Review on Renogy 200 Watts 12 Volts Monocrystalline RV Solar Panel Kit With Adventurer 30A LCD PWM Charge Controller And Mounting Brackets For RV, Boats, Trailer, Camper, Marine, Off-Grid Solar Power System by Cedric Fam

I bought the 200 watt RV "Kit". I say kit lightly, it was a bit short.The package arrived in great shape, in a well made cardboard box. This kit contains only the basic items for an install. The panels seemed very well built and strong.I'll get the bad out of the way first.First there are no fuses, and I had to order these after the fact. I would of gladly paid more for a "kit" that had everything I needed. This is an electrical setup and circuit protection is needed. It would of been just to easy to have the inline fuse onboard in the first place, and IMHO, should of been.Then I tried Renogy's site to order one, but they want a ridiculous amount of money to ship UPS, it was like $57 to ship an item that would fit in an envelope and mailed USPS for ten bucks. It's a $17 item. So that option was out, I ordered a fuse from Best Buy, which can take up to 4 weeks.Second, the through the roof housing gland for the cables, has no flange. There is no way to screw it down to the roof. Even pictures on Renogy's site shows the housing, with a flange. As does other solar suppliers. Really quite dumb. I threw mine away as it was useless. What were they thinking?Third, the blue tooth app is broken. A great idea, but it freezes up constantly to the point it is useless. I hope Renogy is working hard on this issue.The kit does come with plenty of wire. But it is of some unknown white metal, not copper. Not aluminium, it won't melt. I soldered the wire ends that go into the controller lugs for superior connections. And any ring connectors I cut off, and replaced with heavier better ring connectors, and soldered those on, and used heat shrink. Soldered connections are the way to go. Not the best wire IMHO, but adequate.My RV is older, and has no plywood on the roof, just heavy metal. I had to buy two 10 foot pieces of Super strut cut down, and 1/4 in bolt receivers for the supplied Z brackets. And with that I was able to attach to the roof joices 16 inch on center, with 5/16 in x 1 1/2 inch lag screws. IT is very securely mounted. I placed pieces of plywood around to walk on.Nothing about these panels lines up to standard American carpentry measures. Super strut has holes, that line up to 16 inch on center for easy mounting. I mounted the panels on the roof edge to make it easy to get to with a small ladder for cleaning. The panels can be removed without leaving holes in the roof.The first thing I did with the wiring was to use red electrical tape, and clearly mark each end of the positive wires. Even on the panels, mark them, once mounted you can't see the + or -. That will keep you from mixing things up. Then I made my wire runs.The wall I mounted the controller on has a vent pipe, and that was my access point for the wires. The controller functions well enough. I was able to change the battery type to sealed (SEL) for my AGM 70 AH (x2) deep cycle 12 volt batteries. It has a log function to record how much power it makes. The phone app has much more in graphs and usage data, but unfortunately it don't work very well.I included an cutoff switch for the solar panels. IF the batteries are disconnected while the panels are connected, the controller will fry. This is clearly stated in the brief instructions. This is much easier then crawling up on the roof and pulling apart the connectors.Once the batteries were reconnected, I turned on the panels, and charging began. So far it is working very well. I gave the batteries a work out yesterday, ran the inverter with a shop vac, turned on the vent fan, and I was getting 135 watts/9.3 amps of solar power in bright sunlight. I was impressed. The batteries were charged up and back in "float" mode quickly.So far so good, we boondock often, and after a couple of nights, I need to hook up the truck and recharge. Those days are gone!Edit July 20, 2020I became so dissatisfied with the Renogy controller, I spent $120 and bought a better SCC, the Victron 75/15 MPPT SmartSolar. It works flawlessly in all regards. Especially on cloudy days, this became an issue. I have a review on that unit here. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075NQQRPD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1In essence, in the Renogy "kit" I ordered, only the solar panels and wire were worth keeping. My advice, buy the panels, get some wire, but pass on the Renogy controller, bluetooth dongle (a total waste of $45, and I do mean a waste of money), and most certainly the threw the roof glan.For all that I am reducing the stars to two.