Xantrex C35 Charge Control

More Xantrex reviews

The Xantrex C35 Charge Control features PWM (Pulse Width Modulated) 3 stage, micro processor controlled charging. It can be used with 12 or 24 volt systems and regulates up to 35 amps of charging. It can be used as a charge, diversion, or load controller. Most common usage is as a solar charge control but some people use them as a diversion control with wind or hydro systems. I have personally never seen one used as a load control, but you can if you need.

The charging (or diversion\load) set-points are fully user adjustable in the field. All you have to do is remove the 4 screws from the front cover, and just above the battery and solar connection terminals you will see 2 knobs that you can adjust to adjust the bulk and float charging voltages. The voltage indicators printed next to the adjustment knobs are fairly accurate but it's always best to actually check the voltage with a meter just to make sure.

Also if you have flooded lead acid batteries you can have the C35 automatically perform and equalization charge every 30 days. If you have gel or AGM batteries, DO NOT equalize them, instead move the jumper in the C35 to manual equalize.

There are knockouts on the sides, bottom, and back of the C35 and enough room to comfortably install the wiring inside. There are two terminals to connect common negatives to, and a terminal for battery+ and PV+. The terminals easily accept wire up to 6 gauge and possibly larger. Just strip the wire insert into terminal and tighten screw, no need to crimp anything on these connections. The earth ground connection on the other hand is almost useless in my opinion. For the ground connection, one little green screw is supplied that screws into the back of the C35 case. To actually connect a wire to it you have to crimp a ring or lug onto the wire then secure it with the almost useless little green grounding screw.

The transistors that control the PWM are located near the top of the C35 with some ventilation holes in the case to provide cooling. No heat sink or fan. I wonder about it's long time reliability if used near its rated 35 amps for long periods. The other Xantrex C series controllers have heat sinks to help with cooling.

I personally own a Xantrex C35 but have not installed it yet, it was used when I got it and I haven't had time to install it. If I was to purchase a new charge controller I would probably not buy a C35. The C40 has a heat sink and seems like a better unit. But I still like the TriStar charge controllers by Morningstar, just my personal preference. I haven't really seen or heard about any Xantrex C35's failing or not working, so they must be pretty reliable. One thing to watch out for when installing and setting up, make sure you set the jumper inside to whatever your system voltage is. I have seen a situation where someone had a 24 volt system and had the jumper set to 12 volts. Therefore the controller always thought the batteries were full and didn't allow them to charge anymore. If you had a 12 volt system and had the jumper set on 24 volts then the controller would always think the batteries were dead and they would over charge.

There are better charge controllers out there that work well and cost little more that might be worth considering. But the Xantrex C35 is reliable and does function pretty well. I'll update this review this summer after I get mine installed and see how it works for me.

My Overall Rating 6.5\10

—°—°—°—