How Do I Disconnect My Solar Panels for Storage/Maintenance?

Updated 09/22/2026 | Published 09/20/2026

Question:

I bought a go power slim solar power kit from retailer and installed it this past spring. Everything is going good until I went to disconnect to have it stop changing. I went to setting 4 and switched to disconnecting it said it did but I still had some power going into the trailer. I could turn on the cabin light. I did switch the batteries off before trying to disconnect the solar. So my question is. Could mey solar controller be bad? Since it isnt completely disconnecting. If so it sould be under warranty since its not even been a year since I bought it. Or am I just missing something.

asked by: Donald H

Expert Reply:

Hi Donald,

The disconnect setting you mentioned is to stop the controller from sending power to the batteries, but there is still power going into the controller from the panels if they're not covered. It's a small amount of power, but definitely enough to power something small like the 12V cabin light. To disconnect your panels and stop them from charging you'll need to cover the panels with something to stop them from producing voltage. Then you'll need to find the inline fuse or circuit breaker installed on the positive wire coming down from the roof and pull/flip it. When the solar input reads zero, then you can disconnect the batteries with the trailer's battery disconnect switch.

The solar panels always need to be disconnected before the batteries because the solar controllers require a continuous, baseline voltage connection to a battery to know whether they should be outputting 12V, 24V, or entering a specific charging profile. If you cut the battery off while the solar panels are still pushing power into the controller, it can confuse the system, trigger error codes (like a "Low Battery" or voltage fault), or eventually damage the controller.

Did an error codes pop up on your controller?

expert reply by: Claire H