warranty issues [RE-wrenches]

[Joel Davidson]

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Hi Matt,

My Prius has a 10 year warranty on the battery bank, inverter and electric 
motor, but that's another story. I sold a couple hundred old model SW4048 
inverters that have been operating continuously since 1997-8. Even the SWODE 
SW5548's are still going strong. Every Trace/Xantrex PV100 I installed is 
still working. On the other hand, there are a couple hundred Omnion 
inverters I installed between 1994-1996 that bit the dust.

What inverters do you only buy and what inverters do you never buy? Any 
other wrenches who want to plug the favorite or pan their worse inverter are 
welcome to chime in.

Joel Davidson

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matt Tritt" <solarone at charter.net>
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 11:25 PM
Subject: Re: warranty issues [RE-wrenches]


>
> What I'm saying is that a 10 year warranty is one bogus requirement, both 
> for the installer and the manufacturer. I'm of the opinion that only a 
> bureaucrat who has never had to function in the private domain could have 
> dreamed up something so difficult for all concerned. I mean, can you 
> imagine a ten year warranty for an automobile? And requiring the guy who 
> sold it to you to take care of it for free for ten friggen' years?
>
> William Miller wrote:
>
>>
>> Matt:
>>
>> So you're saying the poor manufacturers are unfairly burdened by the 10 
>> year warranty.  Well I've got to live by the same rules for my part of 
>> the job, so how can you say they are worse off than the installer?
>>
>> Your logic breaks down further in regards to the cost of field repairs: 
>> If the manufacturers pay attention to quality control, they will have a 
>> reasonably small failure rate.  They amortize the cost of an occasional 
>> repair over the many inverters that did not fail.  The market will decide 
>> which inverters are reliable.  Those manufacturers will have increased 
>> sales and minimal field repair costs, ergo increased profits, more money 
>> for QC and the cycle continues.  Business 101.  Versus penny wise and 
>> pound foolish!
>>
>> I still don't get how I'm supposed to be the manufacturers' errand boy 
>> for 10 years for free.  Is SMA going to come out and cover my repairs, 
>> gratis?  I don't think so!
>>
>> If we didn't install their inverters, the manufacturer's couldn't sell 
>> more than a few of them...  It's a symbiotic relationship and I say, 
>> "cover your own mistakes."
>>
>> William Miller
>>
>>
>> At 05:58 PM 6/6/2007, you wrote:
>>
>>> Jeff and Marco,
>>>
>>> If you look at this problem from the perspective of the manufacturers, 
>>> and we wouldn't have anything to sell without them, warranting anything 
>>> for five years is a big gamble, not to mention 10! Ever stop to think 
>>> about just how long 10 years is and what can happen to just about 
>>> anything out in the environment in that period of time? In order to be 
>>> able to support a product, be it solar or otherwise, for 3,650 days of 
>>> who knows what kinds of weather, they need to add something to the 
>>> original price of the equipment, otherwise they simply couldn't do it.
>>>
>>> If they were to also have to pay technicians for unforeseen labor events 
>>> during this period, I can't see any way in hell they could charge enough 
>>> for the original product and still have the price low enough to attract 
>>> any buyers to begin with.
>>>
>>> Matt T
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>
>
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> To send a message: RE-wrenches at topica.com
>
> Archive of previous messages: 
> http://lists.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/read
>
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>
> 


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