Ramsond 100 Watt 100w W Monocrystalline Photovoltaic PV Solar Panel Module 12V Battery Charging

I received two initial panels with defects.1) Shifted cell that almost touches an adjacent cell had the tabbing wire in a bind as well as the tabbing wire being off of the cell buss traces and covering part of the light sensitive area of cell itself. Poor silicon sealing around back of panel.2) The other panel had better tabbing quality. Most obvious glaring problem was an approx 5mmx5mm piece of opaque debris trapped between the glass and a cell partially blocking part of the light sensitive area of the cell.I contacted RAMSOND and sent pictures of the defects to alert their QC people in China. After sending another follow up email they responded and offered a credit of $30 for both of the defective panels or to replace them. I opted for the credit as the defects did not render the panels useless... They said this QC problem was atypical and I could tell it was, so I ordered more panels when they went on sale...Subsequent 100W panels I purchased from RAMSOND had no trapped debris but tabbing gets off of a tad from the cells buss trace covering some of the light sensitive areas of the cells but an improvement over pervious panels overall. Blue coating they use on the new cells seems inconsistent so you get different shades of cell color from black to light blue, strange looking. THe first panels were more consistant with the coating. The new panels I received use physically different shape cells than the first two I received just a few weeks apart so they aesthetically don't match...minor issue though. I will be testing the newest ones I just received fully for electrical specs and follow up later.Overall the panels are not a bad deal if you get them on sale. RAMSOND ran a sale of $184 for the 100W panels recently on their website, which is a super great deal for monocrystalline panels, but it is now back to $269 per panel. I'll wait for another sale at $184 with free shipping to buy more.Update: tested all panels with watts up meter in full clear near summer sun and a setup for max power point. 80w best these can do on average...Will be contacting Ramsond, but I dread it as their customer service has not been a positive experience the numerous times I have tried to deal with them... They had 80w panels around this time but had just discontinued them, I wonder if I receive "mislabeled" 80w panels sold as 100w panels....would make sense since the price was much lower than it is now...who knows.

Product shipped direct from Ramsond way early!!! Packaging very good, items received as described but with no warranty paperwork. Measured no-load output voltage 20.8v,(noon, clear sky), dropped to 17.5v with 200 ohm load. Cosmetics: drilled mounting holes look like they were done with dull bit, sealant smeared in several places, frame screw fit not uniform. Bottom line: great value for 100 w mono-crystalline panels.Update...I ended up buying a total of four panels, for a 25% over capacity of projected max load. Mounted on the roof of my 21', bumper pull travel trailer, the panels are powering a DC system consisting of two 6vdc golf cart batteries (series connected for 12vdc), a Sunforce 30 amp charge controller and a GoPower 300 watt true sine inverter. The four 100 watt Ramsond panels easily power my typical load of a 26" LCD TV, AV sound system, satellite receiver, solar hot water circulating pump, and a 8" Honeywell 120v fan. On an overcast day, starting with batteries in float, they remained in float at around 13vdc with about 14amps driving the inverter.According to Ramsond's 25 year warranty mounting holes may not be drilled in the panel's frame and the electric connections can not be modified. So to maintain the warranty, be prepared to buy MC4 connectors (not a bad thing) and you will also need to put thought into how the panels will be mounted using the panels stock mounting holes.My RV mounting design incorporated Intstapark ZJ-05B spoilers to cut drag and reduce wind load. Using the ZJ-05B spoilers also allowed easy access to the RV's, 48" center, roof supports. To insure that unsupported span distance was not violated, custom Z-Brackets were installed at each of the panel's pre-drilled holes. The Z-brackets are screwed to the RV roof (EPDM over 1/4" plywood) into steel, hollow-wall, anchors. All roof penetrations were liberally covered with EPDM compatible lap sealant. Inspection after the initial 500 mile shake down trip uncovered no panel damage and the mounting points remained tight and secure.

I have purchased 3 of these panels. Have one other brand for a total of 400 watts. They are tied to a Sunforce 60032 charge controller connected to two 115 amp marine deep cycle batteries. Getting around 5 amps per panel when/if the batteries are low. They produce amps as soon as the sky turns blue. Also got .02 amps laying on the living room floor under the overhead fan lights. My usage comes through a Cobra 880 inverter. 120 volt usage is a 32" Vizio TV, 22" Hitachi TV, Sony BluRay DVD player and numerous rope lights and LED bulbs. Also use my DUAL MCP 100 marine mechless radio close to 18 hours a day. Put a P4460 watt killer at the Cobra output to keep track of the watts/amps being used. My Sunforce shows about 12.7 volts on the batteries in the morning and reach 14.4 by 11:00 AM. If there is blue sky, these things put out. Even on a cloudy day, I am getting 2 amps per panel. Have also mounted two 12 volt power outlets for charging cell phone, blue tooth, tablet, Ipod and such stuff. Have had only one occasion where the weather was bad and had no sun for a day. I am new to solar panels in 2012. So far, I am pleased with the panels. I gave the brand name of other equipment only because that I downloaded the user manuals before purchase. Then, I look at the spec sheets to get the working amps or watts. These panels are giving me ample output to run all my equipment and lights while charging the batteries.