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

Victron are the standard in solar charge controllers. This controller is well built. It has been in my campervan for almost 3 years now, and has performed flawlessly. The integral bluetooth allows you to configure the controller, and check the state of charging, all from your phone - no need for displays taking up wall space in an RV! I mounted this under the sofa in my campervan. If it wasnt for the solar panels on the roof, you wouldnt know I had a solar installation. It is very unobtrusive.

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.

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 a basic 60W setup. 2 panels, one is 50W and the other 10W hooked up in parallel to get 60W. I use it to keep a simple sealed led acid battery charged to run 12V exhaust fans in my apartment. That is all! very simple setup. I had a chaep PWM controller prior to setting this up but I have seen on YouTube that MPPT is the way to go to get the most efficiency so I decided to get this small controller from Victron. Physical hookup is very clear and simple. Connect the battery first, then the panel and then load. At least this is the way I did it. Everything is working so far but I had to custom configure my battery type because Victron did not add a simple lead acid battery preset into the app so I had to manually input my values. I had to reduce the charge amperage to 2A because that is what the small sealed lead acid battery specifies. It has several presets for Victron branded batteries though. This is a very similar way of thinking like Apple does with their products. In other words, they dont like to play well with others and that is bad. It limits the ease of use and configuration of equipment that can be used with this controller. It definitely can be done but Victron Energy is not making it easy. The main complaint is the size of the manual. The font is microscopic and basically unusable. Why include it if you need to use a microscope to use it? For the money that they charge for this and the low cost manufacturing in India they should for a few cents make a bigger manual and a bigger box for this product. I will update this review if I discover any problems in the future as I had this hooked up for 1 day so far and it has been cloudy too.

I use this connected to my VENUS Os on a Raspberry Pi. It was a little tricky to set up but it has been running great. With this setup I can access the MPPT controller from my phone anywhere now. I also connected by 2 JK BSM as well so it that can be read from the internet too. Much appreciate Victron making the project Open source. It is a high quality interface. As for the MPPT controller it runs 8 to 10 hrs a day at max output of 15A since I have 400W of panels connected and I rotate them during the day for optimum angle. The unit runs cool and I have had no issues.

When my MPPT arrived, I studied the install & configuation information, reviewed Victrons FAQs, read forum input, etc. and then proceeded to connect the MPPT to my vans house battery & then to the solar panels. The screeenshot, taken from the VicrtonConnect app, with the big fat zero was the result. I spent several days troubleshooting, assuming user error, asked for help on the Victron forums, got a few responses, but nothing worked. Victrons troubleshooting policy for items purchased via Amazon is to contact the Vendor. So, this last Monday, I called Inverter-R-US, explained the situation and the steps I had taken to resolve. The vendor promptly concluded I had a bad MPPT and sent me a new one which arrived on two days later. I connected the new one and the screenshot with the 159 watts is the new results. Much better. From the Victron forums, most people who post similar problems with this MPPT are in fact guilty of missing something or doing something wrong. But this goes to show that once in a while, a device is truly bad & needs to be replaced from the get go.

Not much to say. It works as advertised is is very high quality. Well worth the money. I will be buying more Victron products.

OK, I was sold after I demod the Bluetooth app with its settings, including LiFePo4 compatibility. Ability to change the settings for storing a battery (say at 80%) versus field use (probably charging to 100%) is excellent. All the way around the build quality is good. But the terminal block was and is very frustrating. I wanted to use 10 AWG, not necessarily for high currrent but for mechanical strength. And yes, I did want some `fire insurance by using the fatter copper wire. And I do have the proper crimper and crimp terminals. I was very surprised when those didnt fit. I kluged it by tinning the stranded 10 AWG wires and shaping them square using a extra-long-handled needlenose plier, good thing I had one of those. Im not so eager to use the square crimper on tinned cable, though it might work. I imagine 12 AWG with ferrules will fit but that could involve testing that, doing a current-capacity calc considering how long I want my load cable to be, and then replacing cables. Victron, I suggest you do that current-capacity check yourselves, including temperature sensitivity, and you will see how youre making my life more difficult. On a bright summer day were talking potentially 20 amps continuous, not intermittent. So I supposed in the end Ill have short lengths of 12 gauge with strain reliefs and Anderson Powerpoles that connect to a load cable thats 10 AWG for both strength and distance. Bottom line if you have another credible option, go for it. If not, I guess regrettably this is as good as it gets.

I have built 3 so called Solar Generators, and have used Victron Energy charge controllers in all of them. I tried other brands, and always seemed to run into issues with configuration, ease of use and size. I have two 100/30 charge controllers and I love them both. They are small. very very efficient and they are so reliable. I love the Bluetooth connection and Victron Energys app. Configuration is a breeze, and I can even do a little logging of the chargers performance. This controller also has a very small footprint, and it fits into tight places. Installation is easy as well. These are little more expensive than other controllers, but they are worth it to me. They have never let me down, and they are very reliable. I find them to be a good value for the price and I highly recommend them. I give this controller 5 stars.

Liked everything - ish it had a stronger bluetooth signal. Other victron units in same bay work great.