Ol' Reg
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2025
Works great and the price is right.My old charge controller on my travel trailer (self installed solar cell and controller) had only a tiny light to show charging or fault.Installed a LiTime 100A lithium battery and needed a controller that will charge it to 100%.This did the trick and easily shows all the info I can use.
T B.
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2025
Replaced defective controller with this one. It works. Charges battery and has readable users manual.
Jesus
Reviewed in Mexico on March 2, 2025
Hace todo lo que promete
Wormwood
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2025
Works great, very good controller, easy to use.
joe
Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2025
works great, easy to install
matt
Reviewed in Canada on January 29, 2025
very reliable controller. i have been using this for a couple of years, and it works great.
servish
Reviewed in Canada on September 9, 2024
Works correctly.
Linda D.
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2024
I looked at the other generic controllers and actually have one of the blue ones. The Renogy is well built. It comes with a nice instruction manual that is easy to understand. I'm using this to charge 2 7Ah LiFePo4 12 volt batteries from a 35 watt solar panes for a 12 volt light strip inside my cargo trailer. It seems to work just fine.
Online Shopper TP ++
Reviewed in Canada on August 29, 2023
It seems like a good quality 10A PWM charge controller. I have it installed in my travel trailer with 2 100W solar panels on the roof.The LCD display shows the Solar panel voltage / Input Current in Amps / Battery voltage / Draw in Amps from the battery to output/USB ports.The USB (2A@5V) charge ports are controlled via the out-put terminals setting which can be switched on or off. It defaults to OFF if disconnected from the battery, it needs to be switched ON to use the USB ports.The LIFEPO4 battery charge voltage setting is adjustable. Charging stops at that voltage.I also have a Renogy MPPT charge controller in my shop which is even better, but larger, and more than twice the price.
Johnathan
Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2023
Function: I used this to charge a large 12v battery (900CCA), with a 50w panel. It took awhile to charge it to full from 8v. Cloudy days, inconsistent sun, etc. Separately, I used it to charge a 10AH 12v battery and it worked well.Durability: It seems fairly durable, as it's been dropped a few times, and it's gotten wet from rain.I would not recommend using 10 (awg) gauge wire, as it struggles to stay connected. I'm using 14 awg to the battery and it's fine. 12 would probably be fine.This was my first iintroduction to solar. Next time, I'll buy a higher wattage panel and charge controller. Overall, it works well.My only complaint is it continously cycles through the display settings. I would've liked to leave it on one display only. But, low cost, ease of use, and durability takes the win more 5 stars.
remote camper
Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2022
4 stars explainedPros-charging algorithm voltage values are correct as measured with DVM (only flooded, agm and LiFePo4 tested)-LiFePO4 charge voltages can be set by user from 14.2 default to most common values depending on battery manufacturer spec. I use 14.6 volts (new). 2018 version default was 14.4 volts-Completely sealed against elements-When equipped with Temp sensor, will include battery temp on the display rotation (new). Previous version required manually toggling the display-shows input Panel voltage (new).Cons-Battery voltage readings can be inaccurate for all battery types and worsen with temp sensor attached (but solar panel voltage readings OK).-Exchange to get a controller that read accurately resulted in an improvement, but attaching temp sensor again introduced .2v to .4v error.-Battery type selected does not display by default (previous versions did, i.e. Gel, Wet, LiFePo4, AGM) Have to push buttons on new version to go into Select Batt Type menu.-Battery type selection button often unresponsive.-Selecting LiFePo4 charge voltage values sometimes not responsive; if desired value is passed up in scrolling, could not scroll back; had to scroll through full range and couldn't get a response for each push of the button.-Panel and battery connection LEDs no longer present. Loss of an EZ visual status observation, possibly an energy saver. Must wait for status to scroll automatically or must scroll manually through display to see status.--Auto scroll interval too long to see 5 parameters. Two secs per parameter should do it.