Solar Powered Battery Tender

[AKBill]

I live one of the worst places for a solar powered battery tender to be effective. Wondering if would still be worth trying out.

I tie town outside in Alaska. I fly during the winter but weather, work, and daylight hours seem to keep my winter flying hours low. Temperatures in S.E. Alaska were I live are not the -40 below like they get up north but it still gets cold here.

We get about 6 hours of daylight here in the winter with a lot of overcast days.

Thinking of trying a solar powered battery tender to keep battery at full charge all the time. Would it be worth it?

I my son bought me a small generator I use to preheat engine and cabin before flying and I do hook up a battery charger when I preheat. Normally takes about 1 1/2 hours to preheat the plane, so the battery does get charged before I fly. Just thinking it would be nice to keep it fully charged all the time.

Comments please

 

[Stewartb]

Switch to an Odyssey battery and you won't need to charge it after reasonable storage periods and the battery won't be weak in the cold. I can park my Cessna outside all winter and the little PC625 battery spins the 520 to life easily in the spring. It's a great winter battery as well. I won't put skis on til about Feb 1 and have no concern about the three months of sitting. The battery will work fine just like it always has.

 

[Bill Watson]

Switch to an Odyssey battery and you won't need to charge it after reasonable storage periods and the battery won't be weak in the cold. I can park my Cessna outside all winter and the little PC625 battery spins the 520 to life easily in the spring. It's a great winter battery as well. I won't put skis on til about Feb 1 and have no concern about the three months of sitting. The battery will work fine just like it always has.

Yep, that!

And if you do switch to an Odyssey (AGM technology) battery, read the owners manual and warranty statement carefully. Follow what they say and you'll be fine.

It includes a statement that at temps under 70F, a fully charged battery can be stored for 2 years without a problem and little loss of charge (colder the better). It goes on further that you should NOT use a maintainer charger - solar or otherwise. If you do, it must provide a regulated charge voltage of n volts to n+ volts. Only needed if you are subject to parasitic current draws when in storage. Odysseys are great.