will this panel work/plug into the mighty mule gate opener to charge the batteries? what if any temperature (cold) extremes will it handle?
627992
Mine works great on my opener. Plenty of voltage for a lawn mower battery. I couldn't be happier. I have had it for about a year now. I can't say for sure on cold weather but I don't see where temps above 0 would matter much.
627993
I live in Georgia and we sometimes see temperatures in the teens. We have not had low enough temperatures to interfere with the operation this year. As a precaution I ordered an extra battery and have them hooked up in tandem.
627994
I have one of these panels and it does hook up directly to my duel Mighty Mule gate opener Model 502. It has worked out and kept the batteries charged. So far this season, the temperature here in Northeastern Nevada has dropped to 14 degrees F with no ill effects.
627995
Yes, you can plug the leads from the panel directly into the control board Power Inputs in place of the transformer. Cold temps will actually make a solar panel produce more power. I would monitor the battery voltage the first few weeks after installation to make sure that it is being charged. I have an FM500 opener with dual batteries and this solar panel has been working great for close to a year now with an average of two gate cycles a day.
627996
im using a 20 watt panel with a lawnmower battery its works fine ,havent had any extreme cold weather,but several days of overcast skies and some below 30 degrees havent had any problems
627997
It has worked great for us, we do have some issue with getting enough sun to recharge it, due to living in a wooded area. We have it (I am not to up on this stuff so bear with me) hooked to a battery/mighty mule gate opener and we have a gate approximately 10ft wide and it opens it just fine. So far no issue with cold temp's. We live in the Central United States. So not sure how cold it gets where you are at. Hope this helps
627998
works fine with the gate opener. I dont get very cold but it works fine in the twenties
2070139
Yes. In fact, the instructions say this charger is ideally suited for maintaining the battery during cold weather. Most electrical devices (in general) produce a little heat as electricity passes through. During normal operations you will feel this unit get a little warm to the touch. This is normal. Colder weather is actually better for this charger because it helps keep the unit cool, thus extending the life of the charger. Excessive heat is an enemy to electrical circuits, as it is with rechargable batteries and most other things. When computers were first used, they were kept in refrigerated rooms to keep the circuits cool, otherwise, the heat generated would burn the computers up very quickly. The same goes with most electronics. The cooler the unit, the better off you are. I use my Schumacher SE-1-12S year round (especially during the winter months). Be careful never to attempt to charge any battery that is frozen, however. If the battery fluid (electrolyte) is frozen, bring battery into warm area to thaw before charging. Finally, do not expose charger to rain or snow. Hope this helps. Alex, Griffin, GA.
1505449
The cold does not affect this battery too much. My wife doesn't ride her scooter during the winter so the battery goes pretty low while just setting there all winter. However, I put a charger on the battery for a few hours and the scooter starts right up. I'm sure a trickle charger would keep it going during the winter but it's not going to be ridden so why keep it charged?
1567139
Hi I have my Go Power 95 watt hooked up in parallel. It d8es fine in the winter. I have to many trees so it does less right now. To hook up do this, get two cables one red the other black. Run black negative to black, red to red positive. Now check polarity on the two cables from the controller negagitive on negative on one battery. Positive to positive on the other battery. Your batteries charge better this way. Thanks
1425634
I would not recommend using this the same as a block heater. A battery that gets cold, will not charge back up when it gets warm again. Get a temperature controlled switch and set it to turn on at 45 degrees and colder. If the battery is to cold when you go to start it you can ruin it. According to a Google search Cold Cranking Amp rating on most batteries are done for 15 seconds at 50F degrees, so for every degree below 50F the power of your battery drops.
1878732
My gate opener has built in diodes to keep the solar panel from draining the Battery at night. If your gate opener does not have this integrated in the circuit board you will need to buy a voltage regulator and put that between the input of the gate opener control board and the solar panel. Also this panel does not have built in diodes. Some panels do. My gate opener is a Mighty Mule. I think all of their boards has this built in.
1947250
I have not tried loading the inverter at its full 600W, but have connected one intended for 12V panels (I think expecting 10 to 30 volts) to a 24 volt system battery... which ran it very fast and hot, but it complained and shut down when the voltage got too much for it, cooling off and ran again. Unless you do have cold and very sunny conditions, the peak loading is never for very long, and I have never had the full output from them. I'm surprised to see other reviewers with bad experiences. I would believe the protection circuits they use.
1240847
I used mine on a dual battery system on a Ford F-250. It was on all winter and iot worked perfectly even keeping the batteries fully charged in minus 15 dgree weather. I'm fully satisfied. Some remarks said that it wouldn't recycle once the batties reached full charge but I didn't find that to be the case. Like I said, after sitting in the cold for five months both batteries were at full charge.
2122930
What a great idea! You sure can hook this panel up to a car or marine battery for trickle charging. For an emergency charge you could get away with not using a controller. Just be sure to unhook the panel before the battery gets to 14.5 volts which will take a very long time with a 13.5 watt panel. This panel would be better served for maintaining a battery charge and you would need a controller for that. I did a quick experiment to verify and posted some pictures in the 'Product Images from Customers' section. All the items I used can be found on Amazon: Sunforce 7amp Charge Controller (I wasn't too impressed with this controller, for regular use the Sunforce 60031 10amp Digital Charge Controller is a nicer model): http://www.amazon.com/Sunforce-7-Amp-Charge-Controller/dp/B0006JO0XI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387406266&sr=8-1&keywords=sunforce+7amp+controller http://www.amazon.com/Sunforce-60031-Digital-Charge-Controller/dp/B001DZONCW/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1387413721&sr=1-2-fkmr0&keywords=Sunforce+10amp+ditital+controller Gino 2.1x5.5mm Male Jack DC Power Adapter: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058RLD9C/ref=oh_details_o03_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 2.1mm DC Power Cord Coupler Female to Female: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002IULV8U/ref=oh_details_o09_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
311302
It should work with the series. It has worked great on our mighty mule gate operator, we have it hooked to a marine battery and it keeps it charged, even on cloudy days.
1997512
It provides sufficient power to the battery for opening a gate. I am not certain that it is designed to be stand alone/direct power.
1597119
Any lithium ion battery, will not do well in below zero temps, the solar panel should work just fine, however i would suspect your battery and it's microchip would fall if out in that temperature for too long. although most of the unit is sealed very well the base of the unit has the battery compartment and the switch which are only weatherproof and I would not suspect to be very temperature proof.
1277352
Requires 24 volts to operate. With matching remote can replace doorbell switch in Mighty Mule installation guide. Must be in weatherproof box. Yes I think it will work.
1492319
I connected successfully this solar panel for electric motor gate opener aleko 900 using 2 12v batteries. I can only open two or three times after sunset
2203311
NO, it is a manual switch. If you have it on 2 or 10 amp, it will go down to a trickle charge. You only want to use the 50 amp, if the battery is completely dead and you need to jump it to start it. I love this charger, use it at my shop with no problems. Buying another
1407763
No. No and No. No solar panel is designed for direct load to a cooler. Designed to trickle charge a battery for maintance only. 1.25 amp at 12 volts max output under perfect conditions.
1461377
I would not want to rely on solar power to operate a gate opener. I would use a 12 volt battery as a backup and either a battery tender to maintain the battery or you could buy a solar battery maintainer from Amazon to maintain the battery. A good 12 volt lawn mower battery should be sufficient.