Review of my Taiwan made MPPT Charge controller

This is the third solar charge controller that I own.
My first charge controller is a China made 10A PWM (Pilse Width Modulation) charge controller.
It has a very simply display using LEDs to indicate the state of charging, for example green for good, red for low and blinking red for overload or over discharge.

I wanted a charge controller that provides better indication as the charging voltage, charging wattage, charging current and the output or load wattage. So I purchase a second charge controller. It was a 30A LCD PWM charge controller which provides the above mentioned perimeters.
However, this LCD PWM charge controller started to give wrong voltage reading after 1 or 2 days. I was using 12V batteries but the display on the LCD shown more than 18V and sometime even more than 20V during night time when there is no sunlight.




So, after reviewing some solar charge controllers on YouTube, I decided to purchase my third Solar charge controller from ebay.It is a 20A MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) solar charge controller which is made in Taiwan.

It costs almost twice as much as the 30A PWM LCD charge controller but after using for more than one week, I think is worth the extra money.

I found it listed on ebay and corresponded with the seller on shipping cost. They responded to me on the same day and I was impressed with their prompt reply.

So I placed my order on 11 Nov which is a Monday. I was presently surprised that the controller reached me on the same Friday.
It was well packaged and the quality of the controller is much better that the China made LCD controller.

For PWM charge controller, the voltage at the panel input is always slightly higher than the battery voltage which is usually between 12V to 13V depending on the charge of the battery. Whereas for MPPT charge controller, it will monitor the incoming voltage and the battery voltage to determine the best voltage for charging the battery.

This morning, around 8.11am, I measured the incoming panel voltage to be around 17.8V. This is not possible for a PWM charge controller. When you see such a high voltage when using a PWM charge controller, you have to check the battery terminal voltage immediately. If the battery terminal voltage is also at above 17V, there is a possibility that your charge controller is faulty and you risk damaging your battery if you continue to allow the battery to be charged.




I then measured the battery voltage and it was at around 13.2V. This confirmed that the MPPT charge controller is working normally.

I am happy with this MPPT charge controller. The other good point about this charge controller is the useful information displayed all at once on the back-lighted LCD display. It shows the incoming panel wattage on the top left corner, the load wattage on the top right corner, the battery voltage on the bottom left corner, the charging current on the bottom right corner as well as a pictorial display of the battery charge state on the bottom center.

Overall I am satisfied with the performance and value of this charge controller. It free me from using multimeter to check the battery voltage many times a day, everyday.