NOCO BLSOLAR2 Battery Life+ Black 2.5W Solar Battery Charger Review

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I have been looking for a cheap and easy way to keep a charge in my Jeep Cherokee's battery since it is a secondary vehicle and not driven very often. The NOCO 5W Solar Battery charger seems to have fit that bill. The battery charger seems to keep the battery charged even on these cloudy wintery days in Michigan. The instructions for use were pretty straight forward. So far the charger seems to be doing a very good job.

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Reading some of the other reviews, I'm not sure if people realize how little power this solar charger puts out. If you look at a standard plug-in battery charger, they typically have a "high" setting of 8 or 10 amps, often a "trickle charge" setting of 2 amps, and sometimes a short-term "boost" setting of 50 amps. This solar panel is claimed to put out 180 milliamps, which is 0.18 amps, or about 1/6th of one amp. You are not going to be jump-starting your car on the spot, or lighting your cabin all night off this solar charger.

The manufacturer intends it just as a battery maintainer, to counter the gradual loss of charge that batteries experience when sitting unused. So long as you understand that limitation, it appears to be a fine product. The housing seems sturdy, and the wires or cables provided are decent quality. I'm thinking to mount mine somehow on my garage wall to maintain my motorcycle battery since that is something I do not drive every day. Perhaps by maintaining the charge in this fashion I can get away without bringing the battery indoors during the winter, since it is normally only discharged batteries that are in danger of freezing -which can cause internal shorts.

I remember how much tiny solar cells cost at Radio Shack back in the 1970's... although this is too small to provide primary power for more than maybe a single low-drain device, it sure is cool to get something like this to play around with.

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Edited to note that these solar chargers come in 2 sizes, and Amazon is now unwisely mixing the reviews for related but different products together. My review here was regarding the smaller version, which is probably best limited to motorcycle batteries. If you are trying to maintain charge on larger car batteries, the larger 5 watt version would be a much better bet.

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I was very pleasantly surprised how high quality this solar panel and all of the included accessories were. I have had a few other solar panels in the past and they don't even come close to comparing to the quality and design of this one. I put this panel in the windshield of my old truck using the included suction cups and it feels very secure. I love how slim the panel is and how the cable runs cleanly out the back. In addition, the quick connect cables are awesome and make attaching the right accessory easy.

This panel is the perfect size to keep a standard automotive battery topped off. In the past I have left my truck un-driven for a few months at a time and come back to dead battery. This panel provides enough current to counteract the natural drain of a battery, which is all I really need. I will buying more for some of my other equipment and I highly recommend this solar charger.

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program We found this came in very handy at campgrounds that had no electric hookup and also one that had problems with the power going out. We could keep the battery in the R.V. charged for a long time and just run the generator a little while at night if we needed the air conditioner or fans running. I plan to purchase one for the cars so I can keep this one in the R.V. at all times. Even if you don't plan to 'rustic camp', it is great to have on hand. It was a life saver when hubby had his tractor out in a muddy area of field and it wouldn't start. This made it so much easier to get it started again. I also love the safety features that protect against overheating and over current. These features are very important in my opinion, as well as being weather resistant for rainy days.

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program This solar panel has the advantage of being fairly small, on the order of 10" x 10". It has several nice connections: spring loaded clips for attaching to a 12V battery, a cigarette lighter plug.

I would prefer it had Anderson Powerpoles in-line... that would make it easier to attach/detach various terminal connectors, add a fuse to the negative wire, etc.

For most uses, you will also need some sort of charge distributor/pulse modulator. You don't want to hang a constant 2 watt charge onto the terminals of a charged battery...

But for what it is (a naked solar panel, costing about $10.00 per watt) it's an OK product.