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- Verified Buyer
Morningstar has great technical support and even offers seminars for advanced learning. These things have 5 year warranties and made in Taiwan so they last. If you are looking for a good PWM diversion, load, or charge controller covering 12, 24, and 48 volt nominal battery banks, give the TS-60 or TS-45 a serious look. One thing I do NOT like is the pricing of a meter, so you may want to leverage some other solution and make your own choice. However, the units CAN be monitored using software and a serial connection.Bought this used through Amazon because my Prostate 30A had a stripped battery plug and I had wanted to get one of the Tristars for some time now. Sure, someone had already punched out a few of the case cover holes but other than that I got a good deal on a great PWM charge controller. It is hooked up to my 200W array with 2x 125A/Hr AGM batteries in parallel on my RV. It took 2 hours to charge the batteries from 50% to 90% once I figured out my negative wire end had corroded. This made our boondocking experiment a complete success. I have been monitoring the batteries regularly since we have returned from the trip and most of the time the TriStar is in floating mode. This saves me from having to lug 150 lbs of batteries out of the RV to my garage just to keep them from depleting from the standby load of the RV.Morningstar products are top of the shelf when it comes to charge controllers. I have performed several solar installations for both personal and public use and am an Electrical Engineer. This doesn't mean I know everything there is to know about solar but designing solar systems is easier than getting them to work optimally which means you have to do your homework when it comes to selecting your components. A cheap charge controller won't charge your battery at the right voltages which means you are always running a partially depleted bank which significantly reduces battery life. The solar batteries I have state they should be charged to 14.5V so I set the TriStar for 14.6V since the other option was 14.4V. Better a touch over than under since most manufacturers will be conservative. Every 28 days the TriStar will balance the individual cells in the batteries automatically to keep them healthy and when I hook up the RTS it will monitor the temperature and charge the batteries at the right voltages. If you want to really get into the details you can even hook up a computer to the TriStar and tweak the features, record the history, etc through their software. This is a complete package and well worth the money invested. The difference is replacing batteries every couple of years to every decade. Considering just one of my batteries costs $260 the thought of quadrupling the run time seems a no brainer to me.This is the third TriStar 45A MPPT I have purchased and I haven't installed yet.The first two have been running smoothly for three years. If you design the system correctly you will be be very satisfied with TriStarEasy instructions, simple install. I liked them so much I bought a 3rd one.Overall the unit is very nice, the only issue I have with it, is the knock out tabs are very hard to get out. This could be an issue as the impact from knocking them out could damage something. I actually ended up taking the bottom cover off as I was concerned I was going to break it. It has a very nice web interface, the documentation is excellent and morningstars support was adequate. Unfortunately I could not get a clear answer for a scenario I posed, but this is also a loaded question as they don't have my exact panels to test with, Just wish they gave me some reference example. Anyway, I have 3x100 Watt Instapark panels running now in serias and I compared its performance to what I recorded on my old PWM charger with just a single 100 watt panel, the comparable sample I had showed a 16% increase in output. To me anyone with real usage for a Solar Charger should be using MPPT. My main application is powering my primary sump pump, so its almost mission critical. I am sure they will address the knock out issue ,and taking the bottom off is not that bad, one board post you have to be careful with and the board side holders, not for amateurs for sure, but I would hope amateurs don't plan on trying to install one of these as well. I will be adding 3X100 in parallel to my existing ones when it warms up a bit, and that will max me out as I have a 12 volt setup. If I stay 12 beyond that I can add another unit as it is designed to scale in that manner.Morningstar really has something with the TS line of controllers. I am TOTALLY SOLD on Morningstar controllers!After buying a TS-60 recently to replace a cheap e-smart Chinese MPPT charge controller, which started cutting out and charging poorly after only 2 months of use, I must say I am so glad I bought this Controller.The TS-60 is actually able to produce MORE power from my array than the MPPT controller could. By a good bit. 800+ Watts more efficient, on a 3200 watt system. Their MPPT must be even better...This controller only has passive cooling fins, because that is literally all that is needed! This thing never breaks a sweat.Even pushing it at nearly 50 Amps for long periods, causes VERY little heat at the controller. I have never found the controller too hot to touch. Not even uncomfortably warm.This thing can handle 100+ DC Volts, and from what I can see is an absolute TANK of a controller.I am VERY pleased that I bought this unit, and I will buy my next MPPT controller from Morningstar.Fantastic Quality Product!excellent controller it has been working perfectly I did away with 3 other different controllers and this one excepts a #10 Wire size.An advanced connection between solar [panels and batteries. Worth the high price. I have 4 of the earlier TriStar units working flawlessly since 2005 at a vacation home.Buen producto, me funciono bien.ExcellentGood value on an excellent charge controller.....
