Harbor Freight Solar Panels and WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW before you buy them

Introduction to Harbor Freight Solar Panels

You're thinking about getting some Hoover right test solar panels. Some people know it's Harbor Freight. Great, awesome. I've seen a lot of videos talking about how well they work, and they do, they work so well. I have two and I went out and bought a third. But there's things you need to know. You see, if you go out and buy these directly from ubar Freitas and you bring them back to your home, they might not work for you. So I'm going to show you how to set these up because I don't want you mad at me, I don't want you mad at hoob arthritis, and I I don't want you mad at the Sun. But just know every solar power supply that you have so probably work for it. I'll talk to you about how you set it up. A lot of videos, they don't do that. They just talk about how great they are, and they talk about their one system. But if you have a blue Eddie, you got an anchor, you got Eco flow or whatever the hell else you're using, well, I think you're going to think this real nice side.

Understanding Connectors and Adapters

All right, great. So let's take a look at these who bought Friday solar panels real quick. Now these things are built actually very well. They got the aluminum framing around this thing helps keep the weight down on the back right here. All you got two legs, we'll talk about that here in a bit. However, the main thing you need to know before you buy these solar panels is that they come install with SAE connectors. Now I'm not really sure why hubar Freitas decided to do this and go with the SAE connectors, but I'll tell you straight out, don't worry about it. It's not a big deal.

So first, let's talk about how I set these up to my different power supplies, how you can set it up to your power supply or your solar panels. You want to connect them to different things, whatever, and we'll do that sweet, sweet testing, show you how these things work out real nice. So the first thing we talked about was it comes with the SAE connector that might work for you or it might not, but there's a couple different things you can do. So the first thing you can do is switch them over to an mc4 connector. You could do that a couple different ways. Number one is go to the Amazonian, you can actually buy the mc4 connectors, splice off or cut off the wires right here. See that right there? Pretty simple to do. All you need to do is have some common electrical knowledge and a crimper. However, the easiest route to go, and they're extremely cheap, is I'll leave a link in description below, go on Amazon, get an SAE to mc4 adapter. You see, that's basically what I did. That was the easiest method. I did crimp one just to show you. But this, the SAE being, goes into your mc4, and then you can hook up other ones right into it. So now you can run multiple panels at the same time.

So once you hook your panels into this splitter here, most of your power supplies are going to take an xt60 anyway that plugs directly into the front or back of them. So you just plug that into your power supply and then you just plug these right into the Splitters that I showed you, and your, you're ready to go.

So basically what I'm saying to you, it does not matter what type of power supply, power generator, solar generator, whatever you want to call it, that you have. Amazon sells a ton of different adapters, basically anything you're going to need. So if you want to just keep it the SAE and plug it into an adapter, that's fine. Or if you have a little extra electrical know-how, well, you can put the mc4s on yourself and you can do really whatever you want.

Features, Cost, and Build Quality

But what about the power? Now usually these are around 125, 120 off season. On season you can get them for 100 dollars. I'll leave a link in the description below for you to check this out. It's not an affiliate link, I don't get paid by it, but before tax you're looking at like a dollar per lot. These are the biggest ones that they have at the store. These are the newest ones that they have at the store. So you got an older pair of the 100 watt Thunderbolts and these are again the newest pair of the 100 watt Thunderbolts. They are not heavy at all, very simple to move around, very rugged actually, they feel great, the build quality anyway.

But there is two little issues that I had, and they both have to do with the legs. Now don't get me wrong, I like them, they work well and I'm glad they have them. However, there's two things. One is while the rubber foot's already fell off, so I would say get some super glue, pop these off, super glue them, put them back on because I already lost one. I'm gonna get dirt in there and I ain't gonna be real nice like. And number two, which is pretty easy fix if you're a DIY or somebody just likes to use tools, they go independently instead of both legs moving up at the same time or down at the same time. So you have to adjust this, come over there, adjust that, and it's kind of a pain to butt. Wish I just would have ran a bar straight across and they both would have adjusted at the same time. But I do also want to point out, you got some holes right there on the frame. You see that right there, right there? Well, the reason those are there, a lot of people are actually building their own sort of automatic rotating solar adjustment system. If you have a house back up, you got the solar generator, the inverter, you got the batteries, bat rays, well, depending on how many of these you have, you can run your home on it for an extended amount of time.

