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Why do powmr sell their units so cheap now?

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Scph9002

Solar Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 28, 2020
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252
From their official website they got these crazy good deals now. I bought an unit for almost half price 699 down to 399 usd.

Returned broken units that have been refurbished? Mine appeared brand new, smelled new and had that plastic protector still on the lcd display. The settings was not default settings but maybe got change during quality control?

The quality control stamp is almost a year old, 2022 august so maybe they got a lot of unsold units? My particular unit has around 90 stock in European warehouse.

Have only had the unit 2 days now but so far it appears to be of good quality.

With a brandname powmr i can understand why these sell bad tho, that name is so goofy and screams Chinese clone garbage.
 
Scph9002 said:
From their official website they got these crazy good deals now. I bought an unit for almost half price 699 down to 399 usd.

Returned broken units that have been refurbished? Mine appeared brand new, smelled new and had that plastic protector still on the lcd display. The settings was not default settings but maybe got change during quality control?

The quality control stamp is almost a year old, 2022 august so maybe they got a lot of unsold units? My particular unit has around 90 stock in European warehouse.
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I think it is that and they are introducing new products, so the deeply-discounted models are likely being discontinued and they want to flush remaining inventory…
Scph9002 said:
Have only had the unit 2 days now but so far it appears to be of good quality.

With a brandname powmr i can understand why these sell bad tho, that name is so goofy and screams Chinese clone garbage.
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Are these PowMr safe to buy? I have a few in my cart...trying to decide on AMP rating, etc. They seem to be one of the few that claim output of 12, 24, 36 and 48. For my goal of having an MPPT for 24v boat battery, and 36v golf cart battery, etc. they PowMr seems to be a great value. Then I read reviews on Amazon...that may be tainted by competition making bogus review. Not to mention I KNOW companies give products away if you give them a 5* rating. So, I usually go straight to the 1*. One negative I seem to recall stated that the CLAIMED spec of MPPT was not accurate.

Safe to buy PowMr products?
 
DrewLoker said:
Are these PowMr safe to buy? I have a few in my cart...trying to decide on AMP rating, etc. They seem to be one of the few that claim output of 12, 24, 36 and 48. For my goal of having an MPPT for 24v boat battery, and 36v golf cart battery, etc. they PowMr seems to be a great value. Then I read reviews on Amazon...that may be tainted by competition making bogus review. Not to mention I KNOW companies give products away if you give them a 5* rating. So, I usually go straight to the 1*. One negative I seem to recall stated that the CLAIMED spec of MPPT was not accurate.
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DrewLoker said:
Safe to buy PowMr products?
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If PowerMr is the only SCC supporting 36V, you’ve got little choice, but PowerMr is a pure rebadger meaning what they sell today may no longer be sold and supported tomorrow.

Epever, by contrast, evolves their own SCC product line and are generally regarded as being more consistent in terms of quality than PowerMr’s constantly rotating product-line…
 
I returned 5 5K's a few months ago. They fell over under load. As in shut down requiring a power cycle to come back on. I was getting a modicum of tech support, but I think the biggest issue is going to be that you will not be getting things like firmware fixes, or the ability to talk to anyone that understands the product in english. You are probably fine if you don't want to stack them, and just want 5K or something for an outbuilding or something.

5x5k = 25kw would not start my 4T HVAC. 1xEG4/18K12K did, although it caused a brownout. 2x still caused a brownout until I got a MicroAir.
 
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It was old stock and refurbished units. according to a powmr rep on their fb page.

At least they are honest :)
 
They did not appear to be refurbished. I paid ~700 each for them. Also the cut-out holes were too small for the recommended wire sizes. The PV screw lugs required a very small screwdriver, just lot's of poor implementation, and weak firmware or engineering. You get what you pay for, and if you just need something cheap, and you are not going to really load it down, or you don't mind futzing with it, you'll probably be fine.
 
ksmithaz1 said:
They did not appear to be refurbished. I paid ~700 each for them. Also the cut-out holes were too small for the recommended wire sizes. The PV screw lugs required a very small screwdriver, just lot's of poor implementation, and weak firmware or engineering. You get what you pay for, and if you just need something cheap, and you are not going to really load it down, or you don't mind futzing with it, you'll probably be fine.
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‘Refurbished’ is often the way manufacturers sell off excess inventory without damaging market prices.

