Sunforce 60032 30 Amp Digital Charge Controller
August 9, 2010 by SolarInfo
Filed under solar panels
| Brand: | Sunforce | ||
| Average Rating |
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The Sunforce 60032 30 Amp Digital Charge Controller prevents overcharging of 12-volt batteries. It is intended for use with 12-volt solar panels, and can handle up to 30 amps of array current and up to 500 watts of solar power. The controller will continuously display the charging current or battery voltage on the LCD digital meter, and also automatically indicates the charged condition of your battery on the LED bar graph. The 60032 is designed to work with all kinds of 12-volt solar panels for indoor use. more info
Solar Charge Controller
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Great unit for budget minded do-it-yourselfers. Easy to set up and controls $500.00 to $1,000.00 worth of batteries.
great controller at a fair price
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’ve lived with solar panels for 10 years now, mostly on a cruising yacht, and I decided to try one of these controllers with a couple solar panels I just installed on my recently acquired land yacht (a used 5th wheel trailer) and it works great! So good in fact that I just ordered a second one to bring back to my boat in the Caribbean this fall to regulate the 4 solar panels which I live with there. It’s much more than just an on/off relay so it charges the batteries much better.
Affordable but not efficient
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
The Sunforce #60032 controller is a decent product at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, it doesn’t include maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technology, so it wastes about 15-25% of the incoming power, especially at times of low solar input (which of course is when you need it most). To be fair, no charging controller that I know of in the under-$100 price range has MPPT, so I’m not knocking the #60032′s value–just pointing out that if you’re planning on spending the money for hundreds or thousands of watts of panels (like one recent reviewer), it probably makes sense to spend another hundred bucks and get an MPPT controller (e.g., Blue Sky or Heliotrope models) that can milk the maximum power from that expensive array… instead of throwing away part of it, as this unit does.
Will keep your battery at the pefect level
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
When I hocked this up I instantly started ruining some tests to see exactly how well it works and after some tweaks I can tell you I am very happy and recommend this to any one that wants to keep there battery’s healthy.
This thing will automatically throttle up and down the current to any battery to keep the voltage exactly were it belongs. The only had 3 problems with mine.
1. The voltage meter was off by +.2 volts!
2. The amp meter was off by -600ma!
3. This is not a mppt controller and wastes about 1 amp in my set up but for the price that is not bad.
Both points 1 and 2 were easily fixed by tweaking 2 pot’s inside that are very easy to get to.
Sunforce solar controller for RV
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I purchased one of these about 8 months ago, along with Sunforce 123W solar panel to charge our motorhome batteries when in campgrounds with no hookups or when boondocking. Built a portable mount and used Anderson SB50 connectors on wiring so it can be easily setup/taken down with portable array. Have used it for a 7-day and several 3 to 5-day trips. Works great. (Much nicer than noise and smell of the generator.) Digital readouts are very useful to tracking how things are working.
Sunforce 30 Amp Charge Controller
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’m very pleased with this product. Everything worked as advertised. Installation instructions were easy to follow.
Sunforce 30 Amp charge controller
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Item works, I expected a little better performance. Shows amperage of charge accurately when it is higher than 2.5 amps, at less then 2.5amp display goes to 0.1 and does not display lower currents, then starts weirdly to “pulse”.
The built in Voltmeter is not too exact. It is important to know if battery bank has 12.8V or 12.5V since this reflects the percentage of its charge – 12.8V = close to 100%; 12.5 = 70%. The Voltmeter in the device I got is about 3% off ; about 0.3V to 0.4V – I never know till I do an exact measurement).
So basically it is o.k. if one is not looking for 99% accuracy. Nevertheless, for the money I spent, I thought I’d get little more.
Nice controller
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I purchased this along with an 80 watt solar panel. I went with this instead of the 7amp charge controller because I wanted to readout of volts and amps instead of just lights. So far I’ve been very happy with it. Charges the battery nicely and I don’t have to worry about disconnecting it as it adjusts the amps to a minimal when the battery is full.
The only complaint I have with this is it did not come with a outlet socket that it talks about needing. I had to swing by NAPA to purchase one…not a huge deal but it would have been nice were it included.
All in all a nice controller and I’m ready if I step up to a 400 watt panel or add additional 80 watt panels.
solar controller
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
perfect product for my needs. I am using it to control my 500 watt solar
array. Works perfect, easy to install. Will purchase another when I expand
to 2000 watts.follow up: it failed after 8 or 9 days, amazon is replacing it free of charge, but this is something that cannot fail or my lights go out.
Liked it at first…
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
Bought this controller from Amazon and really liked it at first. In fact I still like it but am having to return it.
The controller works great and is a lot better than the previous model I had on the solar panels.
Problem is that the voltage display on the unit is not working right. I have 3 80 watt GE solar panels hooked up to this controller. They put out about 22 vdc to the charge controller, which is then regulated by the controller going to the batteries at anywhere from 12-14 vdc.
Hooked the controller up and it was fine for the first hour or two. Then checked the voltage display and it was reading 20 vdc! If it was really at this level, it would overcharge my 12 volt batteries and ruin them very fast. Checked the actual output with a digital volt meter and it was actually at 13.7, which is normal. Tried a second meter and got the same reading.
End of the story is that the new controller works great, but the meter on the front of the unit that tells you what the meter is putting out to the batteries is defective 1-2 hours after being hooked up. Its going back and will be getting a better controller and hope it works better and for a longer time. Amazon was very easy to work with but hope that they get things like this fixed.
30A Sunforce …. Not Bad
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This Solar Array -to- Battery Array charge controller has worked 24/7 continously for me for almost two years.
Yea it’s not the most efficient set-up, however the status display is great and the Golfcart batteries do not complain.
Remember to put a 30A Slow-Blow fuse on the input.
So far it works great for me!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have not had any problems with this charger and Ive compared it to my volt meter and all seems to match up!
Very effective charge controller
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
It works exactly as advertised. A little pricey, but worth it for the rock solid performance and reliability.
Sunforce Digital Charge Controller
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’ve purchased the Sunforce 30 Amp controller, and the Sunforce 39810 80-watt solar panel. I completed the easy installation and both units are working as advertised. The panel provides approx 4.7 amperes on a sunny day to recharge my battery.
Sunforce Solar Charger Review
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Charge Controller was easy to install and works as advertised. Much better product than the one I replaced. Very happy with it.
Different brand, works fine!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I was a bit worried that this brand of charge controller wouldn’t work properly with my solar panels. This unit replaced a ICP solar charge controller, which wouldn’t begin charging unless manually started. But, this unit seems to be working perfectly. Since it was a replacement installation was simple.
Sunforce 30 amp solar controller
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is an excellent product. Installed quickly and it solved the problems I was having charging my batteries.