OptiMate Portable Solar Panel with Controller - 80 Watt Solar Panel

Video Transcript for OptiMate Solar Duo Portable Solar Panel with Controller Review

Hi everyone, it's Evangeline here at etrailer and today we'll be taking a look at our OptiMate portable solar panels with controllers. You can get this in some different sizes. I have the 10 Watt here. The main purpose of the solar charging system is to charge or maintain the batteries of your vehicle when you're out camping. So it's not really there to power your coffee pot or run your refrigerator, but rather it's a smaller panel because it has a smaller purpose. So in that case, with a 20 or 10 or 40 Watt options, you do have a lighter, more compact option for you and it's also portable, just not as powerful as some other setups out there.

So included with this kit is gonna be your carrying case. You have some easy to use handles for the whole thing and when you open up the case and undo the zipper, you then have access to your panel which has the suction cups as well as your pouch. So your pouch is gonna have all of your different cords and your solar controller and if you have other tools you wanna include, you can put them in here. So this has suction cups included with it as well as a wingnut in the back in order to secure it. So when you store it I do recommend putting the suction cup where the panel is facing that we have a little cushion inside of your bag but when you're ready to put it onto a flat surface, flip that suction cup around so it's facing the back.

The trick to a proper fit is holding down the wingnut as you turn the suction cup as well as making sure your surface area is clean and free of debris. Once you've done all that, then you just push up against that surface and the cup suction and then your solar panel is secure. Having those suction cups gives you more versatility for where you can put this panel. So try to get it as close to your battery as you can. So for example, with this 10 Watt panel, we have 80" of the cable that actually is only 72" or six feet because of where it sticks out of the panel.

So this will help you figure out how much space you have left over. For mounting it to the battery, you have two options. For the quick and easy one, you have these clamps and make sure to attach them positive and then negative. Now I personally prefer to use the second option which is the quick mount so you these attach to your ring terminals and that way you can keep them on there and not have to worry about install every single time. I actually use the OptiMate system with my own vehicle.

So I just connect the ring terminals to the battery and I just leave this on here for months at a time. Make sure that the dust cap is at the end so it's protected from the dust and debris. And then when you wanna connect your solar panel, you set up the solar panel, you get your quick connector, you line up the polarities and you push them together. Now we have our solar controller and you wanna make sure you're connecting the correct sides. So there's in where you have the sun that means that's where the solar panel goes. Then you follow the arrows to the out and that goes towards the battery. So after you double check that, you can then plug them together. There's going to be one, two, three, four and five different light bulbs on this monitor. So number one is just gonna show you if it's charging or not. This will change depending on how much sun you have and the speed will change too if it's really bright outside or overcast. Now two, three and four are gonna be for most of your AGM batteries, your usual 12 volt batteries. So if it's a dead battery and it needs to be saved, you'll see the two when you go about halfway and you need to charge, there'll be the three and then finally the fourth one is 100%. Your fifth light is gonna be for your LFP or your lithium batteries. So the portability of this panel is really helpful because then you can move your panel around to get the best sunlight. You are limited though by your flat surfaces as well as it being vertical or horizontal. So if the sun is angled this way, you're gonna have to deal with just this way. Now where this really shines though is gonna be your solar controller because depending on the sunlight it switches between a continuous charge and a pulsing charge and it also optimizes whichever is best for your battery. So it checks out the different voltage and it changes how much pulse it's giving that battery. That way you can charge it and maintain it. So it is different from your heavy duty solar panel set ups that are designed to run heavy duty things. This is designed to keep your battery alive, to keep your battery going or to save your battery. That way you can still get from point A to point B or you're able to leave the campsite when you're done with your big adventures. So this is gonna be a polycrystalline solar panel which is also weatherproof. So you do have your metal sides to help give you that good frame to protect that panel on the inside. What's gonna happen here though is that it's not as efficient as a monocrystalline panel. Like it still works really, really well. But when you want efficiency when it comes to space, you then start looking at those monocrystalline panels. In our case here, what you could do is either upgrade from the 10 Watt to the 20 Watt or the 40 Watt to compensate for that space. Now you can get this as a non portable version without the bag or the suction cups. It's gonna work the exact same way. You can find them all here at etrailer. Check out our pages, our descriptions, as well as our pictures to help you find the best fit. But this right here was a look at the OptiMate portable solar panels with included solar controllers at etrailer.com. My name is Evangeline and I hope you enjoyed the journey.