Morningstar SunSaver 10A PWM Solar Charge Controller 12V - Reliable Battery Regulator for Solar Panels with LVD Protection | Perfect for RV, Marine, Off-Grid & Home Solar Systems

This is a quality engineered piece of solar technology. I bought this to work with a 75w panel and a deep cycle battery to power the ARB fridge in my Wagoneer while out camping and exploring. The owners manual is very simple to understand, the product is nicely put together and appears very solid. I've set it up outside and it functions as intended. There is a nice feature of a LVD (low voltage disconnect) baked into the unit if you use the LOAD terminals (10a max on this one). So if you are powering say a water pump off your solar battery, it will turn the pump off at the cut off voltage (11.7v i think) and then reconnect it as the sun hits the panel in the AM. This will help your battery last a lot longer by not allowing the 12v load to draw it completely dead which cuts their useful life waaaay down. The unit will charge either flooded or AGM batteries with a simple jumper for configuration. There is 4 stage charging with equalization used on the flooded batteries every 28 days.Seriously, this piece of hardware is designed to be used in the most remote places by the oil/gas exploration industry on well monitoring equipment so I think it will work for anything a normal person would throw at it. Go buy a 75-100watt panel and a 100ah battery and have yourself a taste of independence from the wall socket. Imagine a small water feature in your backyard that turns on and off with the sun, or a light for that shed without running an extension cord....I've been using these solar controllers in the oil field for years and have had very little (if any) issues with them. I use these over several others due to the fact that they don't need physically reset when the battery voltage gets low as the controller will automatically come back on when the sun comes up. This is a handy feature when these are used off grid in remote installations.I tried 2 defective sunforce digital charge controllers and both would not go into float mode. I also tried a sainsonic mppt controller and it had dim LED status lights. this is the first and only one that has worked with my solar panel (renogy 100 watt mono) after 3 failed controllers I thought it was the panel but no it was producing 20 volts and 4.5 amps steady like a reagular 100 watt panel is supposed to. here is something I learned recently. I was worried that after a full charge and after the controller goes into float mode that if I start the car (this setup is installed on the roof of my car) that the car would waste all of the energy the panel had produced trying to get the battery into float mode and kick it back to bulk charge however after it was in float mode I took the car onto the freeway an I looked back at the controller's indicator lights and it was still doing 2 second green flashes meaning float mode! so the charge controller built into a car's alternator does not strip away the extra bit that the solar panel and controller have used to get the battery all the way to float mode. just a fyi if anyone else is trying to add panels to their car.Operating well so far. Very easy to install, especially good instruction manual. Well written - not a poor translation. For a basic model, has nice status LED's , but ended up copying and posting pages of manual next to unit to decode.I have just a little bias against this controller, not for lack of ability, but I'd been spoiled by a previous product which gave me instant visual status, and a toggle for LVD. The SunSaver has neither. Instead, it has green LED that is always lit during sunshine. If I want to know it's charging status is, I must measure the charging Current and guess. (Large Current - charging , Small Current - floating ).In fact, if I hadn't invested in deep cycle batteries with higher charge requirements, I'd have kept my previous controller. The SunSaver pushes 14.3 VDC into my wet SLA batteries, and their resting voltage is right around 13.7 VDC, which is what it is supposed to do.SunSaver models with an automatic low voltage load disconnect function (LVD) rated for 10 amp load is just what I wanted.This will protect my RV batteries from damage of being discharged to low. It will also protect the device that I use from damage of running on low voltage. This SunSaver with LVD has high and low voltage protection. Made in the USA. This controller is built very strong and should last for many years. I bought a different brand it plastic and had no low voltage protection. It is worth a few bucks more to get the correct controller first. I am an electrician and have tested this SunSaver unit. It works great. This comes with good instructions. Also lots of info on the internet. Google it.I have been using this model for many years. Had one failure a few years back when the controller was under water. Certainly not Morningstar's fault! The battery it feeds is about 8 years old and still load tests near full capacity. The system lives outdoors year round in Buffalo, New York.I am using this product with a solar panel and an sla battery to provide emergency power for my vhf/uhf radio equipment. This is an outstanding product for this sort of use. In addition to the right features, design, and usability, MorningStar provides outstanding technical support. I wrote them to ask a technical question and I got a call back within an hour with a complete, detailed and understandable answer. I recommend this product and this firm wholeheartedly.