Goal Zero 10 Amp Solar Charge Controller with Alligator Clip Connections for Boulder Solar Panels

Video Transcript for Review of Goal Zero Solar Charge Controllers - 10 Amp with Alligator Clip Connections - GZ89YR

Hi there, I'm Michael with etrailer.com. Today, we're gonna take a quick look at this Goal Zero 10 Amp Solar Charge Controller Kit. This is going to allow you to charge a 12 volt battery using your Goal Zero Boulder 50 or Boulder 100 Solar Panel. Those solar panels are sold separately but you can find them both here at etrailer.com using those part numbers that you see on the screen there. So, if you are wanting to use either one of those solar panels to charge your gel, AGM, calcium, flooded lead acid, lithium titanium oxide, or lithium iron phosphate batteries, now this is gonna be a great kit for you. Now this does include these alligator clips that will quickly connect to your battery terminals.

And this is about two feet long here. And then it's got this SAE fitting that will allow us to very easily plug this into our 15 foot long, 12 gauge goal zero spade to SAE cable. So that's gonna give us 15 feet of distance so that we can connect our battery to our solar panel, and make sure that our solar panels in the sun and we can have our battery, vehicle, or whatever it is mounted to in the shade where it's gonna be a little bit cooler. So this is then going to connect to our solar charge controller. And you can see there is a positive and a negative on this cable, might be kind of difficult to make out with my camera, but we then have corresponding slots on our charge controller.

So you can see with our sticker there it's got the battery icon so we know that's where to hook it up. And then we've got the positive and negative symbols there. So very easy to just back out those screws a little bit, plug this in place, and then tighten those screws down to have a nice firm connection. And this charge controller is going to then connect to our solar panel. It's got this three foot spade to eight millimeter cable.

That's gonna connect to your goal zero Boulder solar panels. This is then going to kind of act as the brains of the operation. It's a 10 amp pulse width modulation solar controller. That's going to adjust your solar panel's output for a nice quick but consistent charge of your battery. It's got an automatic multi-stage charging system that will switch modes depending on how your battery is charging.

So, once it gets up to a certain point it's going to switch to another system. So it's not overcharging causing gas and that sort of thing. So, it's gonna help extend your batteries life. It's got safety features that help protect against overcharging, undercharging, reverse polarity, short circuit, and over voltage. And you can see, we do have this digital display that's going to monitor your amperage, your voltage, and your battery capacity so that you know what's going on. Very easy to just look at that and tell what's happening with your batteries charging. Now this is capable of 10 amps maximum solar array current, normal input solar array voltage is between 15 and 22 volts. Maximum solar array voltage is 25 volts, and the operating temperature is gonna be negative 13 degrees Fahrenheit up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. So it will work in a wide range of temperatures for us. As we can see the overall width is right about six inches. Our height is gonna be approximately four inches, and then we're only at about one inch wide. So it's not gonna take up a whole lot of room, only weighs about a pound. They do include this metal mounting bracket to connect to the Boulder solar panel. And this is, does have an IP65 rating, so it is going to be weather resistant and dust proof, so even if you we're caught out in the weather and elements and whatnot, it's gonna hold up really well for you and do a good job making sure that your battery is charging properly and reducing damage, helping to prolong the life of your battery. So if you are wanting to use those Boulder solar panels to charge up your 12 volt battery, this system is going to include everything that you need. This is the alligator clamp setup and we do also have one that's a ring terminal setup. That's basically the exact same thing except this cable is swapped out for ring terminal so if you have a more permanent application you might wanna go with that option. We do also have a 20 amp charge controller. So if you have a larger solar panel make sure that you're getting the charge controller that's gonna work for you with that 20 amp option. So that completes our look for today, again I'm Michael with etrailer.com. Thanks for watching..