The 8 best solar battery chargers for your car, phone, boat, RV, and more!
Using a solar battery charger is an easy way to keep your vehicle’s battery, your phone, or even laptop juiced up and ready to go. The beauty of a solar battery charger is the simplicity and ease of use just about anywhere with sun. A solar battery charger will include a solar panel, as well as wires to connect the solar panel to your battery or device. Some kits can also include a few additional tech items like charge controllers and blocking diodes (more on those later).
In most cases just put the solar panel in the sun and connect your battery. It’s that easy.
Before we move on, here’s an important distinction. Solar chargers for 12 volt applications like cars, RVs, and boats are designed to only maintain your battery’s charge when not in use. These small solar chargers aren’t big enough to fully charge dead batteries, so instead they just trickle charge the battery, ensuring they’re always ready for your next adventure.
Solar chargers for smartphones and tablets, however, produce the 5 volts your iPhone actually needs to recharge after a complete discharge.
Needless to say, solar chargers for vehicles and smartphones are quite different, and are NOT interchangeable. However, we include them all here, as most of us collectively refer to all of it as solar battery chargers.
We searched and searched for the best solar chargers available this year and focused in on eight products in eight different categories, laid out below. All the solar chargers we’ve included are cost-competitive, durable, and backed up with great customer service.
Of course, some are more expensive than others, but if they are, we’ve laid out exactly why you’d want to spend that extra cash. After taking a look at these sweet products, we think you’ll agree!