Ultimate Flexible Solar Panels - successes and warranty replacements

Rusty. sorry for your solar problems. There have been problems so Renogy removed the Flex panels from their line up because they have been unable to find and rectify the problem.

They are giving folks there money back. You need to contact the Renogy factory,and talk with Tech support because they will need you to run tests with a multi-meter to verify the panel is bad and not the controller or the battery.

To Test out put yourself, park the truck in the sun at noon unplug the panel from the roof conector use a multi-meter to test the voltage. It should be between 15 - 16 volts (because it is glued to the roof). Normal is 19-20 volts.

You don't say the age of the camper. The batteries are warranted for 3 years. Any auto shop will be able to test the battery for you.
 
rustytinbender said:
attachicon.gif
2015-07-04 10.25.10.jpgI picked up a used Hawk last fall and installed a trimetric and 2-100 watt renogy flexible panels on the roof this spring. Worked great in spring and early summer but now they don't work at all. Didn't have a chance to use the camper in July and August but keep it parked in a carport.

Don't really have time to troubleshoot or deal with this now but I am kinda bummed. spent a lot of time and money on this......plus I glued them to the roof with silicone caulk....lot's of it! I am new to this and thought solar panels were reliable!
Click to expand...
We were able to get our panels refunded without taking them off the roof. Ours are seriously glued down with 3M VHB Tape and 3M 4000 adhesive. We stopped by the Renogy facility and had a technician test the panels and break off the junction boxes. I wonder if they would allow customers who have dead glued-down panels to mail in the small junction boxes rather than the whole panel. You may want to take off the old panels at some point, but figured I'd pass along the info.
 
My prior setup had 3 different glued on panels which worked perfectly for over 1.5 years (still going today).

However, I tried with my new camper to repeat this and had terrible luck.

The panels that I purchased had the junction box and solar cables on the bottom of the panel.
This made it essentially impossible to glue the panel completely down.

And on the very first trip I took, both of my new panels took flight. :mad: :(
One was completely ruined, the second one appears to be useable still

I am working on making it a portable panel as a back up if I ever needed it.

I believe these glue on panels work great and are a great solution for our campers.
But there have been some drawbacks.

And don't forget the rigid panels are not without drawbacks too.
You need holes in your roof (or to use the Yakima racks like I did)
They can be very heavy to get enough solar power (mine weighs 40 lbs - I actually broke a plastic piece of my front lift panel the first time I tried to lift the roof. Now I have 40lbs roof lift assist in front and back and it's no big deal)
 
Latest from Renogy Sales on Nov 11, 2015...


We have no set date for the reinstatement of this panel. I can assure that our engineers are working hard to bring it back and solve the design issues you mentioned, because of the popularity of the panel.

We also are not shipping out any of the leftover stock.

We appreciate your patience and your interest.

Phone: 800.330.8678 ext. | Fax: 888.543.1164
Twitter|Facebook|Linkedin: Renogy

GetFileAttachment
 
Contacted Renogy and they said they would refund me the money if I would send them the panels. I said it seemed like a waste to ship the panels back and asked if I could just send photographic evidence that they were removed. They are checking and will let me know. So far it appears they have excellent customer service, I'll let you know if it works out.
 
So if I get my money back for the dud flexible panels I think I will buy 2 rigid 50 watt and make them into a foldable portable panel and try glueing a rigid 100 watt to the roof. My roof is already messed up from removing the old panels and judging by the way the 3m double face tape and silicone caulk held on the flexible panels I don't think it would be any problem to securely glue a rigid solar panel between the on the top between the roof vents catching the supporting ribs of the 4wc frame appropriately. Has anyone tried this?
 
I would not glue the whole panel. I would do the 3M tape install on supports like Photohc did no holes.

sml_gallery_3799_787_11353.jpg
 
Rusty - do you have Yakima tracks? If so, its easy to mount to those. Seems like more and more people are done with the flexibles - a great idea, but the tech is just not ready.
 
Thanks for the advice. I am not that worried about gluing a panel to my roof beacause it's not pristine, in fact it's a mess. I bought my 2011 hawk last fall and it had hail damage, now after glueing the panels down and tearning them off it's not pretty. I'd attach a photo but can't figure out how.....so I am a sheet metal worker and worked for a few years at a pharmaceutical plant installing metal wall panels, shelves adn stuff and we could't put holes through for fasteners. I learned that the 3m tape just had to hold things up until the silicane caulk set up and then its not coming down. I was thinking if a glue a regular panel to the roof I could make and fasten an air deflector to the leading edge. Don't know if I want to poke holes inthe roof to mount a yakima rack. Anyway I would like to see more about what Photohc did if you could send me alink I would appreciate it.

Although I rarely post I researched this site extensively for all the work I did and would like to thank you. I did post some pics of my setup back earlier this year, I think in July on a site for those of us on the east (or midwest in my case) side of the country.
 
My German manufactured Global Solar peel and stick have been good so far, 1.5 years. They are 90W each. I helped stick them down during installation using a vacuum bag. It really pressed them on! I haven't needed any additional bonding since install and the output seems the same.
 
So I replaced my dead flexible panels with the traditional type, a 50 watt Renogy that I plan to use as a portable using the back plug and a 160 watt Infinium Solar Panel that I mounted to the roof between the vents. I used some small aluminum channels and angles that I picked up from a boating supply house for less than $20. (photos attached)

I was able to span 5 of the support ribs that are under the aluminum roof so I used 10 brackets. I epoxied the 4 corners and used silicone caulk as an adhesive for the 6 inside brackets. I did use a small piece of double face 3m tape in the center of each bracket to hold them in place until the silicone and epoxy set up.
 
The hard framed panels are really durable and proven. But the thin flexible tech is still working out the bugs
 
I like these panels for size and efficiency but sounds like lots of problems and kinks to work out
 
Interesting that I am just now seeing this. I put two 100W HQST flex panels on the roof of my camper in July of 2014, did not glue them but used screws into the frame of the roof. They are still just cranking along, 19-22V each at peak hours, the higher number in the Winter months.

So I just replaced my 17 pound 100W slide out glass panel ( after it fell in detached mode and shattered ) with two more 100W HQST panels for my slide out / removable rack. I had considered the Renogy panels before because their other components are so good but opted to not for reasons mostly of budget....who knew?
 
Hi Kodachrome.
I'm getting ready to try solar on my Hawk. Did you screw the flex panels to the roof using only the six grommet holes provided in the HQST panel? If so does it appear to move much up/down from the wind?

Screwing the panel instead of gluing seems like a good opportunity to insert an underlying open cell membrane to aid in cooling. Something like an ACS10 Drainage Mesh or equivalent.

Thanks,
 
rando said:
To follow up on the failures with flexible solar panels - have things improved? Has anyone experienced any failures with the Solar Cynergy 120W panels: https://www.solarblvd.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_25_42&products_id=3083

Or was this problem primarily limited to the renogy panels?
Click to expand...
Bought three of these last month and installed them last week. All tested fine before and after install, even with cloudy skies and drizzle. Hoping for some sun this weekend to see how they do then.
 
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