Renogy REGO 12V 60A DC-DC MPPT Plug and Play Battery Charger Built-in Bluetooth Module, Compatible with Traditional and Smart Alternators, For Gel, AGM, and Lithium Battery in RVs, Cars, Boats, Yachts

I've used this almost a year now and pretty happy. I use the custom settings to charge a 400 AH lithium battery bank. Pros: - Easy to install - Seems to work reliably - Runs cool - Connections are Anderson PP75 “Powerpoles” which I liked and are way better than typical screw terminals Cons: - The software, as typical for Renogy, makes little sense. The Bluetooth app screens are somewhat nonsensical and frustrating - but - it does work for the basics, at least on my iPhone - Big giant external rotating selection switch makes me afraid I will nudge it by accident. I may pour epoxy on it. - Missing some important settings - Missing a way to disable reverse charging for some circumstances (so I just thrown the breaker I installed) - Big and Heavy Overall I have to give it 5 stars. It works, and Renogy for now has the ONLY bidirectional DC-DC charger which is the big attraction for me.

Update 1/5/23: Renogy support reached out to me to follow up on my review below. The bluetooth issues I mentioned were likely due to my old phone (I had an iPhone X at the time). I recently upgraded to the latest iPhone 14, and no longer have any issues. After several months of use, the charger appears to now correctly disconnect after shutting the engine down. I don't really know what changed (update, different battery voltages, etc), but this appears to no longer be an issue for me. I did end up installing a high amp disconnect switch on the starter battery connection (something everyone should probably do as a backup), so I can manually disconnect it if I don't want charging to happen in either direction. Renogy support was fantastic, thank you Daniel for all your help. I'm adding a star to my overall review as a result. If the cut-in/cut-out voltages were able to be customized, this would easily be a 5 star product. -------------------------------------------- Original Review: Pros: Setup is pretty easy, anderson connectors are nice to work with. No need for a signal wire if you have a traditional alternator, so wiring is super straightforward. Bi-directional charging works well, kept my house lithiums charged while driving, and my starter battery is always topped up now since I have access to shore power, solar, or generator depending on situation. Cons: $500 is way too high for what you get, Renogy app is clunky and requires weird workarounds to reconnect bluetooth, the cut-in/cut out voltages are not optimized for lithium house batteries (even on lithium mode). I'll try and elaborate on the cons mentioned above: The charging logic for maintaining the starter battery is not ideal if you have house lithiums. Per Renogy's manual: "The auxiliary battery will charge the starter battery only when the voltage of the auxiliary battery is greater than 12.7V". This is ok if your house batteries are AGM/Flooded with lower resting voltages, but for lithiums 12.7V is really low, and I don't really want it to continue pulling energy from the house batteries in that state. Unfortunately, this isn't one of the parameters you can adjust in Renogy's app either. The equivalent Sterling charger (BB1240) has this level set at 13.5V when you have a lithium setup which seems like a much more reasonable cutoff to me. My actual testing confirmed that this was the case, it continued to charge the starter battery from the house batteries even when the voltages hit 12.9/12.8. Also, the house battery charging cut-in happens when the starter battery hits 13.5V+ (after a 15 second delay). This works great, the 15 second delay lets energy spikes that come from starting your engine settle before engaging the charger, and 13.5V is a good starting measure. However once charging starts, the cut-off voltage for charging your house batteries from the alternator/starter battery is (again) 12.7V, and it is another parameter that you can't change. I find that when we shut our sprinter down, the starter battery tends to stay around 12.8V or 12.9V for a while resting. This, unfortunately, leaves the rego in charge mode, and it will continue to attempt charging your house batteries directly from the starter battery. I noticed this because I went back and hit the main disconnect switch for our house batteries, and the rego continued to power the whole system for a while using just the starter battery 😬. So, if you plan on installing this I would recommend a high-amp disconnect switch on the input side. I found the Renogy DC Home app clunky to work with too. Bluetooth would disconnect the second I let the screen dim, and it would not reconnect to the dc/dc charger until I navigated all the way back to the main screen and hit refresh. Renogy, if you are listening, this would be SO MUCH MORE USEFUL If we could tweak the cut-in/cut-out voltages in user mode to better match our setup (or at least tweak them to actually match the battery type you have selected).

I would like to be able to change the settings to where it would stop pulling from the starting battery at 13.2 volts instead of 12.8 And when it starts and stops recharging the starting battery. Starting to charge at 12.3 and stopping at 12.7 is too low. Other than that it is ok.