Morningstar ProStar 15 Charge Controller with Meter

[John Sluder]

Looking at buying the Morningstar ProStar 15 Charge Controller for my 31ft Seafarer and 2 10 watt panels to keep the batteries from dying an early death. I do not have access to shore power and my understanding that most wet batteries die well before their time do to poor charging control and sulfated plates well before the lead plates are consumed.

I have the understanding that the newer intelligent solar controllers with the pulse width modulation feature reduces the sulfate build up and gets max power from the solar panels.

Later when I have more money I would like to get an 85-130 watt panel, upgrade to 2 battery house bank and marine inverter. Still working out what I want/need for power on the boat.

Have others installed this unit, have good luck extending that life of there wet deep cell batteries.

 

[Bill Roosa]

No expierance with the unit but if you are going to upgrade to 85-130 watts of solar you would want to by a controler that does that now so you don't have to buy another one later.
FWIW

 

[Ron20324]

Looking at buying the Morningstar ProStar 15 Charge Controller... I have the understanding that the newer intelligent solar controllers with the pulse width modulation feature reduces the sulfate build up and gets max power from the solar panels.

Right here on my desk I have the Morningstar TrakStar MPPT from SolarBlvd that I'm about to install. (SS-MPPT-15L). Perhaps you mean the MPPT technology for maximum output? It has the auto-equalization ability, but I'd rather be on the boat and turn on the EQ process on myself. Besides, my shore charger can do that function. There are dip switches to set that option. I went to SolarBlvd on Sumner's suggesting them, then someone else ditto'd his suggestion. You might go there and look. If you start out with smaller panel, you probably have to change your mounts/wiring when you move up. And start all over again.

 

[Stu Jackson]

..... my understanding that most wet batteries die well before their time do to poor charging control and sulfated plates well before the lead plates are consumed.

It's not poor charging control alone, it's lack of leaving batteries partially discharged. That's why solar makes sense especially on a mooring. I don't like to keep our boat plugged in when I'm not there, so we have a small solar panel on our boat in our slip, too.

Proof? When I broke my leg a few years ago, the boat was not plugged in nor was the solar panel connected (you know the story, I hadn't planned to break my leg skiing) and the batteries now need to be replaced (I've tried everything to bring them back to life).