Whats the best charge controller for the money?

 I have a CC120 Heliotrope charge controller set at State of Charge (SOC)
set point of 14.7 by the dip switchs. I have limited documentation on
this controller and while it has performed flawless for the past couple
of years, I have gotten a new battery bank (ten T605 Trojans, yeilding
950 AmpHrs at 12 volts) and I am worried that I might need to buy a new
controller that has the bulk and float setpoints that Trojan suggests.

  My system presently charges with 27 amps of solar panels but I have
another 20 amps of panels I will install soon. My system spends a lot of
time fully charged since I usually only visit the cabin on the weekends.

Since I will now be up to the C20 charge rate when I add the other
panels I am concerned about over charging.

1. Since I am not sure how the CC120 works should I reduce the SOC
setting down to the 13.6?

2. Should I sell the controller and buy a modern unit?

Thanks
Offgridman

  If you want your battery bank to last more than 2-3 years ... you'll need a
better controller.

Lowering your float to 13.6 volts will just kill the batteries faster since
they will never get fully charged

The Outback MX60 is best choice out there , about 500.00 with mppt and 60
amps current handling. The old Xantrex C40/C60's are allot less features but
only run 130.00 and up but are 3 stage controllers and will be way better
than what you now have.  Consider the investment in batteries and solar
panels , getting a good mppt charger seems obvious.

 Thanks for the feedback. What do you think about the 60 amp tri-star
from Morningstar? Seems a 60 amp charge controller can be had  for $199
  with temperature sensor. I have sworn off Xantre / Trace because of
their manipulation of the market by telling dealers they cannot list
prices on the web, and because they have lousy customer service.
  The Mppt is a little pricey for my budget.
Thanks again
Offgridman

Solar Guppy wrote:

 Huh ? , many sites list the non-list price on the Xantrex products

For example , list price on C60 is 199.00

http://shop.altenergystore.com/itemdesc.asp?CartId 61636-EVEREST-5ERPIV50&
ic=XANC60&cc=&tpc=

on the C60 , for $161.00

http://www.aaaffordablesolar.com/487.html

on the C60, for 155.00

http://www.sunelec.com/Distributors_/Wind-Regulartors/controllwind-regularto
rs.html

on the C60 , for 155.00

(I can personal vouch for the sunelec people as I just bought both there
Photowatt 155 panels for 2.50 watt and there BP MSP49L's for 1.50 watt. I
drove down to Maimi and picked up from there store)

As for crappy service , what do you judge this on ? I personally know the
engineering and support staff for this product and they try very hard to be
responsive to customer questions/issues. Selling products in this market
(RE) is a tough business , low volumes , lots of competition make it almost
impossible to make a sustainable business on.

If you want field proven , reliable product, there are literally 10's of
thousands of these controllers in the field working well. I know nothing
about Morningstar products except from reading there ad's and there was a
tech support person monitoring the www.solar-guppy.com discussion board when
I started it last year.

I think the Outback is the best feature controller , I think the Xantrex C
series is the best value and there are at least 3 other companies that I
have no personal feedback on in between.

It's your money , but I would go with what is proven , since regardless of
anyone's opinion on the company , it's the product and how it performs that
matters in the end.

 
arming dealers that I remember.



I judge this from my experience with them not answering my emails, not
returning my telephone calls. I have a couple of tiger inverters that
I have had for a while and got ZERO support from them when I needed
it.


I personally know the

Maybe because they know you they respond, not to me.
Like I said earlier I tried several times to get support from them and
got nothing.

Selling products in this market

I know I have a C12 it works well. but I won't give them a dime more
of my money until they improve customer support.

 I know nothing

I agree
Did you ever notice how many remanufactured Xantrex products are on
the market?
Seems like a  lot.