Renogy Rover MPPT Solar Charge Controller 20A 30A 40A - Review

Today on HamRadioComms I do a review of the Renogy Rover Solar Charge Controller.

[@grt1961]

Great video. Just watched a few times before successfully installing my Rover 20A MPPT

[@ThatGuy-dj3qr]

Great review. This tells me everything I need to know about the unit before purchasing one.

[@mmunoz5875]

Thank you so much for all the information you provided!

[@hamradiocomms]

You’re welcome … and thanks for the comment!

[@gazztracker]

once you get used to celsius its good. 0 deg = freezing 100 deg = boiling----easy.

[@sgtcote1]

Being a fellow Mainer and just getting into solar, I greatly appreciate your knowledge. Currently im using the Renogy Wanderer 30 amp PWM charge controller but I have every intention to upgrade to the Rover 40/60 amp as I want to increase my pannels to 600 watts, to get the most charge possible.

[@hamradiocomms]

Hi.. that's a good idea here in Maine. After 2 winters with my solar I can tell that in winter I'm only bringing in about 1/3 of the amps per day than the summer. I'll be adding another panel to my arrays for that reason. Getting the 600W is a good idea.

[@teresasmith489]

Hi just watched your video super helpful as we were stuck on manual setting (15) and didnt know how to get back to main screen after we must have knocked it. Thanku 😊

[@user-bz6pt2nh7k]

Bug out solar in Quatisight Az.will be selling those controllers starting October 15.

[@dennisjoiner3717]

Thank you for the video. I just bought a Renogy Rover. My wife and I use a Tent Camper for our camping outings and we use a lead acid deep cycle battery currently to power two CPAP machines and a small Fan via an Inverter. However after a night and a half the battery is depleted enough the Inverter kicks off. I think the PWM Controller isn't efficient enough to recharge the battery for the next night which is why I bought the Renogy Rover MPPT Controller. Oh I'm using a 100 watt Panel with the system. This summer I took a small 1800 watt quiet Coleman Inverter generator and a car battery charger which worked but it's a pain with all the pieces to deal with. I too am a Ham Radio Operator and that Inverter type generator is VERY RFI noisy. I plan on upgrading to a Lithium battery for camping once I figure out what size I need. I use Lithium for my QRP and QRO Portable Stations. 73's N9XFX Dennis

[@ironian24]

get the lithium life po4 battery, the lead acid are just not man enough anymore, if you buy a 100amh lead cid you are actually getting only half of that so 50amh not 100amh, and they are very heavy and do not last anywhere near as long as the lithium ion batteries. if you buy a 100watt lithium ion battery you will get 10 years out of it, its lighter by a massive margin over the lead acid battery, it charges from flat to full in 2 hours, or at least mine does on my van, depending on your charger I suppose, and the best part is, you get the full 100amh not half like lead acid. I have the 200amh lithium ion battery from renogy, I paid £840.00 early this year and now i see the same one with bluetooth is now £100 cheaper, if you dont want bluetooth then it gets cheaper still at £600, to me, it's a no brainer to go over to lithium ion, once you own one you wont go back to lead acid.

[@lawrencedavidson6195]

I have the same Rich Solar 20A controller and it will stay on amps so i can monitor charge current all the time, it never goes back to home screen. Also i understand the wire terminals are bigger and stronger than the Renogy. I will buy another Rich Solar over the Renogy when i upgrade. Nice video and greetings from Jamaica.

[@lawrencedavidson6195]

I now have a 40 amp Rich Solar running along with the 20 amp. Both are working very well.

[@kanth66]

What are the right and left directional buttons for?

[@Electronzap]

Good info.

[@NerdThingsAndMore]

Thanks for the info

[@hamradiocomms]

You’re welcome, thanks for watching!

[@James_Bowie]

Yet another great review Edgar. 👍 Re the bleed-over, maybe stick some translucent colored tape over the LEDs?

[@WristwatchObsession]

Thats a good idea, so you're thinking the slightly dark tape will block the weak light coming from the off LEDs but let the light through the on LEDs... that just might work, I might try it. Thanks for the comment.

