I just wanted to post some of my findings on some tests I have done on maxray
solar panels. There is an earlier thread on here asking how good they are and my answer to that is that they are an incredibly inefficient
panel and I would avoid them as there are much better ones out there, here is why.
Firstly I purchased the 140 watt folding
panel off ebay and when I got it, visually the build of the legs and the cable sizing was on the cheap side, I then proceeded to pack my 40 lt engel with and of drink on Friday night and ran it to a space temperature of about 2-4 degrees, I have a 120 ah deep cycle battery in my vehicle. I had previously done the calculations on what size
panel I should require on the redarc web page and it came out saying that a 120 watt
panel would suit so you would think the 140 watt
panel would handle it easily, right? WRONG I checked the battery charge at the start of the day on Saturday and after having the
panel in perfect sunlight all of Saturday the battery lost charge, I did the same on Sunday and by the end of the day on Sunday my battery was flat. I sent this
panel back thinking that it may have been too small in size and got their 180 watt folding
panel and I had a similar result, the best amperage I got out of the
panel on a good day was 5 amps when it was supposed to be able to achieve 8. I then got this bleep s with their quality and sent that back and got my money back, I now have a kickass 200watt
panel and that puts out a constant 12 amps and is really
well built , happy as anything with this
panel I would recommend that people do not bother buying the maxray panels because you will be dissappointed with their effiency and hopefully I can save people the heartache I had with them.