Victron Energy SmartSolar MPPT 100V 30 amp 12/24-Volt Solar Charge Controller (Bluetooth)

I own many Victron charge controllers. I like these the best because: 1) They actually work with most battery banks -- 12/24/36/48, Yes 36v works. 2) Unlike the bigger more expensive units, the fuse is external and replaceable 3) You can buy 6 of these for the price of a 250/100 controller 4) If you have one big charge controller and it fails. Your whole system is dead. There is strength in numbers. Unless you NEED big high voltage strings, these are a better option in my humble opinion.

The SmartSolar MPPT 100/50 Charge Controller Bluetooth worked initially, but it suddenly will not work. My other Victron Bluetooth products have worked for a long time, several years. This did not. It was a good charge controller for a few months, but now I have no control over it. I went through all the troubleshooting guides, and performed everything they suggested, but still will not work. I am considering either getting the optional display or the Bluetooth Dongle, but it is not necessary for Smart Solar products, and if the cost for the two are 25% what a new solar MPPT charge controller from a competitor costs, I will probably just change it out for a different brand. Too bad - all my other Victron products in the system work well. The Bluetooth on other components work fine. Since I cannot connect to Blue tooth, I cannot even update the firmware to see if that works. There is really no real tech support that I can find.

Used to replace a pwm controller on my 100w portable system. HUGE improvement on efficiency for my rv charging.

This solar charge controller comes with Bluetooth and is a bit higher in price than the competition, but for good reason. Victron makes high quality products and backs them up with a 5-year warranty and support. You can adjust the amount of power it delivers to your batteries too. I have 800w of panels in a somewhat low light area and Im able to bring in a solid 430w of power at the 15A charge setting (max for this controller) even in low light. Just dont go over the Voltage rating. 100V is a HARD limit, meaning if you surpass it, it will damage the controller. Ill need to upgrade it soon so I can get all the available power from my panels. I also love the integration between the different products and the open source nature of the company. The fact I can use a Raspberry Pi to run Victrons Venus OS and any good quality USB to TTY serial adapter to connect it all is a HUGE win for Victron. The phone app is also well designed and they even offer free logging of your data to their VRM web portal. Ill be coming back to Victron for more stuff in the near future.

Worked for a few days and I disconnected it to try a different solar panel and now VictronConnect can’t find my 100/30 at all. Tried all the suggestions on Victron’s site but still no luck. I’m going to try the Bluetooth dongle. If that doesn’t work then I give up and buy another brand. Update: The Bluetooth dongle worked. The 100/30 can now be seen as a devise in VictronConnect. I am upgrading my stars, but because of the extra cost for the dongle, I’m only adding two. I needed the Bluetooth to work in order to configure the charge controller correctly for lithium batteries. Update: An amazing thing has happened. After the 100/30 Bluetooth quit working, I contacted Victron and asked how to apply for warranty service. I was told to go thru Amazon, where I purchased it. Not really expecting much, I was very happy to receive a totally new 100/30 yesterday, 9/16/20. I have now installed it and it works perfectly. This changes everything! I’ve never had such excellent warranty response. Thanks very much. This earns full stars as well.

Experimented with a few other charge controllers for our off grid RV. I think I am finally happy with this Victron 100/50 charge controller. My 400ah lifepo4 batteries were charged from 54% to 100% by noon on a sunny blue Arizona sky. My previous charge controllers usually got the batteries to 100% by 2-3 PM if I was lucky. Love the app!! I was able to enter my specific batteries parameters that were recommended by Powequeens manual. Also able to see the history of what my panels and charge controller did for the day/week/month/year. Im Happy!

Update (2/12/23): Current inventory of VE products: (2) 100V/50A, (2) 100V/30A, (1) 100V/20A, (1) SmartShunt IP67 (newer), (1) SmartShunt (older), (1) BatterySense. Best feature is the VE.Smart networking feature, which allows the components to work together to optimize charging of the battery bank. Update (8/2/22): Ordered a 2nd unit. Working great! iPhone app has many great features. Summary: I have evaluated quite a few MPPT controllers for Vine, and while all were decent, the Victron Energy (VE) has high ratings, so I decided to purchase one for evaluation. My solar/PV system specs: 1000W of panels; 24-volt, 270Ah marine battery bank (Optima); Voltworks 2000W inverter. Using the system to reduce our electricity bill. This review is for the 100V/50A, which is the 2nd VE controller Ive purchased. Observations: The first thing to notice is that this one, unlike most others, does not have a control panel (just three LEDs); which means youll need a smart device to read the values. There are two basic VE offerings: this SmartSolar (built-in bluetooth), and BlueSolar (requires a BT dongle). Between the two, I went with the built-in BT (SmartSolar). One great feature of the VE system, is that it allows the MPPTs to communicate with each other via BT; which is a great feature for a larger system. Recommendations: One reason to choose the lower cost BlueSolar over the SmartSolar, is if you do not need the additional features that the BT brings; but for me, I didnt mind spending the extra $30-40 (per controller) to gain those features. Pros: Industrial quality & features; good application support (firmware updated upon first connect); security (bluetooth); good/efficient charging algorithm; good data and graphs. Cons: No built-in display (offset by the much better app and graphs). Conclusion: At $225, rating this 5-stars. Of all the MPPT controllers I have reviewed, Victron is the recommended brand. Related Products (lised in ORDER of HIGH to LOW rating): VICTRON ENERGY MPPT 100V 20 amp 12-24-Volt (Bluetooth) ~ $160 (5-star) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075NPQHQK EPEVER MPPT Solar Charge Controller 10A 60V PV 1206N ~ $60 (5-star) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B094JCG6Y1 ACOPOWER Midas 40A MPPT ~ $180 (4-star) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08HQB8RYK ACOPOWER MPPT Solar Charge Controller 30A ~ $140 (4-star) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NB1KOOZ Renogy Rover 20/30/40 Amp ~ $112/170/168 (2-star) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MRWTAB5

This is my 3rd Victron unit, but my first with the LOAD terminals. I am thrilled with it. Very pleased. Easy installation. The only thing I noticed is that I couldnt find in the software where to select a battery type (I remember having done this with my previous units, but it is the same software.) However, it does have the ability to fully configure whatever battery settings you would like.

12V Solar Generator project up and running with this Victron 100/30 MPPT Solar Charge Controller. This item was a little pricey but you get what you pay for. Good investment for my project. Range on bluetooth is limited but app works great when in range.

Liked this controller from the moment I took it out of the box. Has a good solid feel and looks like its quality built. Installed it near my battery bank and close to my BMV 712 battery monitor. Once hooked up firmware updates took over but once finished I was surprised at how well the controller and monitor shared information. If battery monitor has temp sensor battery charge rate is temp compensated using the shared data I am using a 160 wat portable unit so I had to maximize power harvest as much as possible. Cut the supplied, cheap, PWM controller out of the circuit then wired panels in series. Feeding over 43 volts into this controller and am charging with 90% of the panel capacity with just morning sun that hasnt reached optimum height/angle. Well worth the price and the BT connectivity is priceless. A perfect mate to a BMV 712 battery monitor. I bought the 15 amp model even though the max output of my panels in series is less than 4 amps. For the slight difference in price over the 10 amp model I now have room for a larger PV array if I ever choose to upgrade.