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Review on Renogy Solar Battery Maintainer Trickle by Brendan Thorpe

Revainrating 1 out of 5

Cheap case, sunlight ruins the frame.

Update January 2021, bought 6 months ago, "frame" with solar panel is falling apart. That doesn't hold up at all for something whose job it is to be exposed to the sun. Cheap stuff, don't buy it. As I wrote earlier, the windshield on my 2006 Chevy Silverado truck drops the current from about 460mA (outside) to about 187mA (behind the front window) on the 5 watt version. I knew this before I bought the unit and that's why I bought this 10 watt unit to replace my 5 watt panel. I can add a 5 watt panel depending on how the battery looks after 4 weeks. The truck has a parasitic draw of about 25 mA (about 0.6 amps/day). I'm guessing a 10 watt panel will give me about 1.1 amps per day. My 2004 Prowler trailer doesn't have this sun filter problem, not sure about other cars. Things to consider when purchasing panels for your application. Also, the 10W chassis plug that fits into the cigarette lighter port only fits in my AUX port (similar shapes but AUX is deeper) as the chassis plug is longer than usual. There is no problem on my truck because the cigarette socket and the AUX socket are next to each other, but not all vehicles have an AUX socket.

Pros
  • Easy installation
Cons
  • Expensive