Sunsei 25006 SE 500 7.5 Watt 15 Volt Solar Panel Battery Charger / Maintainer
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Sunsei 25006 SE-500 7.5-Watt 15-Volt Solar Panel Battery Charger / Maintainer7 comments to Sunsei 25006 SE-500 7.5-Watt 15-Volt Solar Panel Battery Charger / Maintainer |
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Well worth the money
i had just bought this panel at Bass Pro Shops and i took it out of the box and was satesfied at how such a small device can top off a deep cycle battery.
I purchased this for trickle charging the battery on my tractor. It tends to sit (covered) in a sunny spot, and, it is an electricity hog when I use the lights on it. It has worked well for about a month maintaining the charge on the battery, making up for the poor output of the old generator on the tractor, and boosting the starting and lighting power.
This unit provides a constance 0.5 amp charge. I have a few concerns. I hooked up a high quality voltmeter to it and the charge read somewhere between 16 volts and 18 volts (off the scale on my volt meter). Under a load (once connected to the battery) it may read a lower voltage but I have not measured it under load.
In any event, it charges the battery over a period of about four days and keeps it charged.
A real plus to this unit is that it is accompanied by an excellent array of leads. It has an extension cord that is about 8 feet long. There are four types of leads enclosed with the package.
The first are bare wires (+ and – (red & black)) that, on the other end, plug into the unit or the extension cord.
The second are a set of alligator clips (+ and – (red & black)) that, on the other end, plug into the unit or the extension cord.
The third is a male cigar lighter adapter that plugs into the unit or the extension cord.
The fourt is a female cigar lighter adapter that plugs into the unit or the extension cord.
All of the connections and leads are of good to high quality.
With these attachments, you have the versatility you need to hook it up to any vehicle or 12v battery.
This is well worth the $100 (approximate cost plus shipping).
In all fairness, I never expected to charge a dead battery with this. I leave my boat parked in the desert and I leave this plugged in. Week after week, I go back to the boat and it the battery is fully charged. I was worried that without a trickle charger that I would be “stuck” constantly looking for a jump or have to carry another jumper battery. With the SE-400, this has not been the case. I did buy the small charge controller (probably not needed) as well as the mounting equipment. The mounting arrangement was overpriced for what it was, but it works very well and is probably the simplest way to go. If you’re handy, you could easily make your own. (This should be a separate review.) If you are looking for a trickle charger, I think this is an excellent solution.
The product is very nice and works as advertised. Sunsei did a nice job for the most part. Only issue with its design is the caps that cover the 2 power jacks on it fall off easily and are easily lost.
Other than that, the only problem is upon receiving it, it had two large cracks across the glass. It still works, but is no longer weatherproof. You cannot see these until you open and remove the panel from its blister pack. Mine was shipped from Vermont to Chicago via UPS. Even though the box had “FRAGILE” printed on it, they didn’t take good care shipping it. In the future I’ll look for this sort of product in an outdoors recreation store in the area.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Solar Panel
This is a nice little solar panel and I am not disappointed that I bought it. I would buy another one if I need one.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great Product But……
I bought the SE-500 about 2 weeks ago and, I loved it, yes loved it. I bought this for charging the battery on my kayak, and it did the job very well.
sounds pretty cool but it would be great to know the weight & dimensions of that solar panel battery charger.