SUNAPEX 12V 30W Solar Trickle Charger Maintainer with Controller for Car

In case you wanted to know what a 30w panel can recharge your battery at, here is how you can figure out what the amps are when charging. Let's say you bought 1 of these panels. You already know that it is rated for 30 watts, but how many amps? Take the 30w ÷ by the volts which is 12v (battery) and the answer is 2.5 amps. Most battery chargers/maintainers charge at. I bought 1 to try out on my SxS for a trip to Arizona. Unfortunately for me, this one was working so well recharging my marine battery backup (I have 2 of these batteries for my lights) I purchased another 1 and hooked it up to the other battery. Now both batteries are charging at the same time when I am running around in the desert (and at home) and at night (depending upon how many lights I have on, the SxS headlights are separate from the other lights) I will have between 4 to 8 hours of battery usage longer if I use only 1. Then during the day, they are recharging. They are completely waterproof which is good because I did buy 1 and it was water resistant (not the same thing, it did stop working won't mention the product). I found out because I wanted to know how water resistant it was, so I left it outside during some local rain storms we had before going on my trip and that's how I found out the difference between water resistant to waterproof. I did the same thing with these and I had no issues yet. While on my trip we had very good and hard downpours. However I did bring my battery chargers (just in case) to help out if I had problems with the panels. During this part we had a storm move in and it was a gully washer of a storm. The storm lasted 2 days and at times it was pretty dark during the day so charging was hampered. If you ask me would I get another 1, "YES" would be my answer even as a gift. I hope this helps you, I am always trying to find ways to just get another panel but the 2 I have are doing the job. No regrets. 06/19/2025- I expanded my ability to recharge each of my marine batteries on my SxS and the main battery that starts the engine. I bought a "Y" with the same connectors and I got a 12awg extension cord with the same connectors and hooked up the battery under the hood of the SxS and 1 of the marine batteries and it charged both batteries plus was able for the green light on the solar panel to confirm it. It took about 3 hours in full sun, longer of course if cloudy. I did the same hook up with the 2nd marine battery but I bought a 20' 12awg cord to plug into the main battery on the QUAD RUNNER. It took a little longer to charge but it did. So now basically my SxS is self charging and is capable to charge another machine (provided it is set up to except the connection). Hope this update has helped someone that hates to wait for charging. I will still do the overnight charges. 08/15/2025 Update: I have bought #3 panel for the QUAD Runner but I have not been able to hook it up due to work, but when I do I will update this as soon as possible. Update 08/28/2025: I know that someone out there reading this will make a comment about this but I was so intent on the recharge part using these panels that I didn't realize that something else was going to happen. I know that I should have figured this out but sometimes I do have BRAIN FARTS. I was riding around in the SxS and I noticed that the voltage meters were increasing. I didn't disconnect the solar panel from the SxS battery so since I was driving around, the SxS was now charging not only the battery under the hood but the marine battery it was connected to with the panel. So now I have not seen any issues with this and when the SxS is off, the panel takes over keeping the batteries up. I thought it would ruin the panel but so far it seems fine. I will do another update on this after I get back from my trip to Arizona in November. Thanks for reading this, I hope this helps you. Update 12/01/2025: This has been a great test with my SxS and the 2 solar panels. Believe it or not, I never had to put any of my chargers on my SxS in Arizona. When I was done driving the SxS I would park it so that it would get the most direct sunlight possible until it was needed. 9 times out of 10 I would have both panels in the green. The panels had 3 colored led lights on the back where the controller is and the Blue light meant it was getting the right amount of sunshine and was working. The second light was Red which indicated that it was in the charging stage and the last light was Green which means that the battery or batteries was fully charged. Not very often did I not have Green lights on both before usage. The 3rd panel I bought was for the QUAD RUNNER and I still don't know how to mount it so it can do what I have done to the SxS yet. I hope this helps you with whatever you want to do with your machines. Have fun with it, I'm having fun learning what I can do with them. Maybe 1 day I may move up to a higher wattage solar panel and have more options or opportunity on lighting.

They work great, I bought 3, they keep my boat and trailer batteries topped off.

Use this to maintain my truck batteries on my diesel as it sits long term between travel. I love this charger. Even sitting on the dash through the glass. I plug it into the lighter plug and it works excellent.

I think it's working well. The panel itself feels very well made. It keeps my car battery ready for crank, and the only reasons I gave it 4 starts instead of 5 are: 1, the price went from $47 to $60, which is steep 2, the label on the back has sun faded badly, which makes it impossible to tell what the color codes from the lights mean 3, the red wire on the cord faded super quickly, and apparently the insulation attracts squirrels, cause one chewed just the red wire, all the way down the length that was outside the vehicle. I'd buy it again if it were still under $50.

Works great with my golf cart charges the battery in a very short time easy installation.

