polarity.

Be carefull.