I purchased a ‘refurbished’ home theater system for ~half the market price. It was brand new and never used.

Unsure whether Chinese companies resort to those same techniques or not.
 
DrewLoker said:
Are these PowMr safe to buy? I have a few in my cart...trying to decide on AMP rating, etc. They seem to be one of the few that claim output of 12, 24, 36 and 48. For my goal of having an MPPT for 24v boat battery, and 36v golf cart battery, etc. they PowMr seems to be a great value. Then I read reviews on Amazon...that may be tainted by competition making bogus review. Not to mention I KNOW companies give products away if you give them a 5* rating. So, I usually go straight to the 1*. One negative I seem to recall stated that the CLAIMED spec of MPPT was not accurate.

Safe to buy PowMr products?
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So in the past I've had a couple of their older mppt models (metal housing) they worked ok when they worked. Very touchy if you accidentally loose battery power while connection with panels plugged in they would die. I recently bought 3 x new powmr pro 60 amp 12/24/36/48 mppt chargers. Housing looked nice. One of them would not turn on and the other two performed badly. Seems the older style units were much better. That said, I live in ASIA and I got these directly from PowMR's official store in an online app here for a great price ($55 each). So it's possible they were dumping the rejects here thinking the locals may not have a clue. I'm sending them back... Bought a 60a Epever 6415 instead.

Your mileage may vary but if I were on a sail boat I'd want something more reliable than powmr.
 
Jeremiah said:
Bought a 60a Epever 6415 instead
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WoW! I was going to go with that recommendation...but gee wiz...$55 to $238? That is a big different. And you go three of them? Anything thing else in the middle you would recommend?
 
Jeremiah said:
So in the past I've had a couple of their older mppt models (metal housing) they worked ok when they worked. Very touchy if you accidentally loose battery power while connection with panels plugged in they would die. I recently bought 3 x new powmr pro 60 amp 12/24/36/48 mppt chargers. Housing looked nice. One of them would not turn on and the other two performed badly. Seems the older style units were much better. That said, I live in ASIA and I got these directly from PowMR's official store in an online app here for a great price ($55 each). So it's possible they were dumping the rejects here thinking the locals may not have a clue. I'm sending them back... Bought a 60a Epever 6415 instead.

Your mileage may vary but if I were on a sail boat I'd want something more reliable than powmr.
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I'd say the powmr units built by SRNE are of good quality. I heard that their first 60a ssc's was total garbage.
 
DrewLoker said:
WoW! I was going to go with that recommendation...but gee wiz...$55 to $238? That is a big different. And you go three of them? Anything thing else in the middle you would recommend?
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Ah I only needed one (3.3kw array). I went a bit crazy with the PowMR because we were able to get them so cheaply. I was thinking to redo my setup so 4 panels per charge controller. I was able to get a "used" epever which was just a return for $160 including the MTS50. I did not buy three of those :) Sorry I'm not sure what to recommend just my own anecdotal warning.
 
I too was considered the new version of POWMR solar charge controller but decided not to purchase them when I saw in a couple reviews stating that the MPPT controller goes into PWM for float mode. Not as big an issue for lead batteries but could be for lithium batteries. If your PV voltage is considerably higher than your max battery voltage, then your batteries are getting slammed with the over voltage. Over voltage means shorter batter life and more money to replace the batteries sooner. If your panel array is well matched to your battery but that’s kinda defeats some of the advantages in using an MPPT SCC. The MPPT SCC is supposed to actively adjust the higher panel voltage to an acceptable battery voltage. The MPPT SCC should not directly connect the high panel voltage directly to the batter. A PWM SCC does connect the panels to the batteries directly but chops the connection aka pulses how long the panel is connected to the battery.

