Side by Side Comparison of: Docooler vs ECO-WORTHY vs ACOPOWER vs AEO vs Newpowa

I needed to wire up a solar panel to charge a 12v SLA battery that would power a security alarm system I installed on a cargo trailer. This product is easy to wire in and understand -- I didn't need the manual. All of the icons and LED indicators are perfect for what I needed. My solar panel outputs 18v on a bright, sunny day. So, this gives the proper amount of overcharge protection to my battery and safely powers my security alarm system.

This little charge controller has already been through a tough North Dakota summer- and is still working great!I thought for sure I was going to have to build a weatherproof enclosure for this as the sides are open for ventilation. I figured dirt and rain would have this system of the fritz in just days. But since this was an experimental system for solar powered pumps, I figured I might as well sacrifice this inexpensive controller to see where the limits are.To my surprise, the system has been wet, dirty and shocked hard when the 2X4 it was attached to fell over in a rain\wind storm. So far, it still works perfectly. It appears there is some sort of coating on the circuit board that insulates it from the environment! Whoever built this understood it's a field unit and designed it accordingly.The screws on the base can be tightened very tight to hold wire connectors securely- without stripping or breaking the device. The screws are made from plated metals to prevent corrosion and the base where the screws attach to is metal too. No worries about breaking this device with field use when you really need to torque the wires down hard. This has hard metal where it counts!The unit comes with two open holes on the side for screwing it onto a piece of wood. (Or you could even tack it on with a nail.)The drawing for connections is universal and obvious. If you can put in a car battery, you can install this with a solar panel and batteries.As to it's ability, I paired this with two recycled 8AH 12V Sealed Lead Acid (SLA) batteries. It does a better job charging these than my expensive battery "conditioner" that's 20 times bigger and heavier than this controller.It's meant to be paired with a solar panel and if you are looking for its match in ruggedness and price, check out the ECO-WORTHY 20 Watts Epoxy Solar Panel I reviewed. I got really lucky and found two very inexpensive systems that were both ideal matches for my tough applications.If you are looking for systems to use outside in a garden or farm environment, I recommend these two systems!Put the Eco-Worthy 20 watt epoxy solar panel (crazy tough- I seriously abused mine and it looks brand new,) with this controller and keep any small scale battery array or starting batteries fully charge all the time. Auto-detects 24V and 12V battery arrays, measures their charge state and decides to charge them when their is excess power. It also supplies the load with the solar cell when their is excess power and it won't let the batteries discharge below a recommend state while powering the load! That means it powers the load from the batteries at night and will turn the load off once the batteries reach their discharge point. So this is much more than just a charge controller! It's a smart load controller too!!!!!Great for fountains, security\gate systems, outdoor video, cars\trucks\tractors\mowers\motorcycles\ski mobiles or any other vehicle that will sit a while and needs to have it's battery charged.My application is for a small 12V water pump in garden. (Think small waterfall pump.) 350mA continuous water pump 24X7. Still going strong after a months use!

Great little controller for my project. I use this to maintain the voltage on a old truck battery. From there I run 6 4.2 inch computer fans to cool 3 grid-tie inverters on my solar panel arrays. It took about a week to bring the battery up to full charge and go into float charge mode.I run the fans off the "load" terminals, I would have preferred that the load output turned off when the sun no longer powered the charge controller but it provides power to the fans 24/7. It doesn't appear that there is an adjustment for the "load" output. In my case it doesn't matter, the 50 watt panel used with the charge controller keeps the battery up, I haven't seen it drop below 12.3 volts after running the fans all night.

Seems to be working just fine. See people complaining about this killing batteries when still attached to battery and put into storage where there is no light. It does have 3 LED lights that will continuously stay on to indicate battery charge level.. Not sure if thats strong enough to nuke a large battery eventually but I suppose its possible. The smart thing to do, is add some male and female quick disconnect connectors in between all your wires so you can disconnect the battery from the Charge Controller when storing. You should always disconnect form this device when charging from a different source also. Just be smart and you wont have the problems you see on the 1 star reviews here.

I did a bit of research on these, CMP12's (10amp), There are many verities, i figured i would get the newer one with the good heatsink good potentiometers and a crappy micro fuse, but i got a totally different one, with micro potentiometer, the upgraded heatsink, and the original auto breaker(instead of the fuse) SO I'M REALLY IMPRESSED!I will update after i hook my 80watt panel to this and run it over the next camping trip (probably get back to the review in june) If it turns out well i'll post pictures of mine without the case so you can see what i'm talking about.

