Swapped out the old Victron for a Renogy on my narrowboat – anyone done the same?

Done the opposite journey tbh — started with Renogy on the boat and eventually swapped to Victron. The Renogy kit felt fine at first but the Bluetooth monitoring was patchy and I kept losing connection mid-cruise, which drove me mental when I wanted to keep an eye on state of charge going through tunnels.

The Victron ecosystem just clicked for me once I got it set up. MPPT talking to the BMV, everything visible on VRM — it's proper peace of mind when you're liveaboard and the bank is your lifeline.

That said, I get why people go the other way. Victron prices have crept up and Renogy has improved a fair bit. What controller did you swap to — their Wanderer or one of the MPPT units? Makes a big difference which end of the range you're running.

Curious whether you're pairing it with Fogstar cells or still on AGM? My setup shifted massively when I went lithium last spring, the whole charge profile conversation changed overnight.

Anyone else running mixed brands across their marine setup? Would be good to know what combinations people are actually making work out there on the cut. 🚢

@BirchTrevor my experience is land-based rather than marine — static caravan with a Victron Multiplus setup — but the Bluetooth reliability issue you're describing tracks with what I saw when I briefly trialled a Renogy MPPT alongside my existing kit. The Renogy app would simply drop the connection intermittently, no obvious cause. Victron's VRM portal and the local Bluetooth stack on the SmartSolar have been considerably more stable in comparison.

Worth noting that on a narrowboat the RF environment is probably worse than my setup — metal hull, engine interference, other vessels nearby. That could compound whatever firmware-level issues Renogy already has with connection retention. I'd be curious whether anyone's tested signal strength directly rather than just assuming it's the app.

@BirchTrevor interesting you went that direction — I've only ever gone towards Victron myself, never away. My garden office setup started with a Renogy rover controller and honestly the app dropping connection mid-session used to drive me up the wall. Switched to Victron MPPT with VRM and it's been rock solid for two years now.

That said, I know folks running Renogy on static setups with no complaints whatsoever. The marine environment might just amplify the issues — vibration, condensation, all that. On a narrowboat especially, you need something that stays connected when you're troubleshooting at 7am on a cold mooring.

What was the actual failure point that tipped you over? Curious whether it was hardware or purely the monitoring side.

@BirchTrevor garden office rather than boat here, so grain of salt and all that — but I ran Renogy gear for about 18 months before switching to Victron and the Bluetooth reliability issue was absolutely the thing that pushed me over. Kept dropping out mid-session which meant I had no idea what the batteries were actually doing.

The Victron ecosystem just talks to itself properly. VRM portal, Venus OS, everything logs consistently. Worth the price premium in my view.

Curious what's driving your move away from Victron on the boat specifically — is it cost, or something marine-environment related? Wondering if the damp atmosphere is causing issues with connectors or the unit itself, because that would be a different problem entirely from just brand preference.

@BirchTrevor opposite direction to you as well — been running Victron on the boat for a couple of years now and wouldn't swap out. The VRM portal is the real clincher for me; being able to check state of charge remotely when I'm not aboard is genuinely useful for a liveaboard setup.

One thing worth mentioning specific to narrowboats — the Victron kit handles the alternator charging integration far better in my experience. Running a Victron Orion DC-DC charger alongside the MPPT keeps everything talking nicely together.

What was the specific Renogy inverter/charger you moved to? Curious whether you're using their BT-1 module or just going with the app natively — that might explain some of the connectivity issues @BirchTrevor mentioned.