Solar battery charger, good batteries and LED lanterns
 

Can anyone recommend a top-quality solar battery charger for AAA, AA, C and D cells?

I could also use suggestions for:

-- A good (inexpensive) source for rechargeable long-life batteries in bulk that aren't NiCd's. Probably NiMH, I guess.

-- An LED lantern: reliable and durable, with high light output. I just ordered several Fenix flashlights; something complementary to those would be great.

Re: Solar battery charger, good batteries and LED lanterns
 

http://www.ccrane.com/images/medium/...ry-charger.jpg

http://www.ccrane.com/more-categorie...y-charger.aspx

Re: Solar battery charger, good batteries and LED lanterns
 

Ace, I bought quite a few Tenergy AA and AAA NiMH batteries, and I was unhappily surprised to discover that their shelf life after being fully charged was little more than 10 days. After two weeks of sitting unused, I would be lucky to to be able to take a picture or two. I now routinely remove the batteries from my camera each weekend and recharge them so there will be enough power to take a normal set of photos. One of the earlier threads talked about a brand of NiMH batteries that have much longer shelf lives, but I don't remember what it was. Hopefully someone will post that brand name again. I want to try some batteries that will hold their charge for more than a week! :banghead:

Edit: I searched FeeBay, and found that the batteries I read about are the Sanyo Eneloop. They are supposed to hold 85% of their charge while sitting on the shelf for a year. They may be more expensive, but I will buy those or the equivalent when I discard these Tenergy things.

Re: Solar battery charger, good batteries and LED lanterns
 

Try a solar car battery charger and 8 cell series arrangement of ni-cads to charge.

Stick it on your window.

http://www.roperld.com/science/prius...larCharger.jpg

Re: Solar battery charger, good batteries and LED lanterns
 

DONT cheap out on the batts.My adapters came with offbrand cheapies,one got EXTREMELY hot and burned up my charger,cant imagine what might have happened if I hadnt caught it.I now only charge when I am here to monitor them.

The energizer 2500 ma NiMH batts are very good IMO,I have some 3 years old I use in my camera and they last a long time per charge.

I use these adapters with AA batts to make a C or D cell.But search web for a good price as they can be ridiculously priced.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...spuds/b3-3.jpg


This is what I predominately charge with. I have a Brunton solar but it truly takes a long time to charge em.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...o/spuds/e1.jpg

Just use a name brand battery and you will be fine,some other folks Im sure will give you more good battery experiences to choose brands from.Get 2500 or better MA (milliamp) on the AA's.

Re: Solar battery charger, good batteries and LED lanterns
 

Yes,that VW charger above me is nice!

Speaking of shelf life I charge my camera batts about monthly.The energizers hold a pretty good charge on shelf.

Im completely sold on NiMh.

BTW,charger draws 0.07 amps and 3-4 watts charging 4 AA.

Re: Solar battery charger, good batteries and LED lanterns
 

The price on the C-crane is tough to beat also.

Thomas distributing usually stays up to date on the latest technology, but I dont' see a C or D cell solar charger.


Here is a link to their low discharge batteries. eneloop and similar 4X batteries have up to a 1 yr shelf life.
There is new and better technology coming out all the time.
http://thomasdistributing.com/shop/b...97sogjflf9jit3

Re: Solar battery charger, good batteries and LED lanterns
 

I went with the C-Crane charger, Fenix flashlights and Eneloop batteries. So far, so good.

I'm having trouble finding a quality LED lantern, though. Most don't even bother to publish light output stats, so it's hard to know what you're buying.

Any suggestions?

Re: Solar battery charger, good batteries and LED lanterns
 

I tend to go to allbattery.com for my batts...
The Eneloop I can vouch for- look up "hybrid batteries". I have no need to unnecessarily cycle my camera batteries. The 'loops are in AA and AAA. Never seen em in any other flavor. Also, be careful about C and D sizes. Looks like many suppliers simply jam an AA in an adaptor. For charging I use a plain jane 110 charger, leaving 4 AA's in my solar until needed. The solar will charge them, it just takes a while.

Re: Solar battery charger, good batteries and LED lanterns
 

I suggest that you stay away from the Energizer Hard Case series. The smaller pocket lights are great but the lantern leaves much to be desired. It hasn't eaten batteries yet so I cannot speak to power consumption but I do know the output is just "weird". I mean, it will light up a dark area quite nicely until you try to actually look for something or direct the light into or through something.

Perfect example, recently my basement lightly flooded due to some torrential downpours. I have a sump in the floor that I installed last winter and wanted to know A) if it was utilized and B) if it did its job. I used this light to try and peer into the sump hole and I could not see the bottom which was only 30" down. I was shining the light through a hole about the size of a quarter. I gave up and grabbed my incandescent mag-light and it easily illuminated the entire floor of the basin through the same hole.

Turns out no water had entered the sump (which is sunk so water should flow in). All the water had entered at the edge of the door and worked its way around the walls. More water would have been enough to get to the sump, I have a door to re-curb.

Re: Solar battery charger, good batteries and LED lanterns
 

I recommend head lamps for most uses. The general lighting lantern may be needed for something like general room candlelight, but for tasks, led headlamps are great.