Missouri Wind And Solar

Purchased their 440amp controller. . . It is actually a 100 amp controller according to them. That was ok, I was only going to run 50 amps through

it, and that was more than enough.

Taking them at their word, I connected the 440A controller to my collectors.

It seemed to work for a few days, so I went back home which is 550 miles away.

I also decided to order a duel 880A controller, because I was going to put another 1500 to 2000 more watts into my system.

One month later I came back to my off grid house, walked by my battery box and controller, and smelled burning. . .

I discovered that the controller was burning up. So hot that you could not touch it, and hot enough to burn back some of the insulation.

I called Missouri wind and solar and told them what was going on. They claimed my wires were to small. . . (which they were not). So in order to appease them, I spent another 25 dollars and put heavier wire on. . .Exact same thing happened. . .the controller overheats. . . and gets extremely hot.

They told me that they were going to set up the situation in the Laboratory there in Missouri, telling me they will get back with me.

They never did. . .

I borrowed a IR thermometer and measured the temperature of the controller. . .It was over 500F. The bolts where the wires attack were discolored from the intense heat. I sent pictures of the temp, I also showed the amount of current going through the controller. . it was

about 35amps.

When All said and done, it had been over 3 months for the original controller and almost 3 months for the duel one that I purchased.

My reward for working with these people? They will only fix the single controller and give me 80 percent of the new controller. This means I will have to pay 25 dollars worth of shipping to get 45 dollars back from them. because of restocking charges.

The digital controllers seem to work, but the Solenoids cannot handle even close to the amount of current they claim .. I have tried 3 of them now, and even with 25 amps at 24 volts, they overheat.

There is no way in the world, it is impossible for those Solenoids to handle 100 amps. . . it is impossible, and they are lying about their product.

I found out through research, there are other folks who are having this exact same problem with these Solenoids. . . overheating and failing.

I uploaded three pictures. . .. One shows the contollers terminals. The terminals got so hot, that they are completely discolored. These are not small terminals either.

Another picture shows the temperature of the Solenoid. . .over 500 degrees F. . . I have discovered other people have ran into this exact same problem. . .I am lucky this didn't burn down my house.

Another picture shows the amount of current running through the Solenoid, which is about 35 amps. The lower picture shows the voltage drop across the terminals. .. Just less than 1 volt drop.

I have sent these pictures to Missouri Wind and Solar, and no response.

They refused to set up the situation in a Lab, because it has been months now since they told me that they would. . . and no response except to fix the 440A and give me back 80 percent of what I paid for the 880A. Which amounts to about 45 to 50 dollars.

The big issue is this. . . their controllers are far beyond dangerous. They cannot handle the current they claim, and others like me have pointed this out to them. They make every excuse to blame the customers, when in fact the controllers cannot handle that kind of current, not even close.

My setup when this happened, was about 35 amps of power, which shows on the Amp meter. that is 1/3 the so called rated power it can handle.

Lately I took the duel Solenoid that I have, and had to split up my panels 3 different ways in order for my system to work. I had to run 25 amps of power through each of the Solenoids for a total of 50 amps, and the third set of panels ( 24 amps), I ran directly to the batteries. With this setup, the Solenoids still got hot enough that you cannot touch them, but allowed them to cool down when they switched off. The third set of panels that ran to the batteries kept the Solenoids turned off long enough to cool down and not get hot enough that you could smell them.

Don't purchase any of these Solenoid controllers. . . they are extremely dangerous. If you have a smaller system, they will probably do ok. . .but don't expect to run more than about 20 amps through them continuously, or you will have a fire hazard.

I lost two batteries because of these things, I also lost about 150 dollars for controllers that cannot even manage my system.

My system at that time was approx 1200 watts, but in reality output was about 900 watts or so.

My personal opinion and if I were to guess, I believe these controllers are only able to handle the amount of current they specify for a limited amount of time. They are not designed to handle the current they claim for any extended amount of time. If I am correct on this guess, it can fully explain the amount of heat and other problems associated with their Solenoid controller products. Having 35 amps for 6 to 8 hours running through a device that is only supposed to handle 100 amps for a few minutes can explain the intense heat, the failure of the controller, and the explanations of what I have to go through to keep the Solenoids from burning up.