Comments on: Sunforce 50032 15 Watt Solar Battery Charger

By: S. Mcloughlin

S. Mcloughlin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:51:11 +0000

i have 2 5watt panels and 2 of these big 15watt panels and they are mounted on the outside of my house i live in fairbanks alaska so i get bearly any light now (like 2hours a day) and whats good about these panels though is they work pretty good out of the sun (and in -40) i cant wait until summer when i get to test them out in 24hr sunlight! i have it connected to a huge referbushed military battery its about 75lbs and 120amp hours or something like that but i can run my laptop off of it for a short amount of time. i was trying to get a bigger panel something around 50watts but amazon wont ship it to alaska. i would recommend this panel.
Rating: 4 / 5

By: Jeffrey Bullard

Jeffrey Bullard — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:42:16 +0000

This should be called a battery maintainer and not a battery charger. We have a 90 Amp-hour battery on my boat and took this charger camping with us. It didn't come close to recharging the battery or keeping up with our daily power consumption. When we got home I kept it on the boat battery for 10 days and the battery still was not fully recharged.

Doing some calculations, this solar charger takes about 5 days under above average weather conditions to provide enough power to run my trolling motor for about an hour. The 15W max output is not even enough to run my electric fillet knife.

This charger is weak power and bulky in addition to expensive relative to power from the grid.

Not recommended unless used as a battery maintainer, in which case I would get a smaller and less expensive unit. Rating: 2 / 5

By: Christian E. Montoya

Christian E. Montoya — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:45:12 +0000

Saw the reviews about receiving broken units but thought I’d chance it anyways since the price was so low. The first one arrived completely smashed. Amazon was very easy about returning it and getting a replacement. Second one arrived and looked good. Small plastic pieces were found on the ground where it was unpacked. I looked the panel over and didn’t see any damage. Later, when I went to plug it into a 12V adapter I realized the Sunforce 12V connector was smashed. Overall, very poor packaging. If I were to do it again, I’d pay extra $$ and buy it from a brick & mortar location like Camping World. I have no idea how it works yet since I’m still trying to fix broken parts.
Rating: 3 / 5

By: Jonathan Ryan

Jonathan Ryan — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 14:15:43 +0000

I was considering buying this item when it was listed for 44 bucks. I put the item in my cart and two days later I checked back and the vendor had increased the price of the charger and controller to 129 bucks. Now I will not pay 100%+ more just because 2 days have passed. I do not know what the hell these guys were thinking and I might consider buying the product if they bring it back into a reasonable price.

FYI you can find this at the kragen stores and other auto retailers for approximately 60 bucks. I was going to buy it thru amazon because it was 30 bucks.

I complained to customers service and all I got was a bunch of crap about how prices are not guaranteed or anything.

DO NOT BUY THIS FOR 99 BUCKS. You can get it for about half from other internet retailers.

No wonder amazon is having so many stock problems. Trying to choke down 150% price increases is BS and I will not support a vendor who does that.

If they lower the price back to where it was and offer me a 10% off for the hassle I might consider it.

I bought one for 52 dollars from another internet retailer.

Maybe if they dropped the price to 38 bucks you can buy it. Do not get ripped off by these jerk sellers.

Rating: 1 / 5

By: Gert

Gert — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 11:48:27 +0000

I have never used this, but it seems to me jumper cables would be a better deal.
Rating: 3 / 5