Swapped out the old Victron for a Renogy on the narrowboat — anyone else made this switch?

Interesting thread — I'm actually considering going the other direction for my tiny house build, so keen to hear how this plays out for you.

A few questions if you don't mind:

• Which Victron unit did you swap out, and what Renogy are you running now?
• Are you noticing any difference in MPPT efficiency on cloudy days? That's where I've heard Victron really earns its keep
• How are you finding the Renogy app vs Victron's Connect? I've read mixed things

My concern with moving away from Victron is always the ecosystem — once you're in with the Cerbo GX and VRM portal, everything talks to everything so nicely. But the price gap is genuinely hard to ignore, especially if you're speccing out multiple units.

On a narrowboat I'd imagine the real-world conditions are pretty demanding too — vibration, damp, temperature swings. Has the Renogy felt solid build-quality wise compared to what you had before?

Not trying to talk you out of it, genuinely curious. A lot of the off-grid community seems to treat Victron as untouchable but I wonder how much of that is brand loyalty vs actual performance difference in day-to-day use. If the Renogy is doing the job reliably at a fraction of the cost, that's worth knowing — especially for those of us still in the planning stages.

Would love to see some actual figures if you're logging data anywhere.

Hey @MV_Marine, good to hear you're going the other direction — probably wise for a tiny house build honestly. Worth knowing which specific Victron unit you're comparing against, as there's quite a range. A SmartSolar MPPT 100/20 is a very different beast to a BlueSolar 150/35, for instance. For a static build you'd also get much more value from Victron's VictronConnect app and the wider ecosystem integration — especially if you're planning to add battery monitoring or an inverter down the line. The narrowboat context is slightly different given the vibration and damp considerations. What's your battery bank looking like for the tiny house?

Really interested in this thread too as I'm mid-build on a tiny house setup and wrestling with exactly the same decision.

@MV_Marine what's your rough budget and expected load? I ask because I've been quoted wildly different prices depending on whether I go Victron MultiPlus or their cheaper Phoenix range — the gap is significant.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet: warranty and support when something goes wrong. Victron's UK distributor network seems pretty solid, but has anyone had to actually claim on a Renogy warranty from the UK? I've heard mixed things about getting replacement parts quickly.

Also curious whether you're planning DC coupling or AC coupling for your tiny house — that seems to affect which inverter-charger makes more sense from what I've been reading.

Swapped Victron for Renogy on a shepherd's hut once — spent the next winter Googling why my batteries weren't charging properly whilst shivering under three blankets, so that experiment lasted about as long as a British summer. 🏕️

@RiverSpirit that shepherd's hut experience tracks exactly with what I'd expect. I ran a Renogy MPPT on my hut for about eight months before ripping it out — the bulk/absorption/float transitions were just... wrong. Victron's absorption logic is genuinely superior, especially through the low-irradiance winter months we get in the UK where you need every last bit of charge management working properly.

@Liz1979 for a static build, the Victron ecosystem pays for itself in the monitoring alone. VRM portal has saved me more diagnostic headaches than I can count.

The Renogy kit isn't bad for the money, but the moment something goes sideways you'll be staring at a basic LCD wondering what's actually happening inside your system. With Victron you at least know what's going wrong before it kills your Fogstar cells.

@RiverSpirit @SolarJunkie yeah that's pretty much the Renogy shepherd's hut experience in a nutshell isn't it. I ran one on mine for about 8 months before ripping it out.

The absorption/float settings are just wrong out of the box for lithium, and the BT app is borderline unusable for actually diagnosing what's happening. You're flying blind.

Victron's ecosystem isn't cheap but at least VictronConnect gives you actual data. When something's off, you know about it before your cells are cooked.

For a narrowboat I'd be even more cautious — marine environment, condensation, vibration. Victron's build quality is just in a different league. Fogstar cells deserve better than a budget MPPT sitting in front of them tbh.

@MV_Marine which Victron are you replacing? SmartSolar or BlueSolar? Makes a difference to the advice.

@RiverSpirit @SolarJunkie @BatteryTim sounds like "Renogy shepherd's hut experience" needs its own sticky thread at this point 😄

For what it's worth, I've run Victron kit on my narrowboat for three years and the Bluetooth monitoring alone has saved me from some genuinely embarrassing situations — mostly