Whether you’ve stored your motorcycle or lawn mower all winter or put your snowmobile away for the summer, you’ll want to make sure that your joy ride will be ready when you are. The Sunforce 50013 Solar Powered 12V Sports Charger was created to keep batteries on motorcycles, ATV’s, lawnmowers, personal water craft, and snow mobiles charged and ready for use. Here are some of its many features:

• The charger delivers 1 Watt of power at 12 volts – enough to easily keep a battery maintained.
• The solar panel is small, about 20” by 6”, and weighs a little over 1.5 pounds.
• It has built-in protection against overcharging or draining the battery, so the battery can be hooked up for extended periods without damage.
• The SunForce 50013 comes with an 8’ battery cable, a 1’ set of battery clamps and a 1’ set of quick connect “O” ring connectors with an inline 1 Amp fuse.
• The charger comes with a 5 year limited warranty
• Finally, the panel is weather and water resistant and will charge a battery on both sunny and cloudy days.

As with all products, the Sunforce 50013 has both positives and negatives.

Pros:
• Easy to set up. Just face the panel towards the sun, and connect the cable to the battery. The battery doesn’t have to be removed or disconnected from the vehicle.
• Easy to maintain. Actually, there isn’t any maintenance except occasionally wiping the face of the panel with a smooth cloth to remove water and dust.
• Weather and waterproof, so it can be used practically anywhere at anytime.
• Low cost – the panel is cheap enough to have one per vehicle.

Cons:
• There’s no way to tell if the panel is operating correctly without hooking up a voltmeter to measure the charging voltage. An LED indicator would have been a nice feature.
• The 8′ battery cable cannot be extended without causing a voltage drop, which will prevent the panel from charging the battery.
• While this charger will have enough juice to top off a battery and does provide a sufficient “trickle” charge for battery maintenance, it may not be the best choice for charging a fully drained battery in a timely manner.

In conclusion, when used for maintaining batteries, the Sunforce 50013 packs a lot of punch for a small price.