-Hard reset process discussed with Renogy to clear possible errors not described in manual and might or might not work. (later determined attaching temp sensor caused the incorrect readings)In a nutshell, some of the improvements in this version are welcome and some of the old features are missed. But that isn't the problem.This newer version had inexplicable battery voltage reading errors not present in in 2018 versions I own. Amazon and Renogy were great in trying to get a working replacement, but in the end, decided to abandon that effort in favor of a refund for now.LiFePo4 does not use temp compensated charging as lead acid batteries do. So, when the LiFePO4 battery voltage read spot on, backtracked to see what was different. The difference turned out to be the temperature sensor. I used the sensor for flooded and AGM, but disconnected it for LiFePo4. Attaching it caused a substantial voltage reading error for all battery types that made it impossible to accurately determine battery state of charge. Charge algorithms didn't seem to be affected when measured with an external DVM. Neither of the 2018 versions I own are affected by attaching the temp sensor.One other thing to remember about LiFePo4 batteries is they do not like to "float" at much above 13.6 volts after reaching full charge. This isn't much of a concern in solar charging because charging ceases in the absence of solar energy. Thus there is no real need to have a voltage limited float stage setting after the battery is fully charged and balanced.This is the very first time I've given 4 stars to an item I've been dissatisfied with, but this controller, even with the battery voltage reading issue still offers useful functionality once set up. Use an external monitor if you want accurate voltage readings to monitor state of charge when using with the temperature sensor. Otherwise, I especially like the user defined charging voltages for LiFePO4 as values can vary among LiFePO4 manufacturers. It's important to use the right setting.The temperature sensor addition should only cause the controller to do its job of reducing charging voltages above 77 deg F and increasing charging voltages below 77 deg F where temp compensated charging is necessary. It should NOT affect the accuracy of reading battery voltage. An otherwise 5 star controller gets a "pushed" 4 stars. It does all things well except show acceptable values for temperature compensated flooded and AGM battery voltage. Both the original and the replacement returned to Amazon citing the Renogy case number. If the accuracy of the resting voltage is of utmost importance, then 3 stars.
Nathan L
Reviewed in Australia on June 29, 2021
No complaints at all so far. Plugged a 160W Kings Folding panel into it, and in late afternoon, Winter sun on the east coast of Australia, angled towards the sun the best I could, I was pulling 7.85A out of this controller which is more than enough to keep my fridge running indefinitely off my lithium battery. Don't let people tell you that an MPPT is superior, because for small panels, there's very little difference in my experience. Excellent controller that I bought as a backup in case my CTEK blows an internal fuse (again) and is totally useless. Build quality is good, hard plastic with an aluminium base plate. The grub screws hold 8AWG cable very well and it won't pull out on their own easily. The LED indicators are very bright and easy to see in sunlight too.
zuma
Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2020
This controller did not even last one month. I started to get E01 and E08 error codes after 2 weeks usage on my lead acid batteries. Sometimes I would get an error code as soon as I hooked it up, and sometimes it would give me the error code after a few hours. I get these errors on three different battery banks that I have on my RV. I have installed this on my original solar suitcase (not my Eclipse model), replacing my 5 year old Viewstar controller.I called Renogy and they told me to check the battery voltage and voltage at the controller terminals. I did previously and both were at 12.4 volts, which should be fine. So I guess this controller just does not work for me and I have to purchase another now, and reinstall it to my suitcase. Of course I will use a different model.I actually again checked the voltage after the Renogy tech person seem to really question the voltage at the controller. I disconnected my Battery Tender, and the battery read 13.03 volts after settling down a few minutes, and it registered 12.94 at the controller terminals. So I am pretty sure my connection and wires are ok. By the way, now I am getting more error codes today, EO and EO2, the controller is going crazy with error codes, then it connects and seems to work after a while. Seems to connect and disconnect at random.On a side note, the manual is somewhat vague, on page 14 it says to set the ‘charge voltage’ for a lithium battery (LiFepo4), but makes no mention of what voltage to set it at. There are about 21 different choices with no direction on what they mean or what to use. It goes from 12 volts up to 16 volts in .2 amounts of progression. On page 21, it talks about ‘Boost Voltage’, I have never heard of this, I know the 4 stages of charging a lead acid battery, but what is boost voltage? I guess I need to read up on this.I have had many questions on my reviews for other Renogy products, and I have recently purchased several items; the 100aH LiFePO4 battery, a DC to DC charger (wait till I review the manual on this thing!), several PWM controllers, and several other smaller items. I am also trying to update my current review of the Eclipse suitcase with a major edit concerning the ‘plastic blocks’ that connect the legs to the frame but been have a little technical difficulty with the website.I decided to install another solar controller due to all the problems with this one. I installed the Renogy Voyager 20A Waterproof Solar Controller, and so far it works perfect, no error codes. It also has a better manual and it at least tell me that the ‘charging voltage’ for lithium batteries is set at a default amount of 14.2 volts.Bummer, my first negative review of a Renogy product, but it just did not work well.