Goal Zero Boulder 100 Portable Solar Panel with Digital Solar Controller - 100 Watt Solar Panel

Video Transcript for Review of Goal Zero RV Solar Panels - 100 Watt Portable Solar Kit - GZ36YR

Hi there, I'm Michael with etrailer.com. Today, we're gonna take a quick look at this Gold Zero Boulder 100 Portable Solar Panel with digital solar controller. This is a 100 watt monocrystalline solar panel, that's gonna provide an off grid charging solution by using sunlight to charge your 12 volt battery. Now, this system is going to work with your gel, AGM, calcium, flooded lead-acid, lithium titanium oxide and lithium iron phosphate batteries. So, if you have any of those 12 volt batteries you're wanting to charge them up while you're off the grid using that natural sunlight, this is gonna be a great option for you. This is going to include 20 feet approximately of cable, so that you can park in the shade and then place your solar panel out in the sun for maximum charge.

So you can stay nice and cool while you're getting everything charged up. This is gonna come with a couple different ways of connecting to your battery. So, we've got these alligator clips that will give us a nice quick connection to our battery or we've got these ring terminals that will provide a more permanent secure connection to the battery. So depending on how you're wanting to charge your battery, or if you wanna have the option to charge a separate battery than the one that you're typically charging, you've got both options available there. Both of these connections are going to have an SAE fitting that will plug right into our spade to SAE connector here.

This is a 15 foot long cable, that's gonna give us the majority of that length so that we can park in the shade and have our solar panel out in the sun. So, this cable is then going to connect to our solar charge controller, which is on the back of our solar panel here. So, if I turn this around, we'll be able to see that a little bit better. So, our solar charge controller here is going to be kind of the brains of our operation. It's gonna be very easy for us to hook this spade connector up onto the battery side there.

We'll just loosen some screws in the back, slide this in place and then tighten the is down. So, this is a 10 amp pulse with modulation solar controller, that's going to adjust the solar panel output for a quick consistent charge. It's got an automatic multi-stage smart charging system, so it's going to switch modes as the battery charges. Because if the battery is extremely depleted you can charge it up much faster and then as it gets more and more full it'll slow down, so that you're gonna reduce the risk of overcharging. So, that's gonna help extend the battery's life.

It has several different safety features. So, not only is it going to help protect against overcharging, but it's also going to protect against undercharging, reverse polarity, short circuit and over voltage. It's got this nice digital display as you can see here. So, it's going to monitor the battery's voltage, the charge current, the charging capability or capacity, the battery types and the fault codes on this screen here. So, it's gonna be very easy to see what's going on with our battery. And this is going to connect to our solar panel with this eight millimeter solar port cable. So, if I plug this in here, just from the ambient light in my studio here, you can see the screen is coming on. It's telling me that I'm not connected to a battery currently, so you can see how that is gonna work for you. But very easy to get plugged into your solar panel there. You can see our solar panel does have this kickstand system that's going to allow us to adjust the angle of our solar panels, to make sure that we're getting the most sunlight. This is constructed of a nice strong tempered glass with an aluminum frame. So, it's only gonna weigh about 28 pounds, just a little over 28 pounds, so it is designed to be portable. When we have it fully extended like it is now, our overall width from side to side, we're gonna be right about 42 1/4 of an inch wide. Our height is 26 3/4 of an inch and then the thickness, when we have it unfolded like this it's only about 1 5/8 of an inch. You can very easily fold this up, so that we can transport it from one location to another. And we wanna make sure that all our cables are gonna be up out of the way, not getting pinched. And then we've got these little closures that allow us to make sure everything is gonna be nice and snug. And we've got this handle here. When we have it folded up like this, the height is gonna be the same, but our width is now 21 1/8 of an inch and our thickness is now 3 1/4 of an inch. So, very easy to transport, it's designed to be portable. They also include a carrying case. So, when we're going from one place to another, we can very easily put this canvas type carrying case over top to help protect it from any surface damage. Now, this case is not padded, so it's not going to do a great job of helping protect against major dings and that sort of thing. But it is going to help protect the surface there of our solar panel. So, we can slide that in on one side and then try and get it around the corner on the other side there. It does have a zippered closure on the top, so we can get it closed up once we have everything lined. Pull it over the edges like so, then we're still gonna have access to that handle that is built right into the solar panel or attached to the solar panel. So, we're gonna have a nice convenient place to grab and carry this around. And then we can very easily undo those zips at the top, pull off the corners and remove the cover. It's obviously much easier to get off than it was to get on but nice little option there to help protect from surface damage. Then we can take off those clips again, and open it back up. Like I said, it does weigh just over 28 pounds, so pretty easy to work with if you're taking that from your vehicle out into the sun, that sort of thing. Obviously, you're not gonna want to go hiking with it or travel long distances, but it is going be a nice portable option for us. This is going to not only have that folded dimension for portability, but it is going to have a solar panel voltage. The open circuit is 21.5 volts, the maximum power point is 17.2 volts, the solar controller voltage, is normal input solar array between 15 and 22 volts. The maximum solar array is 25 volts, with the lowest operating voltage of eight volts minimum. The amperage for the solar panel output is gonna be seven amps, our solar controller maximum input current is gonna be 10 amps. So it's gonna be more than sufficient handling the power coming from our solar panel. So, if you are looking for a convenient portable way to help charge up your 12 volt battery while you're off the grid, this is gonna be a great option for you. We do have lots of other solar panels and gear available here at etrailer.com. So, if you're needing something a little bit more robust, more permanent installation, anything along those lines be sure to check out our other options. That completes our look for today. Again, I'm Michael with etrailer.com. Thanks for watching..