Performance and Setup Configurations

Which leads me to part three of this video, how well did they perform in Sonic? All right, so the way I have this hooked up is I have a 200 watt and that's going into my eco flow, which I'll show you. And then I got three of these hook up together, and what's nice about the Eco flow, which I have a video on that and they also sell at Harbor Freight House, they got two separate plugins so you can do this. You can put the 200s on one and then the 100s in series on another.

However, this is a pretty sunny day, got a little bit of smokeage from the Canadian wildfires, what's been going on all year, but my average rating for three 100 watt solar panels came out to about 265 Watts being pulled in on average. The highest I was able to get was 275 Watts using these three solar panels and that was optimal position, but that's still not bad.

Now what you definitely want to keep in mind is I'm using Eco flow so there's two different circuits I can plug into. I can use the 200 Watts, plug that into one, and then the 100 watt panels and plug those in together into a different board. But I would just say if you're looking to buy the 100 Watts, you can use them by themselves, that's great. If you're planning on mix matching solar panels or at least solar panel sizes, definitely watch some other videos about why that's probably not the best idea. But if you have different inverters, you can do that like on the Eco flow and it works perfectly fine. And I'll tell you, the hubar has solar panels, they were so easy to set up, they're so easy to put together, they're so easy to put away. I was really, really happy with them. It really upped the game when it came to charging on the solar because it just, it's so much faster now.

Final Thoughts and Recommendations

There you go, you know, I really like these panels. I think there was a couple things, a small nitpicks that I wish they would have done, you know, added a little bit of glued to those those splits right there. And I wish they would have, you know, added the extra pin in the back where both legs move at the same time. Other than that, they're easy to move around, they're easy to set up, and they're extremely easy to store. These things are not huge, they're not small, but they're very compact and the best thing about it is they work really, really good. I could not be happier with these.

And you might say to yourself, well, I don't want to deal with, you know, getting different adapters. You're going to have to do that anyway on a lot of different systems. And if you're somewhat familiar with these power supplies, solar power battery chargers, you're not going to have an issue with it. And the stuff to convert all this is very cheap, very inexpensive. So are they worth the money? Heck yes. And what I really like about this, you don't even have to order these online. Check your local store, they're probably going to have these in store. That's where I got this. So, you know, you just can't beat that. And I'll tell you what, good on hubar Freitas for stepping up, bringing cool products to their customers because now more people can get involved with this. And if you have a sunny day, which you don't always see in Ohio, when you do, you're gonna think it's real nice like. Let me know what you think in the comment section below. I'll leave more videos for you right here. I also have more solar Banks, solar power supplies coming to the channel, so get subscribed, you don't want to miss this. But I'll leave that Eco flow right here. I think you're gonna think it's really nice. Back more videos soon.

Technical Specifications: Harbor Freight Thunderbolt Solar Panels

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What kind of connectors do the Harbor Freight solar panels come with?

A: The Harbor Freight solar panels come with SAE connectors. While this might not be universally compatible with all solar generators out of the box, there are easy and inexpensive adapter solutions available, such as SAE to MC4 adapters.

Q: Are Harbor Freight solar panels difficult to set up with different solar generators (e.g., EcoFlow, Bluetti)?

A: No, they are actually quite easy to set up. With readily available and cheap adapters (like SAE to MC4, and then often to XT60 for many power supplies), you can connect them to almost any power supply or solar generator without needing advanced electrical knowledge. The review highlights how quick and simple the setup process is.

Q: How do the 100-watt Harbor Freight solar panels perform in real-world conditions?

A: In real-world tests conducted on a sunny day (despite some smoke from wildfires), three 100-watt panels connected together averaged about 265 watts of input into a power station. The highest recorded peak was 275 watts when in an optimal position. The reviewer was "really, really happy with them" and noted they significantly improved charging speed.