IRICO all in one 3000w, 400w solar panel, 24v battery bank not charging

Has anyone else had issues with these all-in-one units struggling to charge at the rated capacity? I've been looking at a similar setup and I'm wondering if the MPPT controller built into these units is actually up to the job.

A few things worth checking on yours:

• What's the Voc of your panels? Some of these all-in-ones have a fairly narrow input voltage window and if your array isn't hitting the right range, the controller just won't engage properly
• Are you on a 24v nominal battery or is the bank wired incorrectly? Worth double-checking your series/parallel wiring
• What does the display show? Is it showing solar input voltage at all, or is it reading zero?

I run a Victron SmartSolar on my boat so I can at least pull up proper diagnostics via the app — one thing I really wonder about with these cheaper integrated units is how you're supposed to fault-find when something goes wrong. There's no real visibility into what's happening.

Is the 400w panel a single panel or multiple? And what brand? Some of the cheaper Renogy panels I've seen have quite variable actual output versus rated spec.

Also worth checking whether the unit itself is getting warm — if the MPPT is throttling due to temperature that could explain partial or no charging.

What readings are you actually getting? Might help narrow it down considerably.

@BoatFinn yeah the built-in MPPT on these cheap all-in-ones is often the weak link. Rated wattage means nothing if the controller's voltage window is too narrow or the max input current is undersized.

Few things worth checking:

• Voc of your panel — does it actually fall within the controller's input range?
• Wire gauge from panel to unit — voltage drop kills efficiency
• Battery voltage — if the 24v bank is already near full, MPPT will naturally back off

For my shepherd's hut I went with a separate Victron SmartSolar rather than an all-in-one, specifically to avoid this headache. More upfront cost but you can actually see what's happening in the app and diagnose issues properly.

What's the actual input spec on the IRICO unit? Worth posting the datasheet page if you have it.

@BoatFinn spent two summers watching my "3000W" Renogy unit deliver the enthusiasm of a damp flannel — the nameplate wattage on these all-in-ones is basically aspirational fiction written by an optimistic intern in Shenzhen.

Really relevant thread for me — I'm running a 24V setup on my narrowboat and spent ages trying to figure out why my panels weren't delivering what they should.

One thing nobody's mentioned yet: what's your panel configuration? On a 24V bank specifically, if your open-circuit voltage isn't sitting comfortably above the battery voltage plus the MPPT's minimum input differential, the controller can struggle to even start a proper charge cycle, let alone hit rated watts.

Worth checking:

• Are your panels wired in series, parallel, or series-parallel?
• What's the actual Voc vs the MPPT's minimum input spec?

With budget all-in-ones the documentation is often vague on that minimum voltage headroom. @WillWebb's point about built-in MPPT quality is spot on too — I eventually swapped mine out for a standalone Victron SmartSolar and the difference was genuinely embarrassing.

@CopperRoamer — narrowboat here too, so this resonates.

The detail nobody mentions with these integrated units is string voltage. On a 24V bank, your MPPT input window is often embarrassingly narrow, and two 200W panels wired in series can breach the controller's VOC ceiling on a cold morning before the thing has even woken up properly. That's not a charging problem — that's a configuration problem the manual glosses over entirely.

I wasted the better part of a season on my previous boat before I pulled the all-in-one and fitted a dedicated Victron SmartSolar. The difference wasn't marginal. The IRICO units I've seen specced similarly clip aggressively rather than track properly.

Worth measuring your actual panel VOC in cold conditions and comparing against the controller's stated maximum input voltage. I'd wager that's where your losses are hiding.