Renogy 1 M1 Review: Why Renogy Sucks

[ADDvanced]

Hey guys, so... .. I'm going to link a video review of my experience with the Renogy One M1. This was a brand new product when I recorded this, was out for maybe a month, so I have no idea if they've fixed things now, but.... holy **** I have never been so unimpressed/annoyed/disappointed in a fairly expensive product like this, ever.

All I wanted to do was to be able to monitor my solar system remotely, and turn on and off a couple things. None of this was possible.

I go into more detail in the video, but the short version is it wouldn't connect to my wifi network (my laptops and phones did), tech support was hilariously inept, and was not even aware their own product had network cable ports, they told me to get into a debugging menu which didn't really work, told me to click buttons which didn't exist, and were just awful in general.

The thing that really fired me up though, was their older product, the rover MPPT charger, displays a 'guesstimate' of the battery's SOC dead center of the display. Is this crazy accurate, no, I get that it isn't, but I didn't need accuracy. After over a week of trying to get it to work, it decided to connect even though I did nothing different, and here's what's wild: IT WONT SHOW YOU THAT INFORMATION. Yup, the big ass number that is dead center on the rover? That's not making it to the M1 unless you have Renogy batteries, or a shunt.

I then go off on the annual subscription model, the COMPLETE GLARING LACK of wifi dongles for any of their products (BT or expensive celluar option with monthly fees), and the fact the whole company is setup like an MLM.

In short, F*CK RENOGY. Trash company trying to pretend they are advanced/easy to use/premium like apple, but instead it's horse manure in a pretty wrapper.

I have since ripped out all Renogy components and replaced with Victron, and things have been rock solid.

 

[ScrotusGobbleBottom]

I had the renogy Core, It was listed to work perfect with my 3000 watt renogy inverter. It didnt even show up. EVER
Customer service said it was defective so I replace the Core. The next one was the same....
My inverter was listed as supported but it WASNT

Yeah pfuck Renogy.

 

[Sparks-n-Splinters]

I sure am glad I found this forum before buying anything. When I first started poking around the net Renogy was seemingly the only name to pop up. After some hours digging thru threads here I learned the truth. One heck of a marketing department, I'll give them that.
I'm putting together a small portable system as soon as the rest of my parts arrive, and the Victron was where my research led me.

 

[Tomthumb62]

Your frustrations mirror my own. And all I had of Renogy gear was their 2000W inverter, Rover 30 MPPT and went through a total of $800 of their 100Ah AGM batteries.

Part of the failure of the batteries was my fault. But compared to the poor quality of the inverter and MPPT, I think the failure wasn’t completely my fault. Plus, one of the batteries arrived leaking battery acid.

The inverter worked but had a really high idle draw. But the MPPT, oh my, don’t get me started about how much I came to detest that thing.

The customer service (summer 2023) was crazy. One guy sounded like he was going to actually help me. But he said he would call back and never did. I called or emailed 3-4 times asking for him by name and he was never available and every single time it was a new agent. Each one was pleasant in tone but lacked knowledge to actually help and kept asking for the same information. I gave them the info they asked for, it was right there on the screen on the trouble ticket. But it seemed like they never would read any of my messages. They asked for the same info again. I replied I gave it all to you, did you read the ticket you’re replying on? All they had to do was scroll up a few messages to see the info. After 4-5 rounds of this game of “who’s on first”, I gave up. I bought Victron replacements. They work perfectly.

I even reached out to the Renogy rep on this forum and never heard back.

Even Will Prowse no longer recommends them. He said they used to be really good, but they seem to be less so since their company was sold some time ago.

I don’t like to bash specific companies in general. But i don’t want anyone else to have to go through what I went through with Renogy.

On the contrary, every time I’ve reached out to WindyNation, whom we’ve bought some of our panels and wiring from, they have always been super helpful. They actually know their stuff.

 

[ADDvanced]

I think they're run by marketing now.