Side by Side Comparison of: XCSOURCE vs Blovess

This controller has been in daily continuous use for over 15 months and I have had ZERO problems.

Put the programming on #16 and leave it. Make sure you hook up your system in this order: Battery; Solar Panel(s); Load. You will obviously have to hook up the battery to get power to the controller to set the program on #16. It is also important to hook the battery up FIRST so the controller knows if it is charging a 12v or 24v system. (That's the "intelligent" part in the product name.) Next connect your panels with NO LOAD on the system. Then finally, connect your load.

My controller is mounted inside a 5'x8' chicken coop, where it sees temperatures from 15 degrees F up to >95F. The 12 volt system it is controlling consists of the following:

- 50W Renogy mono-crystalline panel (sometimes with an additional 50W panel paralleled in for 100W total when we run a 18W brooder heater for baby chics)
- Trojan 150J 12 volt 150ah deep-cycle battery
- 5" 12 volt exhaust fan (controlled by digital controller)
- Digital temperature controller (for exhaust fan and 24/7 display of coop temperature)
- GLW 10W motion sensing LED flood light (outside the coop to spot predators at night)
- 12 volt 5W (40W equivalent) RV LED bulb inside the coop; controlled by a switch
- Occasional use of a 18W Brinsea brooder heater (that's when I add the extra 50W panel in parallel for faster battery recovery)
- The two "Load" wires from the controller feed directly into a fuse block, and each load component has its own fused circuit

If you are running a basic system such as the one above, then this is one of those inexpensive Chinese made controllers that will actually work and last. Just realize you are purchasing 30 amp pulse width modulated controller for under $20. Don't drive it too hard with excessive current loads, don't expect it to perform like a MPPT controller costing 10 times as much for the same load-carrying capabilities, and you will be satisfied with this unit. For the price, you cannot beat the value for use in a basic solar powered system.

The only negative is the to-be-expected virtually indecipherable chinglish instructions that come with all inexpensive Chinese products. However, this unit is so popular that good translations and explanations of how to use it can be found online.

I've used a handful of these different cheapo charge controllers form amazon and ebay.
They all pretty much work the same until you start spending $30 or more.

This one is basically exactly like all the others ive used, and that's a good thing.

Would definitely buy again.

Works really well to keep my 12v battery charged off my solar panels, and deliver power to my 5 gallon bucket swamp cooler.

I have mine connected to a 50watt panel and 14ah gel cell. So far, so good. Yes the instructions are ridiculous, but if you can set it to mode #16 you should be good to go.

I was a bit skeptical for the low price, but a fairly simple charge controller is easy to mass-produce these days. It's likely a copied design, but who cares. Cheaper solar is a good thing in this day and age. It's not the highest quality and shouldn't be used in a mission-critical situation (breathing machines? iron lungs? nuclear reactor cooling system?) . However, it does its job very well and is very reliable for my simple uses.

I don't ever plan on running 30 amps out of it, but I don't doubt that it probably could. (maybe keep away from flammable things?) I have a 20amp fuse installed in-line. it seems to have short protection built in though. I've accidentally shorted the load and it disables current for a few dozen seconds.

It's kept my gel cells topped off for several weeks now. All I use it for are lights, fan, and phone charging in a travel trailer. I only had trouble when I left the panel in the shade for a few days, it seemed to "forget" that it exists and I had to re-set the mode to 16 again.

A great little charge controller!

This is the first solar charge controller I've seen with an integrated, regulated 12v output - it's fantastic to use the power direct from the panel, or via the batteries - it really keeps my solar setup topped up and working well.

Fantastic value for the price - recommended!

I have a boat hoist that runs off of the boat battery. Consequently the boat is always put away with a seriously run-down battery. (Cranking the ~2000 pound boat up by hand gives you a pretty visceral idea of how much energy is used. I'm surprised it doesn't run the battery dead actually.) Using this with a 35W solar panel solves the problem. It has been working flawlessly all summer in spite of being drenched a few times. I wouldn't trust it to be absolutely waterproof, but it doesn't seem to mind a damp environment and it does a great job of topping off and maintaining the battery. Perfect for my purposes.

I have now purchased at least 6 of these and have them all in use, they work well for keeping batteries charged for emergency communications.

It does what it is supposed to do. Just be aware that it is not weather proof. There is no documentation saying that it is weather proof, but I have verification that it is not. Just make sure that it is housed where it won't sit in water or get a lot of direct precipitation and you should be fine.

I use this controller along with a 30Watt Solar Panel to keep the motor battery charged while my motor home is in summer storage. So far (after a month of use) the panel and controller are working perfectly. I was skeptical as to whether this device was any good since the price is so low but to my surprise, it is working as good as the more expensive models. Maybe it won't last as long but at the price - who cares. I'll simply order another one if this one goes out. I recommend it highly.

