EGO CH1800 Nexus Solar Panel Charger Adapter

Solid like a tank. Heave as a tank as well. Great product works like a charm. I love it. Has come in handy several times, saving me having to power up the gen set. However, why in the world is it such a bust when it comes to solar?. Come on folks. Provide us a proper way to not only use solar to charge the batteries but also to have pass-through in order to use the 'power' of the init. I love my EGO products but there are some glitches that can only come from engineers not talking to consumers. Got some issues on my z6 also that fall into that category.

This product definitely works as advertised! As long as the solar panels are receiving direct sunlight, the power station will power up your batteries no problem. Make sure to keep the power station and the solar adapter out of the sun. Buying extension cords helps with this.

The solar charger is simple to connect and use. It does it’s job as I expected. I wish it were integrated into the inverter unit but it’s otherwise great. It seems robust like I’ve come to expect from Ego.

It is grossly overpriced and difficult to find. It is nothing more than a solar charge controller that should sell for around $50.00 tops. It gets hot, very hot. I put a battery operated fan blowing on it to try to keep the heat under control. Heat is the kiss of death for all electronics. The specs for it are difficult to understand since they do not jive with common solar panel specs. A call to EGO was useless. I waited over 30 minutes to speak to a nice lady in a foreign country that knew absolutely nothing about this item. I knew more than she did. There are apparently three parameters you must abide by; 180 watts max input, 10 amps max input, 12-22 volts max input. EGO recommends a 100 watt panel that on a really good day you might get 75-80 watts, maybe. Any type of light clouds and you're going down to half that. I've run the test here in Arizona where the sun is powerful to say the least. This is common with all 100 watt panels, you will never get the max, never. Run the numbers and see just how useless this solar system really is. A 10 amp battery has 560 watts. Deplete it to 10% and it needs 504 watts to get back to 100%. At 75 watts and hour it takes nearly 6.75 hours to charge. If you use a 200 watt panel you have to babysit it with a DC amp clamp meter to make sure you do not exceed the 10 amp limit. Even then 150-160 amps is about the best you can expect in the real world. At 160 amps it still takes over 3 hours to charge under near perfect conditions. I knew all this going in and was not impressed but there is really no other choice for the average guy. Just be aware of the limitations before you buy an expect zero customer support in regards to this charge controller. I really do like EGO products but their customer support has gone from very good when they first came out to near absolutely useless now. You had better be able to figure things out on your own.

This item was a little hard to find and I had to wait about a month to receive it, but it was worth the wait. I set it up exactly as described with a 100 watt Renology panel. The instructions were very clear. Some reviewers complain about the slowness of solar charging, but it performed as I expected. Solar power requires a bit of patience, but I optimize the exposure of the panel by re-positioning it regularly as the sun changes position. In just a couple of hours, I was able to charge 4 partially discharged batteries plus an additional battery that I used for my string trimmer. The only challenge is keeping the charger and adapter in the shade while the panel is in full sun. I rigged up an insulated shade to protect the charger and adapter and will probably improve on that design for long-term use. It is wonderful to have this charging option on hand for both routine and emergency use.