Solar panel 12 volt battery chargers - any good ?

[53chevy]

I am thinking about buying a 4.8 watt solar panel battery charger for when I go away in my VW camper in a few weeks. I'll be taking 2 12 volt batteries to run my interior light, a 100 inverter to run a small laptop for a few hours and cig lighter to charge my phone. Obviously the batteries will need charging over the 11 days I'm away so would one of these solar chargers do the job or are they not worth the money ?.

[Steffan]

Problem with all small solar chargers is low output.

They may be rated at a figure but probably only produce this output in near perfect conditions.

In reality output is generally well below the optimum. I doubt if your panel will produce enough power for your purposes.

I have used such panels to maintain charge in batteries simoly standing idle as in caravans etc where there is no drain on the battery and this has worked.

But if you want to recharge batteries that are being drained then you need more power.

I have found wind powered generators really quite effective in good conditions. But they are awkward to fit on a vehicle.

I suggest a much bigger solar panel producing something over 20 watts.

That may work if there is adequate sunshine.

If its cloudy and raining you will be disappointed again. Good Luck

[53chevy]

Thanks Steffan, I've found a 30 watt solar charger that I'll try. I may get an electric hookup cable as a backup incase the charger doesn't work as expected. It's just that some of the VW shows I go to are in fields without power so I was looking for an alternative.
Thankyou again, Roger.

[sjmmarsh]

I use a 20W solar charger ton provide power in my garage. This is enough to top up a battery that gets light use a couple of times a week, but struggles to top up a heavily depleted batery. I have a 130Ah leisure battery and if it gets down to about 20% capacity it takes about a month to recharge unless it is the summer when it tops up in about a week (sun shining!).

Steve