I have 2 on my boat - one for the starter battery, one for the accessory power. Seems to do the job nicely - batteries are topped off during the week and ready for the weekend. Probably not as efficient as the MPPT type controllers, but in my case a few extra watts isn't a big issue.

Nice little controllers, but not adjustable in anyway

This doesn't matter if you disconnect the charge controller after charging completes; but, either this model does not have a blocking diode or mine is broken, because my "conected" leds continue a weak glow after I disconnect the solar panel. I have ordered a second controller to test this problem; but, in any event, this is a great little package, especially the prong connectors and plastic shield cover. Those who complain about the "load" circuit not working probably do not know how load circuits work (only when there is no solar panel and/or when battery is fully charged). Check two controllers to verify before returning as defective. You need two for a backup anyway, so quitcherbit**in about buying a second one.

I've had it for about 3 months and don't use it daily. I have mainly been using it with a 10 watt panel to charge my daughter's power wheel car. I did have to put a blocking diode in line from the panel as there was some current flowing back into the panel. I don't remember where I read thos information, but always make sure the solar panel is disconnected if there is no battery. If the panel is hooked up without a battery it can damage the controller.

Stopped working in 7 days. My project consist of a 12 volt 5 watts solar panel, a 12 volt 7 amp battery, a 12 volt to 5V/2A power supply and the Docooler Solar Charge Controller. The load output worked sometimes, when it did my battery gets a full charge during the day, and supply my power supply during the night. However the controller NEVER show all 3 LEDs indicating full battery ( I tested the battery using a volt meter). Now on the 7th day all 3 LEDs stopped working and 1 to 2 volts on the load output. I then tried using it as a 24 volt setup, I got a 24V load output but still no battery level indication.UPDATE: I received a faulty one so the seller sent me a replacement and now after almost a year the replacement stopped working. No voltage on the load output.The seller quickly send a replacement but took a while to arrive because it came from China. It is working perfect, I guess I just got a faulty one the first time, I will upgrade to a 20 amps soon. The red LEDs indicating how much charge the battery has are very bright but they don't bother me, they actually gets brighter (one by one gradually) as the battery receives charge, so I can say I can "see" my battery charging.

I built a solar powered water pump for my water slide. I used a 12v pump, ATV 12 v battery, a solar panel I bought from Harbor Freight and this little controller. Seems to work great.

My cheap-o 7A controller disintegrated over time, like it was made of paper, and I needed a heavier controller anyway for my additional panels.This one is doing it's job quite well, no reverse feed at night, very little loss from panels to batteries, and the addition of contacts for LOAD are really nice to have!So far, I have zero complaints after two months of use.EDIT - 4/14/2015:After using this charge controller for a year, it is still doing its job well, but not as well as it was last year. The output Voltage last year was 13.3V, and now it is pushing 12.8 on the average day. This is still sufficient to maintain a full-charge on a vehicle's battery, but not nearly enough to efficiently charge deep-cycle batteries in a solar bank. Dropping to 4-stars

its ok, not sure if the performance is as good as it could be tho.

Can't give more than or less than 3. Light weight. Doesn't seem to be well made but I am just using it to try make an ammo box solar generator for 12v batteries.

Seems to be working good, have not touched it since I installed it a few months ago. Update It still charges the battery but the output to the device being powered has become very unreliable when dealing with higher amperage (5<) Had to hook the device I was powering directly to the battery. Seems to still be working fine with lower amperage electronic components.

you would think a Solar Charge Controller would have a port for solar panel cables. But no you gat to cut them or make them. Come on guys get your head out of their!.And give this the right cable ports!

40/60 chance that "Load" has any output. If you buy this one, make yourself a test rig with a battery, panel, and multi-meter (connect in that order) and check load before spending time wiring up your system. Had 3 of 5 units in 2016 returned. No hassle on returns. Eventually I just switched over to the 20A version (which to date has had no issues).

we got this to use as a battery charge controller .but it eats more power then it allowed to be put in the battery ???i am using a 5 watt panel and a 10 watt panel in parallel and can just barely keep a little 12v 5ah battery alive ?i would only use this with a 100 watt panel and a deep cycle battery .

