Battery Minders solar charge controller?

Corbet

Observer
Anyone here use a Battery Minder Solar Controller? I've been looking at this one to handle a fixed panel on a pop-up camper application. Planning a 150watt +/- panel. Most of the powered items in my camper were designed for the RV park not the backcountry. They eat the battery alive when "shore" power is not available.

http://batteryminders.com/details.php?prod=SCC-180

I like the push button battery status display. Easy for the wife to see what the health of the system is. Currently I have a single group 31 flooded battery but will add a second AGM 31 down the road.
 
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LandCruiserPhil

Expedition Leader
I have used the BM smaller wattage model with good results for a few year along with other BM chargers. With that said your batteries would be a lot happier in the long run with a 3 stage charger.
 

LandCruiserPhil

Expedition Leader

brian90744

American Trekker
Great product see my install in pop-up truck camper forum=Northstar TC650 & chevy 1500. No problems, was about the same price. Also see install same forum=Northstar TC650 Tundra, he mounted panel on roof.
 
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dwh

Tail-End Charlie
From the manual in the OP's link, that BM is a 2-stage: bulk to 14.2v then drop to float at 13.4v. It'll get the job done, but a 3-stage that does an absorb stage would be better.

Can't go wrong with Morningstar. The Duo is a very good PWM controller designed for RV use.
 

Corbet

Observer
I'm bringing this back up to the top since I actually bought a 120watt panel today. Might even pick up a 2nd panel. They are used take offs from a local solar company in town. $100 each. Seemed like a decent deal.

Any thing new in the market of controllers I should consider. Again this is destined for a pop-up camper. I currently have a group 31 Diehard Platium as my only battery. I'd like some sort of digital display panel I can mount inside for easy monitoring.
 
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jonyjoe101

Adventurer
for a 120 watt panel just get a wincong 10 amp pwm controller (cost less then 20 dollars) you dont need anything fancy. Thats what i used on my kycora 120 watt (21 volt) panel, it also worked on my 240 watt (36 volt) sharp panel. i used it for about 1 year 24/7 without any problems. i had it hooked up to a agm battery.

MPPT is useless on a low voltage 120 watt panel. I upgraded to an ecoworthy 20 amp mppt controller (102 dollars) and I got the same amps out of the 120 watt panel as with the pwm controller 6 amps. on the other hand mppt works great with the 240 watt high voltage panel. I got 12 amps with it, pwm only gave me 6 amps with the 240 watts. From my own expierence i would say that mppt requires at least a 30 volt panel for you too see an increase in the amps that you can get from the panel.

if you do get 2 x 120 watt panels, you can connect them in series mode and run them into an ecoworthy 20 amp mppt controller and you should get about 12 amps.

ecowothy is one of the cheapest mppt, I been using mine 24/7 nonstop for almost 3 years, its been reliable for me and you can adjust the float / absorb voltage to keep your battery happy. I have my kinitek khc2000 (102 ah) agm battery absorb voltage set to 14.4 volts, float is set to 14.3 volts. it gives me the best charge. When i set the float to 13.7 volts which is the recommended voltage, battery wasn't getting a full charge.

On my agm battery once its full its floating at over 14 volts but the amps are at less than an amp. Battery is still running strong after 2 years. Agms can float at over 14 volts all day long. Its when you undercharge them when you kill them.

morningstar mppt is good brand, but too expensive/overkill for a 120 watt panel and it wont give you any extra amps. the winong pwm wasnt programmable but it got the job done. The ecoworthy mppt is programmable and will work on the 120 watt panel but it wont give you any extra amps.

The most amps you will get out of your 120 watt panel, you just divide the panel watts by charge voltage. 120 / 14.4 = 8.3 amps, 8.3 is the most amps the panel will ever put out in the best conditions. the most i ever saw with mppt or pwm was 7 amps.
 

Corbet

Observer
So after receiving some Amazon gift cards for Christmas I ordered the Morningstar unit. Even if it's overkill now it gives me the ability to upgrade without rewiring a new unit in. Plus the 2nd battery option is appealing. Even if I never add a second battery to the camper I could hook the controller up to the truck and charge it's battery as well. That would be somewhat useful if I stay in one place a few days in high temps where the fridge in the truck is working hard. Give me options.
 

228B

Observer
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Corbet
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I currently have a group 31 Diehard Platium as my only battery. I'd like some sort of digital display panel I can mount inside for easy monitoring.
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So after receiving some Amazon gift cards for Christmas I ordered the Morningstar unit. Even if it's overkill now it gives me the ability to upgrade without rewiring a new unit in. Plus the 2nd battery option is appealing. Even if I never add a second battery to the camper I could hook the controller up to the truck and charge it's battery as well. That would be somewhat useful if I stay in one place a few days in high temps where the fridge in the truck is working hard. Give me options.
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You're on the right track. Were you able to source a good meter?
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Your battery, if it's a blue-cased beast weighing in the neighborhood of 75 lbs, is an Odyssey-made-for-Sears and as such requires specific absorption-phase and float-phase voltage setpoints. I don't know if your SunSaver Duo? is it? is adjustable. Your controller's manual will say.
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That battery can take up to and including 50 amps during a "bulk"-phase (but one won't see that with the mild input of a small solar array. I see just 13 amps going to the battery with a good, high sun angle) of a three-phase charge cycle which usually lasts to an 80% State Of Charge. The voltage set point for the *absorption*-phase (from 80% to 100% S.O.C.), according to Odyssey, should be 14.7 volts (not 14.4), and this phase should last from 3 to 5 HOURS at which point the battery when fully charged should be *float*ed at 13.6 (not 13.4, which is all that products like the Battery Tender will give).
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I have the same battery but am using the Morningstar SunSaver MPPT 15-L which has adjustable voltage setpoints as well as a time duration setting adjustment for the absorption phase. To do this requires a Morningstar interface and a Windows-based PC or laptop. I managed to stumble through the process only! with the help of Morningstar's help via telephone. It was a year ago, so I couldn't do it again if I tried... but the system works extremely well using two 100-watt panels connected in series for a nominal 24V input to the charge controller using 10AWG, then for the 20-INCH run from the controller to the battery I'm using 8AWG marine cable.
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Good luck to you. Hope you can charge that Odyssey-for-Sears Group 31 the way it needs to be charged (again, this is according to Odyssey).
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