Renogy 100 Watt Solar panel VS Harbor Freight 100 Watt Solar panel

UPDATE: Late last evening I went and popped the back panel off the Renogy solar panel to verify if the wire truly was Tinned copper and it was!! Like so many had mentioned. I updated the description and may show a short video for those interested. Sorry for the quick over look. Updated 6 month and 1 year will come later.

I appreciate how quickly you give the information- No BS and you jump right to the next point. I'm a fan. Thanks

Diodes, soldered in with straight leads, will experience mechanical stress between the diode chip and the attached leads, as they expand and contract with heat and cool cycles. If you have a diode failure and have to replace them, put a bit of an S bend in each lead, before you solder it in, to give the leads some springiness.

Great review. I would have never in a million years guessed that the Harbor Freight Panel would outperform the Renogy.

I've had four Renogy 100 watt panels on my 5th wheel roof for 8 years now. Absolutely no problems or issues, including being in two hail storms and traveling over 50k miles. They are great!

I purchased 6 harbor freight panels when they had them on sale for only $89 each. Changed all the connectors to MC4. I like the aspect size of the harbor freight. It seems easier to orient on a ground mount. I also like that the Harbor Freight panels have the plastic protectors on the corners.

Aluminum? Pretty sure that is tinned copper. Not aluminum. PV wire has a lot of strands and feels like aluminum, but it's just how tinned copper with lots of strands feels like. Good video!!

We use these 100w HF panels in many places all over the farm. Never had one fail, and most have been up at least ten years. But their $30 charge controller circuit boards tend to corrode rather easily.

Thanks you so much for this review. Straight to the point, no BS. Exactly how these kinds of videos should be.

I worked for a manufacturer working on high-end prototypes, and a deviation I had to do often was swapping for a more robust connector between the solar panels and the rest of the wiring. It was common for the connectors to be the highest resistance point, thus creating extra heat, and melting the connectors, then eventually shorting and causing further, obvious issues. The fix was adding a much larger connector with larger terminals. The initial engineers expected the original connector to be sufficient, but turned out not to be in real life. Something to think about when swapping connectors. I've always been on the side of don't replace, upgrade, for things like this. Great video!

Cleaner connections, Copper wire, higher amp output, same voltage range, Wow, the harbor freights, if maintained well, outperform brand name panels. How interesting. thank you for the vid. Very enlightening.

I was at our Harbor Freight store when they first came out. They were $99 so I bought two of them. They are for backup. I connected them together with hinges to make a suitcase. Heavy but easy to store.

I bought 8 HF 100 watt panels and installed them on top of my south facing patio cover (4 x 6 inch timbers). I have two arrays of 4 panels each in series giving me 80 volts. These two branches are in parallel. These charge my EcoFlow Delta Max which I use to power my entire house. I am getting 760 watts out of this array starting at 1115 until 1600 or so in San Diego. This is enough to recharge my EcoFlow Delta to 100% in 6 hours. I am experimenting going off grid every other day. So far so good since setting this up in May of this year. I kept the SAE connectors but I removed the aluminum stand arms. Using 2 x 2 alum angle for stationary mount. Very pleased with those HF panels especially when they go on sale.

You had the perfect setup to test how blocking a single cell, or part of the panel effects performance. Like shading the lower 1/4th of the panel. Also another + comment on getting to the point and showing the content. Great video.

I really appreciate your presentation, easy to follow, no personal opinions, straight shown facts. Great job, hopefully others can learn from your format.

Thank- you!! This is the basic solar advice channel I need to pull it all together. First time you have popped up on my feed, but now I'm subscribed. Was very glad to see your test of the Harbor Freight panel matched up closely with my meter readings. Now I need to watch your other vids to see why I'd need to change the connectors.

Great review. I bought 6 - 100 watt harbor freight panels when they were on sale for $99. Also bought a Bluetti AC200 max and 4 370 watt Santan Solar panels. Ready for power down and retreat living off grid.

Just incredible technology. I am just blown away how far solar has progressed, and it's getting better and better! Thanks for sharing!

This is a godsend for Hurricane season here in New Orleans. I might even make this my new side hustle . Thank you for this amazing video.

I love the editing on this you're doing an amazing job! The bus is coming out so beautiful! Ashton you are such a good sport you all make me laugh. Till next time, God bless.