Works well with my 30W solar panel charging a 12V battery to drive a 5W pond pump. I put this in a water proof enclosure in the backyard. Haven't had an issue in a few months now.

So far so good, I have a battery, panels, and LED lights hooked up in a test environment, next to install in the real world. I am going to use this and a simple battery to power some led lights for my porch area in my backyard.

So far, works great. It sits in a water resistant enclosure outside. Still working great to keep a 12v battery juiced. My rig has a photocell switch which turns on a led after dark. I could have built the circuit myself, but at this price I couldn't pass up the time saving.

Simple easy to install. Evan though the instructions are in English the are still very Chinese and impossible to understand. For now I am using mode 16 which is default mode until I figure out the meaning of the other modes. Great product lousy instructions. Pretty pleased with how it works so will still give it 4 start.

First of all, the tiny print user manual is not very helpful. The set up is straightforward though. Pos and Neg to battery and Pos and Neg to solar panel. When all 3 lights are solid green; its working as it should. If you have a condition in which one of the green lights is on but very dim then you have a poor connection or a faulty connection. Mine works fine so far. When green Batt light flashes the battery is fully charged. Mine was at 13.1 volts according to the digital readout on my inverter. There is no battery level readout on the controller. In short, you get what you pay for. This is an inexpensive charge controller, no on/off switch, with crappy instructions. Mine works as it should but if it fails I will pay a little more and buy another brand.

Easy to set up with 30 watt panel for keeping lights and electronics working while truck camping and making sure truck will start to get me home. The instructions were vague and short but hook up was obvious by just looking at the screws labeling. It took a little while to set it up for automatic charging (10-15 min.) but with help from previous reviews and instructions got it done. Haven't had a real chance to really test it yet with bad weather (winter) limiting my camping but I don't foresee any problems. If anything pops up later I will add to review.

It's s good entry pwm controller for under 20 bucks. It functions as charge controller as stated. The two issues I have with this unit is that the timer function only turns on the load at night. I ended up purchasing a 12v timer to compensate for this units timer short comings. The manual is useless. I had to watch a youtube video of a similar product to figure most of it out.

Works as advertised so far, I'm using it with a single 15W solar panel and a small AGM battery. Pretty simple to use, once you figure out how it's programmed--the poorly-translated engrish instructions are not a lot of help.

The status LEDs are helpful: they indicate status of panel and battery, as well as when the load is switched on, which helps with initial setup.

Voltage setting seams low, will not get higher then 12.8 volts, with the panel putting out 20 volts.Would like to see 13.8 to 14.2.

Does what I need it to. I did notice without a battery the voltage on the load pins is not regulated.

Crapped out on me after about four weeks of use. Four weeks of use at Burning Man over three years, with most of the circuitry covered in caustic lakebed dust the entire time. So I can't blame it too much. Seems fine for the price, will probably replace it with another of the same one. (It is junk, don't get me wrong.... but what do ya want for $10?)

Does what it says it will do. My only concern is that the unit draws power from the batteries during the night to activate its LED lights. It would be nice if you could turn off the display lights until needed, but still keep it connected fully so the batteries recharge in the day, but don't discharge during the night.

Works as expected. The first one I received had a screw missing on the battery connection. Sent back and received the replacement fast. Recommend this for simple systems.

works for my solar panel which is 40 watt,, I bought a small voltmeter and hooked that up too, I dont get any voltage at the load though which puzzles me, although I have a couple of these around I have not got around to checking them out.

This seems to be a quality controller at a very reasonable price and more than normal functionality, but the translation of the manual to English is so bad that I may have to send it back because I can't understood the instructions. Also, the instruction manual is so small that I'm using a magnifier.

Does not work with # 10 wire but for the price it works.

I'm using this for my solar panel that I've dedicated as a phone and cordless power tool charging station. So far, it's done well with keeping the batteries charged. Though I haven't seen it go to 14v and down to 13v (which is the ideal way to top off lead-acid batteries, and it also states in the poorly written manual). It's only goes to 13v and down to 12.7v when I start using energy from the batteries.

so far it works well. The lug for tightening the wire into position stripped with very little tightening. I am waiting to see if it produces.

I used this to build an aquarium back up system. Everything works well except:
1. Sometimes, the controller will just blink the red lights really fast, and not power anything if touched. Even on the outer plastic
2. The most annoying - when trickle charging, the load current will pulse. The led lights connected to the load output are blinking in sync with the charging light. Putting a filter capacitor didn't help. For the sake of my equipment, I will have to put a stabilized power supply in there. That costs more money, and makes the product not really worth it.

