Battery Tender 021-0123 Battery Tender Junior 12V, 0.75A Battery Charger

Why we love it?

Spark proof during lead connection, reverse polarity protected and includes a 12-foot output cord and 5-year warranty Automatic charge cycle functionality switches to float mode after fully charging the battery

Some comments about this we saw on the web:

* /u/Ruleryak on /r/BurningMan It’s not going to be the most efficient setup, but it can work. Basically, the biggest loss will be charging the batteries. Think of it like this - the generator is a gas engine spinning a motor that generates dc power. That power is converted to house current (ac) in order to let you plug in to the generator. A battery charger then converts that back to dc and charges the battery - so a portion of the power is lost in both conversions. If the goal is just charging batteries, a motor and an alternator generally cover that purpose better than a full generator.

All that said - your 800w genny, plus a trickle charger, plus a battery, plus an inverter will work out for your as well. The trickle charger works with whatever power the generator has available to charge the battery, and when you’re using the power at night from the battery you’ll need an inverter to run lights/gear off of the battery.

You’ll probably want to charge the bikes directly from the generator too. If they use a 12v battery then you can charge it with the same setup. Charging one battery at a time, and needing several hours to charge each means you’ll need to run the generator quite a bit during the day. Bring extra oil, make sure you know how much gas it consumes while running, and be safe with it. Make sure oil/gas don’t get on the playa!

I would highly recommend getting something with higher wattage. 800 running is very low. I’d also recommend getting 12v lighting/gear so that an inverter is not necessary. Running 12v lights directly from the battery at night will be much more efficient than using an inverter, because you eliminate the conversion process. The inverter is the most likely piece to malfunction out there due to heat or dust so not needing one at all definitely is preferable.

See on reddit