NOCO Genius G3500 Charger & Maintainer

I purchased this to complete a simpler on-shore charging system for my boat, the kit will work for any situation where you need to periodically charge or maintain 12volt batteries. The Noco charger works great and has enough power to top off my batteries over night after a day at the lake. I also used it to keep my batteries fresh over the winter and that also was not a problem. Operation is nearly brainless, connect it and power it up. The intelligent circuit does the rest, determining what battery and the battery condition. Included in the kit are both alligator clips and ring terminals. What was not included was an SAE adapter. While the Noco connector is an excellent design, it is not the standard SAE connector and a separate adapter must be purchased to use it with standard equipment such as standard ring terminals. As you'll read below, I needed to be able to swap between the Noco and a solar charger, so I needed a standard connection. The charging solution I am using this with includes two different charging sources, a Suaoki 60Watt solar and a Noco Genius G3500 Smart Charger. Both are great and provide a similar amount of power to the batteries. The solar charger does not work so well at night though, and the wall charger does not work when out camping on the boat. Suaoki 60Watt Solar http://amzn.to/2w1ylpK Noco Genius G3500 http://amzn.to/2gan697 Using the Suaoki solar charger requires the using of a solar charge controller for safety. The Suaoki can be directly connected to the battery, but then the voltage must be monitored as it can overcharge your batteries and lead to premature failure or worse. I am using the Instapark PWM charge controller for this task and it is a perfect match to the system. http://amzn.to/2xg7pAW The NOCO Genius uses properietary connectors and while it comes with a few different options, none of them made it compatible with my requirements. I ordered the NOCO to SAE adapter and now it connects to a standard SAE plug and works well, interchangably with the Solar charger. http://amzn.to/2wrOxl0 In order to add flexibility in placing the solar panel or connecting the NOCO charger, I added an SAE extension. Essentially this is a 12V extension cord. Any SAE to SAE cable will work provided it has sufficient gauge(AWG). For a 15ft length this should be at least 12AWG with 10AWG or even 8AWG being better. For a 5ft length 16AWG or 14AWG will be acceptable, of course 12,10 or 8 still better. Anything smaller less than those maxiums will degrade the charging capacity as it will cause an significant voltage drop. Here are a couple alternatives that look good. Kuncan 12ft SAE to SAE http://amzn.to/2iuIzdu Tetra-Teknica MotoBasic 10AWG 3 Feet, 2 per Pack http://amzn.to/2g7VT6S I used two ring terminal to SAE adapters, one for each battery, as the aligator clamps were problematic and not particularly reliable. The aligator clamps meant that I had to climb into the compartment where the batteries are stored in the boat and almost always insured a good bump on the head. Sometimes I would come back the next morning to find one had fallen off. Using ring terminals insures a secure connection to the battery and allows me to quickly connect/disconnect without bumping my head. I used the Tetra-Teknica MotoBasics 16 gauge 2 feet 10A fused 2 pack for my solution. http://amzn.to/2w89HlT In order to charge the two batteries in parallel, I needed to add an SAE Y adapter. The OptiMate Y-splitter worked nicely. I disconnect it when not charging as I do not want power accidentally pulled accross this connection if the boat is using a single battery. I am looking for a solution, a diode that will allow me to keep this connected permanently without that risk. http://amzn.to/2w1wjG0 The system is working well and keeping my batteries topped off between outings without a problem.