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

I purchased this charge controller to see if it would bring in more power than the one I was currently using which was the Tristar 45 PWM controller. There is a lot of mixed information out there about whether MPPT actually makes much difference or not. Some say that they increase power by as much as 30 percent and some say that this only rarely happens. Because of the mixed information, I put off buying an MPPT controller for a couple years. I have now had this controller through a summer, fall, and winter in Colorado. The Tristar PWM controller that I was using would typically peak at about 350 watts of power input and this would drop considerably during the winter months. After installing the Victron MPPT controller, the peak watts moved up to about 450 watts which is a 28% increase in power output. More importantly, during the colder winter months (its now January 2019), the Victron MPPT increased its peak power output even more with peak input watts of 500 or more getting to the battery. Sometimes I have seen it as high as 600 watts. The reason for this increase during winter is that as solar panels heat up their voltage drops. As they cool down the voltage goes up. So during winter, when the panels are cold the voltage goes up a lot and the Victron MPPT charge controller can turn that extra voltage into battery power where PWM controllers can not. As a result, with the Victron MPPT controller, my power in summer and winter are nearly identical. During summer the charge hours are longer but the input is lower. During winter the charge hours are short but the cold solar panels voltage is way up and put out more power than they do in summer. I highly recommend this charge controller to everyone but for people in colder climates this type of chage controller is a must have. My system is 6 Renogy 100 watt monocrystaline solar panels hooked at at 24 volts to the Victron charge controller which is hooked up to a 12 volt LifePo4 battery system.

The Software Is Awesome and Gives So Much Detail On My Tablet. The one problem is that my tablet is only about 15-20 feet away from the controller and it sill loses signal so often, even with the doors open and no major interference. Ive seen other reviewers mention the same issue.

Replaced a non working controller in a RV.

After using it, I am extremely impressed. If I can give 5+1 stars, this is the item that gets it because of the ease of use and mostly because of the results. With a typical good 12v PWM controller without tilting toward the sun, I get around 38w from a 100w solar panel (12v 3.1a). With this MPPT, I get an immedately 50% increase. YES 50% increase in solar power to 58w!!! (19v 3.1a). If the solar panel is tilted toward the sun, I get 75w (19v 3.9a) which is close to the best solar efficiency for my 100w solar panel. It kept all the voltage that the PWN controller would lose and maximized my wattage gain by a significant range. Even when under cloudy days, it still generates more wattage than a 12v PWM. I HIGHLY recommend anyone who is planning / upgrading their own solar panel system to get this or any one of their MPPT controller. The wattage gain is so significant that youll get your money worth much sooner that youll expect. This is excluding the potential ability to upgrade of your solar system in series and in parallel compare to a 12v PWM which can at most only be connected in parallel. In short, GET IT for your solar panel system.

So far working fine on my 480 watt 48 volt panel

I bought this for my first solar install-- 600 watts-- on a cargo trailer converted to an RV in spring of 2018. This unit was so painless and easy to configure and use that I purchased a second Victron as part of an identical twin solar setup Ive now installed in my home to power my computer stuff and TV. (Yes, this review was written on solar power.) Its ludicrously easy! My only quibbles-- not enough for me to take off a star-- center around the smartphone app. (In my case its the Apple version.) Its a good, well-organized app overall, but... First, if you have more than one controller in more than one location as I do, you have to close the app entirely between checking them or else the software seems to become confused and wont register the second controller. Also, I wish the smartphone could remember at least the last data it dowloaded, so that I could store the controller data from the trailers array and look at it later. As things are now I have to stand outside in the hot sun and study the arrays past performance, etc on the spot, as its only available while the bluetooth is actually connected. Update-- November 2018. Im still liking these very much, and have upped my home setup to 1200 watts at 24 volts nominal. The Victron controller is handling it fine.

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.

I have two of these connected to lead-acid deep-cycle batteries. One drives a remote bird-house camera and one powers a pump in a bird bath. They were easy to set up and the instructions are clear. They have enormous programmability. The phone app is great for checking on the battery performance, solar power level, load, etc. There are a couple of features I wish it had. One is more pre-programmed battery types. They offer a few basic battery types and a custom program of gazillions of charging parameters for experts. Im an electrical engineer and could get out the data sheet for my specific battery and program all the parameters, but what a hassle, and what if I make a mistake? It would be nice to have a few more standard lead-acid battery types in the menu. The unit has a streetlight function for turning on a light at night, but I want a general purpose timer that turns on the load in the day. That would be a small amount of software for Victron to add to the unit and the application. I want our birdbath to run only during the day. I could have used a smaller solar panel and smaller battery if this unit had a timer feature. This unit keeps a history of solar power generated and load power consumed that goes back at least a few weeks. I havent looked to see how far back it goes, but its interesting and useful to see how the panels are doing, or if the load is drawing unexpected power. It was also useful to see if my calculations were correct.

These chargers are so versatile, especially when paired up with a simple 30-ish Volt power supply. Yes, Its a solar charger, but what most folks dont realize is that when used with a power supply you can charge nearly any 12 or 24 volt battery at any current rate from 1-15A that the power supply will support. Ive been using Victron Solar chargers for about five years. Back then they had external Bluetooth dongles to communicate with them. I never cease to be amazed at how well engineered and supported they are. Firmware updates are automatic via your cellphone and the VictronConnect app. The only caveat that Ive found with the new ones with the internal Bluetooth module is that the signal range is more limited. Other than that there is a lot of functionality built into one unit without the headache of extra parts. Put some SAE or PowerPole pigtails on the unit and make up a few adapters and youre ready to connect to nearly any kind of automotive, power equipment, or RV battery. The built-in data logging is a big plus in trying to diagnose charging system problems or determining the state-of-charge. You can also pair these up to increase your charging rate.

This is a good solar charge controller, once you setup the battery parameters correctly it works really good, it is efficient. What may makes it difficult for some people is the fact that you need the specs from your battery manufacturer to know the battery charge voltages to setup absorption, float, and equalization (only for Flooded or if your battery manufacturer requires that) You need a special usb cable if you plan to use the app in a laptop running windows, unfortunately the bluetooth connection doesnt work for that they say on the Victron forums that they are working on it. The bluetooth app is good, I allow me more distance for monitoring my batteries with more independence, instead of looking to the tiny LCD screen of my old and trusty PWM SCC. UPDATE: this controller have the tendency to consume the battery no matter the chemistry you have. Same thing happens with SLA or LiFePO4 you have the battery all the way to the top and then the controller takes from 12 to 20 amps per day. I have disabled the load, it is permanently off but if you use a voltmeter it shows that you have 0.6 volts on that and 0.1 volts if I disconnect the solar panels. I suppose it is a design defect, but who knows. I will be moving on to a different product this time because at the rate it discharge a battery you are wasting precious solar energy and there are cloudy days that wont allow the battery to be fully charged.