Fisherguy wrote:
StirCrazy wrote:
personaly I stay away with "all in one" setups. only because if somthing brakes your replacing the whole thing so its a big price tag. also they are usaly bigger than just an inverter or converter so you have to find a place they fit in some situations and run new wiring.
so just looking at amazon (can probably find better pricing through dealers, but who knows) anyways that is 500. you can also get a 2000watt renogy pure sign wave inverter for 360. so if you bought thoes from amazon you at just over 1/2 the price, and if something ***** out down the road it is cheeper to replace. I use renogy for my solar controler and I love it.. a good north american company thats putting out a decient product. I have my 2000 watt inverter wired directly to my power center so when I am dry camping and turn on the inverter it can power the whole 5th wheel, but if you do that you need to put the converter on a breaker if it isnt already so it can be shut off when you don't have power. I do mine throught the auto transfer switch so I don't have to worry about that step.
Steve
Hi Steve,
So you're saying the PD9180ALV lithium converter is $500 on Amazon? I couldn't find it on there.
I asked about Renogy in a FB group and heard mostly negative comments. They rebrand a lot of their products with China built stuff they say, spend more on marketing and advertising than product development etc. Have also heard their customer support is terrible but I have no first hand experience myself. I've heard nothing but good things about Victron, they seem to be the latest craze no matter where you look, all bluetooth compatible etc etc but when we boondock I really don't want to be tied to my phone to see what's going on.
The trailer we bought came with a Renogy 40amp DC to DC converter that I also need to look into and wire up my truck etc.
On our old trailer I used a PD9280 and a Xantrex inverter wired through an Iota transfer switch to the power center so I could do that again in the new one.>
Hmmmmm.....? :h :h
Thx
Will
ya renogy, victron there all made in china now. I know several people with renogy onely one person had an issue and he was treated good. remember on the internet you only hear about the bad, happy people don't complain haha.. I will not buy Victron as I think they are very over priced for what you get. there are a few companies making componants that fit togeather but I think for a simple rv setup a lot of that is a waist of space and overkill. if you look at quality vs cost, I would probably put renogy at the top of the list. if your looking at just quality then there is victron and a nother one I cant remember off the top of my head but for cost vs quality I would put victron way down the list. plus victron is usaly big and bulky.
you also have to look at what stuff is designed for, victron is designed for whole home type setups where you usaly have lots of space and they can make things larger because it has to run 365 days a year 24/7. for rv use how often are we realy running our inverters if we are not full timing it. not very often. In my 40 foot 5th wheel I use it maybe 1/2 to 1 hour a day and I shut it off when not using it so it isn't drawing a standby power so over the course of a year say maybe 40 to 60 hours of use which I think is a fair bit for the average camper.. but you compare this to some one who full times and has a victron which is used up to 61320 hours a year in the extream fulltime off grid user. so ya if I was full timing on solar I would probably consider making the space and paying the extra money (over 1600 bucks by the time it would get to me from amazon) but I don't so the 360 buck renogy will work just fine, and if I have to replace it two more times it will still be cheeper than the victron. My renogy mppt solar controler has been working great for 3 years now in my camper. I think they are better quality that the OLD go power (when they were high quality and based in victoria, bc. when they sold it is rumored the quality went down)
now peopla are probably going to start posting saying your crazy victron isn't bad.. no they are not, they are very good, I just don't think for camping we need to pay that inflated price for the small bit of extra quality. if you have money to burn by all means get the victron if not, renogy has turned out to be a deicent option. If I am building a solar powered off grid cabin in the mountians then ya I'm installing victron as it has to run 365 days a year, if the go power inverter dies in my 5th wheel, guess I have to use the percolater instead of the kurieg, or cook my popcorn on the stove instead of in the microwave...the only thing from victron I would spen the money on for my rv is the smart shunt, that wants realy out yet when I bought the stuff for my camper and the renogy bluethooth ap does pretty much the same thing well not quite I guess.. it is a little over priced but its cheep enough it is worth it and gives you a cleaner instalation if you don't mind looking at your power stuff on your phone.
PD9180ALV
