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

This is a good little MPPT Controller, Bluetooth, efficient and does what its supposed to do . It also has a Load Output to prevent from draining your battery flat. My only gripe is the specs say the terminals can accept 10AWG or 6mm2. While a bare, stranded 10AWG wire will fit, if you use Ferrules, it will not fit in the terminal. The largest wire this controller will take with a Ferrule installed is about 12AWG. I use Ferrules on ALL connections that use a clamp down terminal. I never allow bare strand wire to be clamped down by the terminal. If you do this, it will smash the wire, spreading it apart, and not allow for a secure connection. Yes, it will work but, with the amount of vibration in a Boat or RV, the use of Ferrules will make for a more secure connection. I returned the 100-15 and purchased a 100-30 Smart Solar MPPT. The 100-30 is the smallest Controller that will accept 6AWG Ferrules. I use 4AWG wire and crimp on 6AWG Ferrules. Works perfect and when cut apart to inspect, the copper is so tight, its almost welded together from the amount of force the ferrules crimp down. FYI, the wire and crimp tools I use are from TemCo. While this controller doesnt need anything bigger than 12AWG wire, I always oversize my conductors for low loss and room for expansion (Future Proofed). Hope this helps someone make the proper choice for their application.

I really like Victron Energy SmartSolar MPPT 100V 30 amp 12/24-Volt Solar Charge Controller (Bluetooth). It really is doing everything for me. AAAAA+++++

I have this on a small pico hydro unit and it works well. the app is nice, its easy to use. 4 stars, not 5 because the bluetooth connection, while good, limits the usefulness of the app, would be better on wifi, and because its somewhat limiting in what you can do with it, and limited configuration without buying a bunch of other victron equipment, but if all you need is a plug and play small controller, this one is nice, its super small, looks good, and works well.

Simple to install, easy to program, and awesome to keep tabs on your power in/out!

Ive had Epever and Renogy controllers which were both difficult to read and configure for Lithium battery. Once I resigned myself to bluetooth - I loved it! The software offers a lot of programmable options which is important for LifeP04 battery (check out Battle Born batteries for info on how to configure). The bad: Victron says to use 10AWG wires. Good luck. It took a half hour to install two cables. You install. You damage the wires. You cut. You reinstall and on and on...By the time I got both in, the terminal box was trashed and the screws (pleeeeease, my daughters Barbies jeep has sturdier screws..and theyre plastic) the screws have a very shallow indentation for a flathead screw driver. After multiple attempts of tightening, one of them was stripped. Ive ordered a 100/30 in the hopes of actually being able to use 10AWG. (Victron says that model accommodates 6AWG but reviewers disagree......) Disappointed but hopeful. If you are going to use this, go with 12AWG.

I had a Victron 75/15 MPPT controller that worked well but failed after 3 years. I replaced it with this, and I get more out of my 300 watt panel than I ever have before. It also has pre-sets for LiFePO4 batteries that I migrated to from AGMs in my Sprinter van. Works perfectly.

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.

Seems to work fine. I have the SmartSense battery monitor which this uses to get accurate battery voltage and that is really helpful since I have a ~20 wire run from my solar controller to my battery. But having now owned 4 different charge controllers in the last 7-8 years, I dont think Victron is worth the extra $. Heres why: First, you get zero support. Thats right, Victron will only provide support to certified resellers, so if you have a problem and you bought from Amazon guess what? Youre SOL. In my case I believe theres a bug in their charging algorithm, but I literally cannot talk to anyone at Victron directly. (That said their community support is great, but its not the same as actual technical support). Second, some of their really useful features (like being able to monitor charge voltage over time and graph it) only work if you disable screen lock and leave your bluetooth device (phone, typically) connected and running the app. Dont change apps because your graphs will reset. Why cant this run in the background? The unit does have daily stats but that doesnt help me when Im trying to understand why charging isnt cutting out as expected. My personal issue is that I have a LiFePO4 setup (which this device does support), but I want to cut off charging on my setup when the battery hits about 90%. The Victron has several settings to shorten the absorption times, all of which seem to work when I drain the battery and need to recharge it. However if the battery doesnt get drained one day and starts off full, the unit still goes into bulk mode for several hours and ends up topping off the battery. I assume this is a charging algorithm-related problem, but its disappointing behavior and defeats the reason I purchased the device.

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.

I really expected to like the Victron Smart Solar. I already own the 100/15 Blue Solar plus bluetooth dongle, and have good results with it. However, after struggling with the Smart Solar I was disappointed and returned it. In my view its a step backward from Blue Solar. If youre thinking of buying the 75/15 Smart Solar, you may want to reconsider and get the 75/15 Blue Solar and buy the external bluetooth dongle. There is really no benefit to the Smart Solar over the Blue Solar + BT dongle. You might save $10-$20, but you end up with an inferior product in many other respects. First, the integrated bluetooth range is much less than the BT dongle. Were talking 5 feet vs. 20 to 30. This also gets to the heart of my main gripe: Victrons choice of Bluetooth transceiver. Theyre using newer BLuetooth Low Energy technology (BLE) vs older but more widely supported BT 4.0, as used in the external dongle. In my view it wasnt a good move. BLE, is not supported by the majority of BT enabled devices. If you want to use iOS or Android, be aware that even if they have BT, they will likely NOT work with the Smart Solar bluetooth! Obviously this isnt a good selling point and Victron sales literature doesnt warn customers about this ahead of time. Youll end up downloading their app and get frustrated trying to connect to the controller, and eventually learn that your 1 year old device wont work with it. Nearly every device in the world with BT will work with BT 4.0, but Victron went with the BT low energy and gave up compatibility with the majority of the worlds devices. Was that a smart decision? Well they saved a few cents per controller, and I suppose low energy in theory saves some power. But, the charge controller is NOT lacking for power. Its either getting power from a PV array or a presumably large battery, not a tiny batteries where BLE might be useful. I would much rather have 20-30 foot range and use a few more micro watts of power than need to stand 5 feet from the controller. And youll find with Android, that BLE *requires* that you enable location/GPS for the Victron Connect app to work! No kidding. Victron says they dont care about your location, and probably dont. But youll need to accept that and enable location services to use their app with Smart Solar. With Blue Solar and the external dongle its not necessary. This is forced on everyone by Google/Android not Victron, but again, the choice of using BLE was Victrons. Finally, IMO the 100/15 is better constructed than the 75/15, albeit at a higher price. The 100/15 has an external heat sink and the 75/15 does not. That could be a benefit in a hot environment like the desert. You may want to take a look at it. The next step up is 100/20 which also has an external heat sink like the 100/15. All of these have separate load terminals which is really useful because the controllers have a configurable low voltage disconnect (via the app) and can also track how much power the load is actually using. When you get over 20 amps, for example 100/30 amp controllers and up, they do not have separate load terminals. Update: I measured the current draw of a Blue Solar 100/15 and Smart Solar 100/20. Connected to battery at 12.8v. No PV or load connected, and not connected to app via BT. Blue Solar 100/15: 24 mA. With BT dongle 25.5-26 mA Smart Solar 100/20: 34 mA. With BT dongle 35-36.5 mA I dont have numbers for the 75/15, though its likely not more than above. The point is, the BT 4.x dongle takes only 1 to 1.5 mA. Unless youre using a 15 amp MPPT controller with a battery bank the size of a coin cell battery, the BT dongle is the way to go (IMO).