[@jpmo82]

hi, to main questions, unit have backlight? how reset? thanks.

[@danielnicholls6868]

i have the 20 amp renogy seems to stay on 100 % for a long time. i wish the amps plus voltage would give you the wattage coming in have to add them up every time to get wattage.. but works fine

[@randylenart9674]

I have there 40amp and like it alot

[@bobt471]

❤ Very nice and well explained video! Thank you do you find any issues with using your ham radio and noise from either of these units? Thank you

[@hamradiocomms]

Thank you!! fortunately I haven't found any radio interference from my solar charge controllers or other equipment in my solar setup. I went through the HF bands one by one listening for differences when running and off and no difference..and VHF and UHF are find too.

[@sprintlifecamp]

Great video.. Im still trying to figure out what setting I use for charging my Agm batteries?

[@hamradiocomms]

Thanks! The setting for the AGM battery is SLD for sealed. FLD is for flooded.

[@NYCamper62]

So Renogy & Rich mppt solar controllers are the same inside ok. Here's a question then, are the stock charge settings the same? Seeing as I'll need two controllers when I expand my system. It's said you can match them manually to a different controller but why dick with them if you don't have to.

[@TheHomeImprovementChannel]

Will the charge controller sense the batteries are full and stop charging? I'm using LIFEPO4. Doesn't seem like they give you much ability affect the parameters in that mode

[@randybobandy9828]

Yes. I have a 24v regular lithium battery and its full battery voltage is 29.4v. your lifepo4 has a bms to prevent damage either way.

[@JDS11ify]

Great video. I am a HAM and have a go kit with a 30 AH LI battery which can only be charged at 10A. Can I fuse this controller to only output 10 amps to my battery and not the max 20 amps? My solar panel is a 200W single. I love all the extras with this controller. And, it was recommended by another HAM but I did not factor in difference in the controller output.

[@onthemoveautomotive6930]

I have a question about the Rover and different battery types. I have removed my genset on my RV and replaced it with lifepo4 and an inverter. I've realized my charger converter is consuming more energy then desired so I'm looking for a way to charge my fla house batteries until I replace them with lifepo4 without buying a charger. What would happen if it connected my 12v side of the RV to the load terminals with the fla battery connected? Would it lower the capacity of my lifepo4 system, damage the controller, or overcharge the fla?

[@hamradiocomms]

The load output on the rover wouldn’t be a good charger, not meant for that, and the FLA batteries would draw the full amount of amps the Rover can produce but the load output isn’t meant for high draw devices. Yes it would also drain the lifepo4 batteries. Connecting the batteries directly to the fla batteries wouldn’t be a good idea massive current would flow through the cables. You can disconnect the lifepo4 batteries and connect the fla to the rover battery connection to charge them.

[@onthemoveautomotive6930]

@@hamradiocomms thank you for the reply. I have a second rover that was for backup. (2 is 1) But I can use it to charge separately until the fla bank is depleted. This is what I have decided to do. ill throw a couple of panels at it. Right now my lifepo4 bank only replaced the genset through an inverter so it's not directly connected to the 12v system and I found that leaving the inverter on and connected to the converter charger uses too much energy even when idle. I'll tie it all together once everything is lifepo4 and disconnect the converter charger. I'm learning as I go.

[@dalehuhtala9285]

After learning a whole lot about panels, controllers, inverters, cables, etc...now I'm seeing you absolutely have to have an inline fuse between the controller and the battery. Is this necessary? Do you recommend that as well?

[@hamradiocomms]

Hello.. yes it’s always a good idea to have a fuse on the positive or inline on the positive cable near the positive. It prevents the wire catching on fire if the wire shorts or short at the controller.

[@tom8592]

I have the 20 amp, when cycling through the screens the instructions say one of them should be battery percentage, mine does not, it's Skips that, is that normal?

