[RE-wrenches] Off Grid Inverter Replacement Questions

[Tump]

 One of my main reasons for owning and first choice is the SMA SI. One hel* of a product, yeah the price IS hi but.......SMA is I believe the ONLY manufacture that will open a claim ticket for repair and give you 90 days to send in for labor compensation. As for the Sunny Island products.... I tell customers if these units fail, a  48 Hr delivery replacement from SMA, but SMA says 24hr. Round trip shipping IS INCLUDED! Tech support IS available and right on top of things. Someone at SMA may want to confirm but this has always been my experience. 
On Feb 9, 2015, at 6:22 PM, Larry wrote:

> Dan and Allan,
> 
> I was not going to comment on this thread since my info is a few years old. But since you brought up recent failures I will tell my experience. A few year ago we were having failures with new FM60 and FM80 controllers. Brand new DOA controllers were replaced with used, warranty repaired controllers. One customer had 3 controllers replaced in 30 days. After too many calls to Outback and not one penny in compensation, we totally quit selling all Outback products. 
> 
> Since then we have sold hundreds of Magnum Energy inverters. The only failure we have had was very recently with their new MSH series. For charge controllers we switched to Midnight Classic. We install 10-15 Classic 150's per month. We have had 1 DOA but Midnite responded well and sent a new replacement.
> 
> Attention manufacturers...Customer service is everything to me.
> Larry Crutcher
> Starlight Solar Power Systems
> On 2/9/15 12:14 PM, Dan Tittmann wrote:
>> AS someone who works almost exclusively with off grid battery based inverters for years.  I would recommend staying away from the outback line of inverters.  We are seeing outback failures in units that are only 2 to 3 years old, once you get through to the Tech Support generally a 30 to 40 min hold time and forget about the "call you back feature" unless you want a call back in three days.  The board replacements that we get are a total crap shoot.  I have had replacement boards fail within minutes and many of them within in months and there is no warranty on the boards.  
>> 
>> I would go with Magun Hybrid as it is a 120 V AC unit and has load assist like the old SW's.  We are always sorry to replace the old SW units but after 20+ years of service I guess they have put in their work.  Magnum has provided us with reliable service since we started installing them 6 Years ago.  I hope they keep their product as reliable with the new owners.
>> 
>> my two cents
>> Daniel
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Daniel Tittmann 
>> CTO
>> Greenwired
>> www.greenwired.com
>> daniel at greenwired.com
>> 707-923-2001 (office)
>> 707-206-5088 (Cell)
> 
>> On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 8:02 PM, Allan Sindelar <allan at sindelarsolar.com> wrote:
>> Esteemed Wrenches,
>> ....What I want to know, please, are answers to two+ questions: 1) what's the real scoop? what is now made where? and 2) what actual experiences, specifically product failures, have any of you had that directly relate to changes directly attributable to overseas production? In other words, how much of this is real and how much is rumor?....
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Allan Sindelar
>> allan at sindelarsolar.com
>> NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional
>> NABCEP Certified Technical Sales Professional
>> New Mexico EE98J Journeyman Electrician
>> Founder (Retired), Positive Energy, Inc.
>> 505 780-2738 cell
>> 
>> 
>>  
> _______________________________________________
> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
> 
> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
> 
> Change listserver email address & settings:
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
> 
> List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html
> 
> List rules & etiquette:
> www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
> 
> Check out or update participant bios:
> www.members.re-wrenches.org
> 



> Tump at swnl.net               www.SWNL.net
>                 Solarwinds Northernlights       
>        Serving Mid Coast Maine & Northern California
>                          207-832-7574   Cl. 610-517-8401                              
>                               Blair "TUMP" May
>                ********  MAINE'S CHARTER ********
>                       NABCEP    "Certified PV Installer" 
>    
>               ********  MAINE'S CHARTER ********
>                   Trace Xantrex "Certified" Dealer / Installer"
> 


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20150209/85bc773d/attachment-0002.html>