I use/own various MPPT and PWM SCC. I like the PWM SCCs because they are cheap, plentiful, and work great for lead batteries. But I use MPPT SCCs when I need to squeeze a little more power from the array and not just add more panels. I also use MPPT SCCs when using lithium batteries.

Do your due diligence and choose what works best for the specific project you‘re doing.
 

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Woody said:
I too was considered the new version of POWMR solar charge controller but decided not to purchase them when I saw in a couple reviews stating that the MPPT controller goes into PWM for float mode. Not as big an issue for lead batteries but could be for lithium batteries. If your PV voltage is considerably higher than your max battery voltage, then your batteries are getting slammed with the over voltage. Over voltage means shorter batter life and more money to replace the batteries sooner. If your panel array is well matched to your battery but that’s kinda defeats some of the advantages in using an MPPT SCC. The MPPT SCC is supposed to actively adjust the higher panel voltage to an acceptable battery voltage. The MPPT SCC should not directly connect the high panel voltage directly to the batter. A PWM SCC does connect the panels to the batteries directly but chops the connection aka pulses how long the panel is connected to the battery.

I use/own various MPPT and PWM SCC. I like the PWM SCCs because they are cheap, plentiful, and work great for lead batteries. But I use MPPT SCCs when I need to squeeze a little more power from the array and not just add more panels. I also use MPPT SCCs when using lithium batteries.

Do your due diligence and choose what works best for the specific project you‘re doing.
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If you have 48v battery you can connect 500v solarpanels directly to it, the panels dont magically make the batteries 500 volt. There will be a little spark and the batteries will draw max current and naturally bring the terminal voltage down to 48v then slowly rise at max panel current up to X voltage above 60 until battery dies.
 
stay away from powmr as far as possible
if you have any problems be prepared to purchase another inverter

no tech support (12hrs away and get no where
dont ship products and dont respond to returns or warranty issues
 
phillip langer said:
stay away from powmr as far as possible
if you have any problems be prepared to purchase another inverter

no tech support (12hrs away and get no where
dont ship products and dont respond to returns or warranty issues
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Rather than finding as many Threads on PowMr to attach your complaint to why not create your own. Give the details of what you are unhappy
about and the product and how you were using it. Otherwise you are just spamming the Forum.

Details matter.
 
Woody said:
I too was considered the new version of POWMR solar charge controller but decided not to purchase them when I saw in a couple reviews stating that the MPPT controller goes into PWM for float mode.
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I had that same controller (similar to the MakeSkyBlue) and while it was genuinely a 60A MPPT for $100, the screen would go crazy when it was putting out over 40A and even worse it would sometimes get stuck into a mode where it would only put out half power and needed to be reset sometimes, a common problem with cheap MPPT algos and a deal breaker for me.

There is also the problem that if you energize the PV line before a 12V battery line, the auto voltage sense could think it is 24V or 48V and will send high voltage to your battery and DC loads and smoke em! That same thing applies to a lot of MPPTs tho.
 
SupraSPL said:
I had that same controller (similar to the MakeSkyBlue) and while it was genuinely a 60A MPPT for $100, the screen would go crazy when it was putting out over 40A and even worse it would sometimes get stuck into a mode where it would only put out half power and needed to be reset sometimes, a common problem with cheap MPPT algos and a deal breaker for me.

There is also the problem that if you energize the PV line before a 12V battery line, the auto voltage sense could think it is 24V or 48V and will send high voltage to your battery and DC loads and smoke em! That same thing applies to a lot of MPPTs tho.
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Should always turn on and turn off in right order, more so with cheap Chinese stuff.

Off
1 AC out breaker
2 PV in breaker
3 Inverter (if it have on off switch)
4 battery breaker

Turn on in reverse order.
 
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