[@hamradiocomms]

Hi... mine does have the battery precentage on the 3rd screen up from the home screen. Not sure why yours isn't showing up. I would just double check the battery type selected that it is the type you have connected to it. I never use this screen, I don't find them accurate much anyway. I just memorized the voltage charts for lead acid and LiFePO4 batteries to tell me where the battery charge is. With lead acid like AGM you can tell pretty well where it is based on the voltage of the home screen. With Lithium batteries it stays at 13.4 and drops to 13.2 pretty much all the way down to 20% so near the bottom you'll know just from the home screen where it is,. I'm going to pay attention to my % on this unit when the battery is down and see how close it is, now I"m curious to know how good it is.

[@lawrencedavidson6195]

My Rich Solar 20A does not have the battery percentage either.

[@TheDaztheraz]

What happens if the solar panels can output more power than the solar charger, will it damage it or do you just loose a bit of peak power a few days in the summer?

[@hamradiocomms]

Yes it will likely damage the controller

[@randybobandy9828]

​@@hamradiocommsno it won't. The only thing you have to worry about is voltage, don't go over 100v from the panels.

[@USA-GreedyMenOfNoIntegrity]

That bottom part that looks like a cover around the terminals will break if you try to remove it on the 40 amp version there’s nothing under there. You might have something to adjust on your 30 amp, but there is nothing on the 40 amp version.

[@hamradiocomms]

Yeah, I checked it out better and it's just a design element I guess. I thought it was at first because I remember reading in the manual or somewhere that a circuit board can be purchased to add some function to the controller and thought it was behind the "door" but must be somewhere else in the unit. I can't remember what the card does, unless it's not true about it being able to upgrade..

[@jpmo82]

Hi friends, my mppt rover 40a is not giving accurate battery percentage, it is propperly configured in 12v and lifepo4 battery, battery is new and mppt too, any other setting to make or help? thanks, regards.

[@hamradiocomms]

Hi … I’ve never had a charge controller that can accurately give battery percentage. I use the voltage and lifepo4 chart to determine state if f charge / how empty it is.. for example 13.4 to 13.5 if fully charged and as the voltage drops the battery is being depleted. Google images has a variety of charts.

[@redwood1957]

I dont think that bottom section of rover comes off. Looks it but no. It would be nice to see your connections. Will the load power somthing 24 hrs if timer not set or no sun. Thank you

[@hamradiocomms]

Yes the load default setting is the load is on all the time 24/7 but the button to the right turns it on or off. I use the button to turn it on when i need it since it is normally off. These are very small current draw items i'm using. I have my high current items like inverters or radios are connected to the battery and out of any control by the charge controller.

[@jpmo82]

Hi, great video, i understand that rover 40a have a maximum 100v pv input, but how many amps in the input? Thanks

[@hamradiocomms]

Hi.. 40A max input or about 540W I believe, the online manual will have a chart of watts and amps max for 12v and 24v systems.

[@WM-ye3xg]

15:28

[@wt9653]

Raising the voltage increases watts and lowers amperage. Rich solar 20a can handle up to 500 watts at 24 pv. Solar panels needs to be setup to series.

[@randybobandy9828]

No, that voltage limitation is on the battery side. So it can send 20 amps to the battery at 24v. It can input 100v and up to 20amps but its not going to pass on more than 500w to battery

[@brianventura4519]

what on earth is farren height?

[@hamradiocomms]

Fahrenheit is the USA method of measuring temperature as opposed to Celsius that the rest of the world uses

[@spallwalker5683]

Farenehight is how people feel about temp

[@akasa231]

As a rough guide if you Cx2+30 it will get you near F

[@wt9653]

What's Celcius. 😂

[@bullbutter9699]

Superior unit of measurement

[@wanderingquestions7501]

But the panels don’t actually come in at 12v. If that were true, the controllers would be putting out more charge amps than is possible. Put a vom on your panels and measure them.

[@hamradiocomms]

That’s correct. I reviewed my panels on the channel and I show the short circuit voltage is ave at around 18vdc. It drops some in the cable a few volts to the charge controller. They are just called 12v solar panels as opposed to the 24v solar panels etc

[@user-bi3ic7ny3c]

How munh max volt can connect 40 amp controller from solar panels

[@randybobandy9828]

100v.

[@allbo-nov9992]

the simplest, they did not backlight the screen.😅

[@hamradiocomms]

Having a backlight would definitely be a nice improvement

[@NYCamper62]

@@hamradiocomms So would a fahrenheit option.

