Manson SBC-7130 Solar PV Charge Controller Review - SBC-7120

Introduction

The Manson SBC-7130 is a high quality PV charge controller, at a price point almost unrivalled in its class. The unit provides an LCD readout of the various system statuses.

Features

The SBC-7130 is feature packed and the various threshold voltage limits can be arbitarily adjusted thanks to its microprocessor control.

The LCD cycles through each parameter, displaying in turn: the mode of operation, battery voltage, PV voltage, PV amperes, today's ampere hours, yesterday's ampere hours and the day before's ampere hours.

A dual-colour LED provides a quick visual status of the battery state.

Heavy duty terminals are provided to connect heavy guage wire (up to 10AWG) to the unit.

Internally, a 40A automotive-type blade fuse provides overload protection. A spare 40A fuse is provided.

Operation

The unit automatically determines the state of the battery and applies an appropriate charging regime. It uses a three stage Bulk/Absorption/Float charging system. The Absorption and Float voltages can be set anywhere from 12.0v up to 16.5v. When the battery voltage drops below the float level for more than 5 minutes, the unit will commence bulk charging. Once the absorption voltage has been reached, it will hold the charging voltage constant for one hour, then switch to float mode.

Performance

For a typical day consisting of 5 hours of useful sunlight, and with enough panels to provide 30A of short circuit current, the SBC-7130 can theoretically deliver up to 150 AH of charging current per day. For a 12 volt battery, this equates to at least 1800 watt-hours of charge per day though the controller.

At near full load, the integral chassis/heatsink becomes very warm to the touch. The heating is less pronounced when the PWM charge is at 100% duty cycle, which vastly reduces power dissipation in the MOSFETs.

Its quiescent current draw of 15mA makes it unsuitable for small battery banks (less than 10 AH) due to the overnight discharge. The microprocessor and battery status LED requires constant power to keep running. If the battery is disconnected overnight, the rolling three-day ampere-hour statistics will be lost.

Comments

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Henri Riske, Sun, 06 Nov 2011 06:43 am:

Dear Sir, Ihave 10- 12v of 200watt a total of 2000w, on a nice sunny day I get up to 160Ah.
But as the mass of current seem too high the fuse of the MANSON SBC7130 30w keeps blowing an I know that there is to be used amp 40 amp fuse.
I have 4 200Ah batteries and even if I do not use any power and ust the grit to let the batteries
get fully charged this does not seem to happen.
Now I have decided to Make two banks and have 2
Manson 7130 side by side and each take 5 panels of 200watt so that will be 1000 watt each.
For me it may be a bit more expensie but as it is now I had to disconnect 5 panels on the roof so there is no problem with fuse blowing.
Thank you;
Henri Riske rhenri01@bigpond.com

Wolfy169, Tue, 29 May 2012 01:13 pm: Reply

I have had no poroblem with the unit until it refuses to read the power in the battery and the panel!!!!!!!!!!!! I have tried all the reccomended hints in the manual , but no change . Do I have to pay out for a new unit?

Anonymous, Tue, 29 May 2012 01:40 pm:

Did you check the fuse inside the charge controller? It is an automotive blade type fuse. 30A for the SBC7120 and 40A for the SBC7130.

Bryan, Sun, 02 Feb 2014 04:25 pm: Reply

I purchased a SBC-7130 Controller. I have attached a 180 watt panel to it and I get 16.7 volts output but the controller only shows 2 amps loaded or unloaded I have checked it with a metre and it shows 6.7 amps on the metre.
Also the TOD PV, LID PV AH, LTD PV_AH does not register as well
Hope you can help
Bryan

GREG, Mon, 17 Feb 2014 10:17 am: Reply

I HAVE A SOLAR PANEL WHICH IN FULL SUN PROCUCED 19 VOLTS IS YOUR CONTROLLER OK WITH THAT
ALSO YOUR VERIFICATION CODE IS TOO HARD TO USE IM STILL TRYING ITS COMBINATIONS

John, Sat, 11 Oct 2014 08:27 pm: Reply

I have a Manson SBC7130 charge controller and although it’s advertised as having 3 stage charging - bulk, absorption and float it is in fact only a 2 stage charger being bulk and absorption. When in float there is no current applied so the voltage quickly drops below the set float voltage resulting in a new charge cycle beginning. The end result is that the battery never gets floated at a lower voltage and is held at the bulk charge voltage. I contacted Manson via email and they confirmed there is no float mode. The earlier designs had a true float mode but they took it out and still everyone falsely advertises that it has 3 stage charging.

Ron, Thu, 15 Dec 2016 08:57 am: Reply

Are the SBC-7130 suitable to gel batteries.

Tony buchan, Thu, 15 Feb 2018 07:54 am: Reply

My abc-7130 panel has lost the lcd display - it shows only ‘block figures’, no letters or numbers. The green light indicating sufficient charge is showing.
What is the problem here?

Julie, Sun, 30 May 2021 01:46 pm:

I have the same problem. Did you get an answer?

michael wilding, Wed, 23 Oct 2019 06:08 pm: Reply

I bought the Manson SBC1720 controller but found it kept charging at 5 amps from my 80W panel (Aussie summer) even when the battery voltage had reached 15.8V. Suspecting the Float voltage function was faulty I bought a second Manson only to find the trouble was identical and my batteries were bubbling vigorously. I read from another forum that the float function has been removed so that the lower voltage of 13.7 is never attained as a float. I have since purchased another brand and the charging functions are fine. My advice is to avoid the Manson.

Neville Hayes, Thu, 20 Feb 2020 03:01 pm: Reply

It's a shame questions aren't getting answered.

Jacquie, Sun, 30 Aug 2020 12:50 pm: Reply

Hello
I have in my Coaster a PV CHARGE CONTROLLER Electro SBC-7120 ,, I’ve not any knowledge with these which is very frustrating
As I have no manual to learn how they work etc

Manson SBC-7130 Solar PV Charge Controller Review - SBC-7120

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