OutBack Innovation and Support [RE-wrenches]
Walt Ratterman
wratterman at SunEnergyPower.com
Tue May 1 12:08:50 PDT 2007
Hello....
I have to step in and say that I back Outback Products 100%. I do
primarily off-grid / and quasi-grid (grids that are almost non-existent,
or formed by a shaky generator) in some of the most remote places in the
world. I have tried a lot of different products.
I simply don't use anything but Outback in these areas. It is
difficult, if not impossible to get back to them and we need to give
these folks the best shot in reliability, and this is what I think we
are doing.
I am excited about the new enhancements, too, Chris.
Take care,
Walt Ratterman
-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Freitas --- OutBack Power
[mailto:cfreitas at outbackpower.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2007 11:54 AM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: RE: OutBack Innovation and Support [RE-wrenches]
Todd, Dave, Wrenches -
First - An apology for my slow response on this list recently - I was
out of the office for most of the last two weeks for personal reasons
and yesterday was spent traveling for a customer meeting. I am the only
person at OutBack able to post on the wrenches list - I will talk with
Michael about options to address this.
It is very disappointed to see the way OutBack is being described here
by a very few, but vocal, individuals. To have words such as
"vaporware" and "embellished" thrown back up is simply not a fair or
accurate way to describe OutBack.
OutBack has certainly grown - we are now 100+ employee company. I take
great pride in the quality of our products, the way we treat our
employees (full medical, dental, 401K etc.) and that we build our
products here in the USA - not in china or Eastern Europe as with the
majority of our competitors. We are growing fast still - which is a very
challenging situation.
As far as not being able to talk with the engineers - that is simply not
true. Some of us are certainly hard to get ahold of - we are very busy
- but there is no policy that restricts anyone from talking with anyone.
I think some people are simply repeating lies from our competitors who
are stating this to try and make us look bad.
As far as innovation and new products - we have many very exciting
products which will be released this upcoming summer and fall. Some of
them will be at MREF. We have elected to not advertise them months
ahead of time before they even work or are beta tested - as others are
doing - and we also are not simply copying other companies products -
again as many are also doing - we here at OutBack beleive it is only
worth doing something if we can truely advance the level of technology
and performance. Expect to see our new DC monitoring system soon which
gives so much more information in such a more usuable form as well as
integrates with the other products for the first true RE "operation
system". It will change how systems operate and let you understand what
the system is doing - not just the battery.
Developing products like these takes much time - especially if it is
done right. We are trying hard to not use the wrenches as guinea pigs
for our R&D. Unfortunately, we have recently had to spend much of our
time dealing with the upcoming switchover to the new UL1741 standard -
which will be a major event for this group - I look at it as almost the
Y2K of the grid-tie inverter market in the US - we have spent over 4
months testing products and revising reports, witho no real world
improvement to the product - but that is a big part of being a
manufacturer in a developing industry.
OutBack is in the market for the long run - and we work hard to be a
reponsible corporate citizen and participant. I think many on this list
can attest to this.
I will be more available for discussing any of the issue online or
off-list if anyone would like to. I also will address the grid-tie
inverter ratings issue in a separate email.
Best regards,
Christopher
Christopher Freitas
OutBack Power Systems, Inc.
cfreitas @ outbackpower.com
www.outbackpower.com
Arlington WA USA
Tel 360 435 6030
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