Originally to get the immediate use from these (I ordered two), I simply attached the cigarette lighter connector to the panel and plugged it in. This worked perfectly. So recently I decided to use the direct battery connector so I could just unplug the panel when I didnt need it, but when I went to connect it, I noticed the red wire (positive) from the panel was connecting to the black wire side of the direct battery connector plug. This would result in battery current flowing backwards through the panel. I know this as I have a good sized solar setup on the house going to batteries. The lighter plug seems to be wired correctly as red connects to red. In all the other plugs for direct connection to the battery or the alligator clips to the battery, the connection would be red to black, which would be a bad thing. I could simply reverse the direct battery plug to connect the black to the battery positive and red to the battery negative, but people who dont know may find themselves dealing with a direct short, possibly burning up the panel or worse. I suppose most people would use the lighter plug connection, and that seems to be the only correct one, but I do wonder about the others. i did verify this with a multimeter as well, the panel is putting out 17 volts, and red is positive.

So I bought the 20 watt unit for my Yukon that sits mostly unused. I would go to start the car and sometimes it started sometimes the battery was dead and I would have to drag out a charger and extension cord. Eventually this killed the battery. So after getting a new battery I did not want to kill it and I did not want the hassle of a corded charger. The unit looks and feels well made and came with a variety of connection methods. My yukon cigarette lighter is always on so this made it a no brainer. I got the unit and hooked it up. My battery was at 12.4 volts after all day in the blazing socal sun my battery was at ......12.4 volts?!?!?!? I checked the no load voltage and it was 15.2 volts according to the label on the device it should have been 21v so no bueno. I returned it and opted for a refund rather than an exchange ,thank you Amazon, and ordered the 30 watt unit just to cover my bases as I was uncertain with how true the stated specs were. The 30 watt unit arrived and first thing I did was check no load voltage it was 20v hmmmm better than 15. After 1 day my battery was at 12.7 volts after the second day it was at 12.85 glad I went with the 30 watt . So I was going to order another but the price went from 46 to 69 dollars since I ordered on 8/3/25 gonna wait and see if it goes back down.

I have an IID breathalyzer in my car and it kills my battery within 2 or 3 days of not driving. They say it's low power usage but that's crap. Also stressing the battery is one way to blow threw a good one. Anyways, I tried a 7.5 Watt panel and it just wasn't enough still dead by day 3. Not playing around I baught this 30 Watt and it works perfectly. Left my car in a half simi shade spot for 3 days and the car started up no problems at all. It's on the dash at the moment, but I'm gonna run it for under my sun roof soon and do some tests to see if it's enough and will update my review here in a few weeks after testing. The reason being is that sun roofs have a factory tint that you cannot remove that reduces the power by a third. Still being who I am I want to test it and find out.

This solar panel is slow charging my truck battery and is able to keep it maintained. I am running 2 Garmin dash cams (front and rear) while the truck is parked. I leave these cameras running 24/7 for the security of my truck when parked outdoors. The cameras will save the video if there is any disturbance. The two cameras when standby and simply monitoring pull about 1/2 Amp from the battery. Over a number of days when the truck is parked the battery can start to run down because of the dash cams. This panel in full sun light is putting out about 2.4 Amps. On a bright cloudy day it is putting out anywhere from about 0.8 Amps to about 1.8 Amps depending on the density of the clouds. In most cases during the day this panel is maintaining the cameras to prevent the battery from being run down. When it is putting out more than about 1.5 Amps it is trickle charging the battery. The vehicle phantom current from its own electronics is about 0.06 Amps average. The user manual indicates after about 2 weeks of vehicle non use the battery may be run down. When parked for more than a few days the battery should have a charger connected to it. -- In most of the Japanese vehicles the 12 Volt cigar lighter socket turns off with the key. With most of the US vehicles the 12 Volt cigar lighter socket remains live. In some of the Japanese SUVs and trucks they offer both a switched 12 Volt cigar lighter socket, and one that is always on. In my truck I have an always on 12 Volt cigar lighter socket. Also, you can have your dealer wire in a fuse protected auxiliary 12 Volt socket for you. They can also wire in a pair of 12 Volt wires and you can custom connect them to the panel or operate any other type of 12 Volt devices. -- I would recommend this solar panel for battery maintenance. I found with the proper adapters it would be possible to put a number of these panels in parallel to have higher current. I have a friend with a large mobile trailer home and he wired up 20 panels in parallel to charge a bank of 12 Volt Lithium ION batteries. He is able to run his lighting, a computer, an RV fridge, and an HD TV with a sound system. All is using 12 Volts. His cooking and grilling is using propane.

Been using this for about a year now to keep my battery topped up in a RAM 1500. Truck mostly sits and doesn't get driven much so this is a great solution where you're parked too far away from a plug in trickle charger or don't want to run unsightly cables.

Good value for the money. Accessories cover all applications of possible use....

This thing is great! It charges my marine battery in a day to a couple days depending on how much charge it has.

Plus grand que je pensais, mais il entre bien dans un toit ouvrant standard (placé entre le verre et l'entre-toit interieur de mon VUS), vendeur très honnête ❤️ les accessoires et le panneau sont bien construit, facile a assembler et connecter 🙂 pas eu le temps de verifier l'efficacité, a suivre 😉