In NswSailor's recent thread about his failed hard panel, one poster mentioned a failed flexible panel.
When they first came out, I seemed to notice a lot of failure reports which scared me off, but they've been selling at reasonable prices for the last four years or so, and thus I am now re-thinking the prospect of trying some.
Before I do, however, this thread asks any members that have used "fully" flexible or "semi-flexible" panels for 2+ years what their experience has been in terms of breakdowns or gradual lowering of capacity?
When my new yacht was delivered over 3 years ago, I had a $289 semi-flexible 80w, 15v solar panel fitted with zips to the bimini. It weighs about 1kg and measures 933 x 540 x 3 mm. https://www.welinksolar.com.au/store/p4/80W_5.19A_N80_Powerful_New_Solar_Cells_Semi-Flexible_Solar_Panel.html
I don't have any data on the power output but apart from some clouding of the surface it seems to be still functioning well and keeps the original batteries fully charged while the boat sits on its swing mooring.
As you will see from the photos, its a favourite place for the seagulls to stand and some of the marks are their calling cards.
If you're on Facebook look up the trimaran "Spirit". She had a bunch of flexible panels fitted during a refit a while back and they rave about them. They are liveaboard cruisers so plenty of consumption but say they've never had to use an outside charge for the batteries.
I fitted cheap Chinese flexible solar panels when I bought the boat and they went foggy like the ones above and performance dropped off within 12 months . They came with a 3 years warranty so I went to claim, guess what, the company had gone, too many claims. I have now fitted the next generation Chinese which they say will not deteriorate in the sun and so far so good. Only time will tell if I have done my money again. May be I should have just paid the big money and fitted the Solbian flexible panels from word go. Solbian are blood expensive but they are good.
Thanks for your reports so far guys. More comments welcome.
Gravy, your semi-flexible panels look a bit weather battered (thanks for the photos) but encouraging to hear they are still delivering after 3 years.
Jethrow I tried to find a blog post on that trimaran's solar panels but no luck; found some blog posts but none the wiser about their panels.
Jode, thanks for alerting us to what can happen with the cheap Chinese stuff, but in respect of upping the ante all the way to Solbian pedigree - I think there's some risk when leaving small size Solbian panels non-permanently mounted on an unattended boat on a mooring, given their price.
Getting a 3/5 year warranty from an ebay-only online store may or may not be equivalent to zero warranty. Not sure about Amazon Australia yet, whether they would back third party sellers' warranties.
Here's hoping we hear about well made flexibles that are low cost but backed by a long term stable boating or camping bricks and mortar retailer.
Wish we could find one of those! 
I ran a 130W panel for two years which prooved to be too small, having problems with the fridge's consumption.
It ended up like this from a lightning strike.
Now l am running a 200W panel with an mppt controller and it is splendid, keeping my 3x110Ah AGM's on 13.8 V when sunny with the fridge and auto pilot running.
Why l did not get a flexible panel?
Because most of them, like my mate's, end up hazy after a short while and l don't think they are as efficient as the hard ones. Pricewise, they are way too expensive to boot.
Select to expand quotesirgallivant said..
Why l did not get a flexible panel?
Because most of them, like my mate's, end up hazy after a short while and l don't think they are as efficient as the hard ones. Pricewise, they are way too expensive to boot.
Thanks SirG, good info. As far as utility, I think the smaller ones (eg. 50W to 80W) are particularly attractive as "movable" resource easily deployed when you arrive at anchor or mooring to increase your energy generation for a few days.
If a storm should come up, it is just easier to pick up and stow a thin semi-flex panel than the equivalent aluminium-framed hard panel. That portability and stowability, to me, would offset the lower efficiency.
But nobody wants cloudiness or gradual failure with no warranty.
The same portability seems to be attractive to the four wheel drive campers and caravaners, so maybe there's a brick and mortar 4WD accessory retail chain in Aus that would stand by it's warranty, but I'm not in that game so not sure who's who.
I bought a couple of 120w flexible panels from Itechworld. I have used them a couple of times when at anchor. I like them because I can place them any where on the deck so I don't need special fabricated structures for them and they stow away easily below . I have found so far that they don't seem to produce the claimed power and the slightest shadow that falls on them hinders their performance drastically. My small 44w solid panel permanently mounted on my targa frame, size for size seems to be a more efficient panel and in conjunction with my wind turbine they satisfy most my power needs.
These are the guys I was talking about...
www.facebook.com/trimaranspirit/?ref=br_rs
and
Going through a few panels in the past years, 50w, 130w, now 200w solid panels - as l got the structure to keep them on - l found this last one is the best in efficiency.
To note, first time I used an mppt controller, it is keeping the batteries full, so far.
From some of the comments made above about semi-flexible solar panels like the ones pictured in my last post, one might think that after three years, a bit of clouding, scratched surfaces and a sprinkling of guano, semi-flexible solar panels might be completely useless.
I'm happy to report that this is not the case.
No scientific multi-meter measurements to back up this proposition but after a few weeks with the panel and bimini removed in a desperate attempt to find some late season speed in our twilight racing (during which the frig being on is mandatory - as any self-respecting twilighter will attest), I discovered that the house batteries were down to about 11v and in urgent need of a top-up.
So I reinstalled the bimini, cloudy solar cells and guano included, and plugged the wires back in. Two days on the mooring - hey presto! Service batteries back up to full charge.
I am sure that shiny new ones would be even better but I see no need to splurge on any replacements for a while yet. 
