Kickass 12V 300W Super Thin Portable Solar Panel KASTSP300

Best 300 watt folding solar panel out – Just got this 300w folding solar panel delivered and plugged it in hoping to get above 200watts out of it and on a not very good solar day the victron mppt controller was reading 305 watts I could not believe it so happy with it I have 510watts on the roof and the 300 kickass was kicking [Content Removed] punching out 305 watts.

Too many corners have been cut, Don't buy until they have fixed the issues – Brought this on sale at $750 after waiting for their stock to come in for a few weeks, but some serious corners have been cut. I brought this largely based on online video reviews, some of which come off as paid for to me. Below are the issues I ran into. Very weak magnets. The magnets that hold the two main halves together can't hold them at all! You literally can't walk one metre without the thing opening up wildly, you must hold the two halves with one hand while doing anything which is ridiculous. This makes the panel somewhat useless & infuriating. So to fix this I had to spend $100 on two powerful (4x3x1cm) neodymium magnets & some proper adhesive to glue them in place. I don't really know if this will work longterm but it now is much better to use.

The legs dig into the back of the panel!!!!

The top part of the alloy legs actually dig into the back of the panel each time they are folded out, after just a few cycles there was a noticable worn area on the back of the panel. This is completley unacceptable & will ruin the cells in no time. So I had to spend a solid 2hours of work undoing them all & file them down just right so they didn't touch, now this may make the legs weaker!

They only give two spare corner protectors. After using this panel a handful of times it's clear they get worn out on rough terrain, so two spares is not enough.

Slight warping of the surface of the cells. Some cells are noticable warped up a bit with a raised height near the frame, I would think this is not a good sign of quality control.

The carry bag is nothing but a thin protector for in transit. The front pocket can barley fit 10M of 8B&S cable it's small.

I hope the guys at Aus Direct fix these issues.

Other observations:

There is no adjusting the tilt angle by the legs, there is just one fixed setting which is in favour of summer settings rather than winter. Perhaps this is for the best & simpler.

When opening & closing the panels, they warp a fair bit so I would advise being very gently to avoid any internal damage to the cells.

As for size & weight, its around 13KG & very big, but a true 300watt portable fold glass & aluminium using good brand cells is like 28-30kg.

The price has now jumped up around $50 in the last few weeks from the original non sale price. Weather has been poor so can't do a good test, but I will update this review if the output is not right.

Update (roughly a week later):

I think I was better off just staying with my glass panel. This panel has proven to be as big, and almost as heavy. But because it's so delicate it makes setting up & handeling alot slower than a glass panel, because you typical have to re move the panel a few times in a day it's alot more work being carful than a rigid glass panel. Also shading is quite common which makes re moving more common. Further the panels warp up a fair amount once heated up so when packing up the panel it doesn't really close well with the magnets, they are too weak for this. I feel I have wasted a huge $750. The carry bag is proving to be to small to get the panel in without too much work & is frustrating. I have tested the voltage & currrent in winter sun & it's output looks fine.