Recommendations for Solar Blanket/Mat

Jim, thank you, will check them out. Cheers.

Yep, I've had a hardkor mat for 5 years and it's pretty well put together. 160W I think, it works pretty well.

I bought a Hardkorr 200W mat last year, based on recommendations on this forum and from people I know whose views I respect. I'm about to ship it back under warranty. It's seriously underperforming. It seemed fine when brand new, but its perfomance quickly deteriorated.

The circumstances were a little confusing (long story omitted), but I finally got confirmation of its underperformance a couple of weeks ago when I was camped next to someone with the same panels and was able to do an A-B test eliminating all oher variables. He was getting well over 8W in low winter sun and I was struggling to get 5W. I've also seen a report of on FB of someone who had a series of faulty units,

It's true that my case is just a single instance, and the FB evidence is only heresay, but nonetheless I thought I should report my experience to indicate tha problems can an do happen. I can report how the warranty claimn goes once I know.

Good post Briste. I'm no expert, but therein lies the problem with solar panels, you never know what you're going to end up with. But I think that's also common with many things now as there are so many manufacturers and distributors.

I try to buy things from businesses that have a good, long reputation & trading history where possible.

At least there should be someone to contact should the purchase go faulty.

Just to keep the post on topic, I ended up looking at solar blankets hours after posting above and have found 2 by HardKorr, both of which look good. I'd buy another HardKorr panel based on my experience with the current one I have.

Good luck.

I hesitated to post because one person's experience plus a bit of hearsay doesn't amount to much. I did so hoping to flush out both good and bad experiences, as that may give me a sense of how isolated my experience is. It would be a pity of the OP was put off Hardkorr by my post if my experience is an isolated one, but if it's not then he should know.

I'm also interested in other recommended brands, if I decide not to stick with HK.

HK have send me an RA number, but I'm responsible for posting it back. Postage will be refunded if the warranty claim is upheld.

I have some HK items as well and are performing fine but the thing that turns me off this company for future purchases is you cannot ring them up as they don’t provide a phone contact. You are at their mercy to respond to an online enquiry request
I had a simple but important question to ask and it took 4 days to get a response which by then it didn’t matter anymore , I want better customer support than that and really turned me off

I have since focused my purchases to other Aussie companies in the same market that will provide better support

I made the same discovery. Took two days to get a reply to my online warranty form submission and get a return authorisation.

Which other local companies are you now using? The only other unqualified, first-hand recommendation in this thread so far is Redarc.

I’ve been using Springers Solar, in Brisbane, for my solar & 12v gear the past couple of years.

Don’t recall if they sell solar blankets, but they sell “everything” else! And excellent service too.

Bob

Bristle I also have both Itechworld and Enerdrive gear and have no trouble calling and discussing their products with them

I promised an update on the outcome of my warranty claim for my under-performing Hardkorr 200W solar mat.

In short, it went fairly smoothly. It took two days to get an RA number after filling in the warranty claim form, but the claim was approved the day the mat arrived back at Hardkorr and the replacement was shipped the next day. The refund of my postage costs was a little slower - took over a week and required a prompt - but it happened last night.

I was sent a new, boxed package, the version without the regulator, plus the original solar regulator. I did a quick test of the replacement when it arrived and it seemed to be performing up-to-spec, but I haven't seen a lot of sun since then to do further testing. The previous set also performed up-to-spec when new, but not for long, so I hope history doesn't repeat itself. If you look at the reviews of this mat on the HK site, there are several recent reviews with similar symptoms to mine, i.e. under-performing, so I wonder whether there was a batch problem.

I hope history doesn't repeat itself because I like the package. The only reservations I have are that the regulator is PWM, and the 5m cable could be a thicker gauge.

P.s. Regarding phoning Hardkorr, here are a couple of numbers that I called or was called from: 07 3801 8491 (I think this is a public number) and 07 3801 8332 (could be a number for warranty). In addition, there is a phone number listed on the website for their camper division which you could try.

Macca, I would agree with your comment on Itechworld kit. I bought their 500w portable power station to run a 12v electric blankek drawing initially 60-70w before pulling less once settled. You could see the power ebbing away on the digital readout, dropping power by the minute. Took it back after 1 week