The load end quit working less than a month after I started using it

it is very easy to short circuit and when it does the entire thing sparks and black smoke comes out, other than that it's decent

Update, Jan '16: I briefly shorted the wires attached to the load on this unit and it no longer functions at all. I disassembled, expecting to see a fuse or something but nothing. My fault. Use a fuse, or be careful. Lowering rating to two stars.We were shipped a basically generic product - it says 'CE' and 'CMP12' - no Docooler branding like the image here. We attached a 22W solar panel and a 12V 7AH motorbike battery to it. The brand-new battery shows two lights (ie medium charge) and the 'charge' light comes on when it's sunny and goes off when it gets dark - looking good.The strange thing is that the 'load' light is always on, even though there's nothing attached to the load outputs. It will always be on as long as you have a battery attached. Basically this light has little meaning other than indicating that the unit itself is functioning, and/or acting as an extra battery light.While we were yet to attach a load to this unit the battery lights would go up to three almost as soon as the sun came out, then go back to two as soon as the sun went down. Attaching a 4W water pump would make the lights go down to two after 90 seconds. We just hoped the lights were unreliable, and that we didn't have a faulty battery.For the big test we disconnected the solar panel, attached the 4W water pump, and left it running until the next morning. After 20 hours we were surprised to see the pump was still running and there were still two battery lights! We calculated the 7AH battery should be just about finished after 20hrs at 4 watts, but no problem. Also, with no solar panel attached the 'charge' light would always be illuminated or half-illuminated.So those lights are quite random. Keep a solar panel connected the whole time, ignore the 'load' light, and use the battery lights as a very rough guide. Clearly it's charging the battery to its maximum capacity and keeping it in good condition.I'll give a generous three stars because it's basically 'okay' - even though I recommend you don't actually buy one of these - it's just a generic model and these are being sold under half-a-dozen brands including 'generic' - all cheaper than we paid for this, down to about six dollars.This model is fun to use, guides you in wiring up your first project, and I assume it does the intended job in keeping your battery in good condition.

buy a better one you will be glad you did

Draws too much current for a Solar Charge Controller. At 12VDC, I measured the current draw at almost 16mA. This may not sound like a lot, but over a 24 hr period, this will drain your battery by 384 mA-Hrs. Not good.

You get what you pay for. Its basically just a voltage on/off switch with a low voltage disconnect. Not PWM. It does not have common ground between all legs which is a pain if you want to measure PV and Bat voltage from the same ground plain. I gave it 4/5 stars because the price is cheap so performance is what I would expect.Update: After a year this thing fried my 7ah battery, likely overcharging it. I put the controller it on a meter and it would be at 14.4-14.6V continuously even after the battery was charged. Does not appear to have a float V mode on this thing. Full Bulk voltage all the time.

I purchased two of Docooler 10a 12/24v Solar Charge controller and they do not control the solar panel charge at all. Fried my deep cell lead acid battery. Voltage in from solar panel to controller measured with meter was 19.5 volts, voltage out from controller to battery 19.5 volts on both units. Confirmed voltage meter accuracy with 12 volt battery.

Had my solar panel battery and pond pump hooked up lasted 2 weeks before it burned out crap product

Finally got around to installing this year. Unit worked for about 4 months and then just completely crapped out. First it stopped giving power to the load terminals (batteries were full).... and then it just completely stopped working period.

I had this hooked up to my camper in storage. Panel got direct sun about 85% of the day and indirect the rest. The panel is a quality 10W panel from an industrial source. Either the controller wastes too much current, doesn't prevent backflow, or both. Regardless my two 120AH camper batteries were drained from 13.5V when I parked the camper to 11.5V over a few weeks time. The goal of this unit was to keep the batteries topped off while in storage. Clearly a failure.

Terrible quality, will not last too long and definitely not very well seal to make it waterproof. When contacting the seller they don't have enough English to help you well neither they understand the way customer service is done in the US. Believe me you don't want to buy from this seller.

Defective, had to return. It would take voltage from the solar panel and charge the batteries but it wouldn't output any voltage on the LOAD terminals. One of the battery power level LED was defective (lit, off, lit), it has 3 red LED to indicate battery level.I returned it and purchased 2 of the 20A version and they both work as it should. Glad I did since the 20A version was about the same price as the 10A version.