“We have had dramas getting enough charge from our old "4ish years" KickAss portable panels in sub optimal "cloudy" conditions. So we decided to lash out on the new 300W portable as we now have 2 sets of battery to charge Caravan AGM and Lithium in a battery box.
The Lithium also appeared to be a bit challenged on recharge seeming to get stuck at 13.2V.
The last week to 3/11/23 I have had the panels on my balcony north facing charging my Lithium 100 AMP .
Conditions have been cloudy at best and most of the time raining. The battery has reached a resting charge of 13.4 which I understand is 99%. I recently could not get it to that on mains power charging.
So it would appear that the KickAss rhetoric to buy quality not price rings true once again.
We are about to embark on a 6 week tour of Tassy with the caravan and hope to do a lot of off grid work no doubt in those sub optimal sunlight conditions.
So I will update KickAss how it goes in mid February”
“300w is great but the size that the panels fold down to is an issue for storage and transport. By comparison a 200w I have folds down to a briefcase and is much easier to store and therefore use. I haven't taken it camping yet because I have yet to work out where to store it safely during transport.”
“On first use two of the support legs fell off in my hand. I am very careful with my gear but it didn't matter. They are pop riveted on and just pulled out. I am currently on a trip and will have to find a hardware shop to rectify this issue.
I have 2 pieces of firewood supporting the subject panels. Otherwise the panels are great.”
“Panels are great. Wiring is pretty good. Instructions are good. Canvas bag is pretty good and has a pocket large enough to carry extensions etc. Be nice if the canvas was higher quality / thicker though. Can't see it lasting too long. The fold out legs / stands are terrible. Very flimsy weak plastic assemblies held in with rivets that don't hold all that well and put a lot of stress on the alloy frame, which itself isn't very strong. My panels arrived with a bent piece on the alloy frame and one set of legs bouncing around in the box. I drilled out the old rivets and rivetted them legs back on prior to the trip but they ended up falling off again because the alloy had already weakened. I would have sent them back but was too close to a camping trip so probably too late now as unit is used. I plan to upgrade the fold out legs if I can but shouldn't have to really. I understand the unit is built for light weight but first and foremost camp gear needs to be rugged.”
“The panels charge quickly but it had two broken corners (which four spares included) and one of the stands fell off when we opened it up. Otherwise a great product.”
“Bought the 300w panels as panels I had were not big enough to charge battery (8amp max) with 2 fridges running. Now being able to input between 12 & 16 amps, battery charges in no time so more worries about my beer staying cold. Bloody great product”