[@ironian24]

good video, but its about time you Americans change to the standard celcius the rest of the world use, I believe US has recently changed from feet and inches to centimetres and metres.

[@randybobandy9828]

Fahrenheit.... A unit of temperature 😂 like Celsius but different. 32°f = 0°c

[@hayzersolar]

your specs are wrong. it is not how many watts. it is total voc from your panels. i have a 200w panel so you divide the voc (open voltage) mine is 28.1 so 200/28.1 = 7.11 amps. so when you hook up another 200w panel in serious you take the total voc mine is 28.1 +28.1 that =56.2. so the charge controller can take up to 100v not watts. there is a big differance between the two. so on the charge controller i can hook up 3 200w panels with the total voltage (voc) of 84.3.

[@hamradiocomms]

I’m not wrong because VOC is just one spec you have to evaluate. You can have 56v and 200w or 1000w it won’t make it safe for the controller to run 1000w unless your controller is big enough … they are rated in amps as well as voltage. So a typical 20A charge controller can handle 240w of panels at 12v and 480w at 24v. You can’t use more than 480w on that controller.

[@hayzersolar]

@@hamradiocomms how are you getting the volts if 20 amps stay the same where are the volts coming from?

[@hayzersolar]

@@hamradiocomms there are so many people with different math to figure out what size is need no one says the same thing all different I'm just trying to figure out how to find the size I need so confused

[@hamradiocomms]

@@hayzersolar hi… it’s all about the Amps that’s why the charge controllers are sized 20a 30a etc so if you had 400w of solar in a 12v solar panel system then you have about 6a per 100w = 24A so you need a 30A controller which can handle about 480w of solar. If you took 2 in series and another 2 series to make 24v solar outside and out those in parallel the amps are reduce by half cause the voltage doubled. So only 11a coming in so a 20a controller would be large enough. You have to have a MPPT controller to convert your 24v (actually about 36v) into 12v for the batteries. A pwm controller can’t do this. Most inexpensive MPPT controllers like I have can handle 24v solar & battery systems but not 36v or 48v systems than run much higher voltages that require more expensive charge controllers. The 24v solar panels or configuration can use smaller gauge wire to connect to charge controller, which is cheaper because the Amps are half as much as 12v panels

[@hayzersolar]

@@hamradiocomms what is getting me f...up is my panel. It is a bifacial 200w the voc is 28.1, 23.1v with load. The short circuit currant is9.12v with load8.55v. so if I take watts divided by 12v is 16.6666amps. now my panel can't do 16amps so that's my issue.how are we getting 16 amps the best my panel can do is 9 amps

[@tomfrantz]

HATE these. All kinds of forums say: AGM use GEL setting, and "AGM use SLD" These symbols LI, USE, GEL, SLD, FLD are not even readable in A) the directions and B) the MPPT unit itself. Optima is nuts. Renogy is nuts. I have four blue tops and two 20 amp RENOGY. Awful customer support from the Philippines.

[@hamradiocomms]

I know, often cryptic. LI Lithium = LifePO4, USE = user defined, GEL is lead acid Gel Cells, SLD or SLA is Sealed lead acid similar to GEL but I believe is Glass Mat or AGM. FLD or FLA is flooded or liquid Lead acid batteries, car batteries for example or old school lead acid solar batteries. I hope I never need support on some of these less expensive brands.

[@tomfrantz]

Called Optima and a bunch of techy's said not to use the GEL setting on Optima only SLD SLA Sealed lead acid and never GEL. I am sure I am not the only one who has hooked it up wrong. Now I have reselected SLD instead of GEL. @@hamradiocomms

[@tomfrantz]

LIFEPO4 in LI sounds totally right. My friend just bought four for his trimaran... @@hamradiocomms

[@champagnewalkersequinemass3568]

You talk about modes etc but can’t see what buttons you are pressing. Explain what terminology means. I have no knowledge about all of this. I’m a horse person. I have 340 solar panel 300 Ah Lipo4 battery. LQ horse trailer. How in the world does that translate into

[@randybobandy9828]

What are you trying to do with it?