They work good you just can't tell how much power is going through them.

Cheap, useful solar controller. Nothing fancy, and the heat sink is dicey. It works.

This product works as described.

Wish I had spent the extra $10-20 on a better controller. The battery charge indicator lights don't appear to be accurate, load cuts off when there are still 2 out of 3 red LEDs lit. So basically all you know is that the battery is either full (3 LEDs lit) or about to die on you (2 LEDs lit). Otherwise it appears to be charging my battery effectively, and does cut off the load when the battery is too low.

This device does a good job keeping a battery charged. However... if you lose the connection to the battery (blown fuse or corroded connection, etc.) the solar cell voltage (in my case 22vdc) goes directly to the load. For a load that is rated for +12vdc, this can be risky. Lo-power electronics could be zapped. Not a deal breaker for my usage, but something to be aware of.

It looked like it had been used and did not light up but it worked to charge

Not looking good so far.. will not charge.. going to upgrade to the 60 amp and see if it's any better. Does not show voltage. Settings are 0-17. Only controls full time load or timer. Upgraded from mohoo 20 amp. (Which worked longer)
Will further update in a couple more cycles. But so far.....

I owned a similar-looking controller that accidentally shorted out. So I bought this as a replacement. My old one would give an indication of the solar voltage output- the LED would either flash red or show constant red when the solar panel was actually charging the batteries. This LED gives no indication of the solar panel voltage output. It's either on or off, whether charging or not. Fairly useless. My old one allowed fine tuning of charge voltage parameters. This one is not adjustable in that way. I'm not all that happy with this one. I would recommend spending a bit more next time for a better unit. The few glorious reviews here are suspicious.

The product seems to be working, but I'm not sure how to work the features because the instructions are very hard to understand.

The connector block has two problems: 1. It is easy to strip the thread on the screws. 2. It is barely big enough for the cable (remember this is a 30A unit!).
Also it is a COMMON POSITIVE unit. The three positive terminals are commoned inside, so you need to separate the three negative wires which can sometimes be a problem on a negative earth vehicle.

The load works well in the beginning after two(2) weeks it stop working

After maybe a week of operation, the controller malfunctioned. It will still take in the panel voltage and charge the batteries, but the load terminals have no output. 2 stars because this is actually still useable (I can connect the loads to the battery directly if I really need to). Spend a little more. This one is now a backup for a worst case (better than nothing)

Battery meter stopped working

I hooked it up and everything worked just fine for one day. Day two the battery voltage dropped and the load switch opened as it is supposed to. I charged the battery all day and finally the charge switch open because the battery was full (again like it is supposed to. However, the load switch never did close again so I'm returning it.

Stopped working after a few days. Seller was great on refunding purchase.

Worked once and then stopped. It will charge the battery but output does not put out. Had to wire output direct to battery to get power.

Don't waste your money, go ahead and buy an AMERICAN made product. The manual is the size of a match book and is written in broken english, none of it makes any sense. I have yet to get the controller to work, the manual seems to be more for setting it up to turn lights off and on.

Pretty poor quality. Lasted only a couple months. Save your money and energy, buy a better quality controller.

The controler worked 7 days then died no lights no nothing I have a outback controler that was in a fire in my last house that still works 3 years later. I am very disappointed. I guess you get what you pay for

The product may be fine but the instructions are terrible. I assume they were translated by someone but most sentences are not complete or make any sense. I have a problem with the system and the instructions do not help in figuring out the problem.

THis stopped working after only one month and now the return window is closed.....

I am giving it a one because the load has stopped working after less than 10 uses. I set it up with a switch to some 12V lights in my shed and yes it's a 12V toggle switch. I don't need a light in the shed most of the time so other than showing my setup to 2 people I used it 3 or 4 times and the last time the lights quit. I got out my meter and the panels sending a charge, the battery has charge but the load is dead, nothing coming out of the unit. I recommend to look for something better which is what I will be doing next.

This controller worked great - for about 3 weeks. Easy to use and hook up. But it just died last night. No power provided to the load despite power from both the battery and the solar panel.

Controller represented as a 12VDC controller. When connected to a 21VDC Peak solar array and a 12VDC car battery the output is a stable 6VDC. No specs provided in the packaging. I cannot comment if this is just a problem of the wrong electronics put in the wrong case/housing, but I would not buy again as it was miss represented in the details represented here.

Lasted a couple days. Quit charging. I'm out the money and no charge controller.

It lasted for about a week. I've been slowly and incrementally uping the solar coming in, and the drain going out. And it blew at just under 2 Amps input. So Cheap build and wildly under spec proformance.