[RE-wrenches] sol ark reliability question
Ray Walters
ray at solarray.com
Fri Sep 30 09:02:12 PDT 2022
One thing I can say: trouble shooting problems over the phone has its
limitations. I had a customer issue with a system we hadn't installed
that was quite vexing. Turned out to be a loose main DC connection to
the inverter. Bizarre behavior as the connection heated up and the
resistance varied.
Ray Walters
On 9/30/2022 6:57 AM, Jay via RE-wrenches wrote:
> Hi all and thanks for the input.
>
> I guess he’s just been unlucky with the problems ( firmware upgrade
> switching to 50hz) and possibly just some random bad hardware.
>
> In regards to your thoughts of a install issue, he has spent a lot of
> time with sol ark reviewing everything. Loads, wiring, they have been
> monitoring all the data, photos, video etc with everything coming up
> correctly installed, wired, and loads.
>
> this system is an upgrade for an older XW ( 6kw units) system which
> worked fine. The customer wanted better monitoring, more kw, expansion
> capabilities and newer tech.
>
> Weird
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> On Sep 29, 2022, at 9:50 PM, pieter offgridenterprises.org via
>> RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> We have dozens of Solark based installs and have had excellent
>> results. All of our system have multiple parallel Solark inverters
>> and have operated with out issues. On the rare occasion that we had
>> commissioning questions our experience with Solark technical support
>> has been outstanding, they have by far the best technical support in
>> the industry. Although Solark helped design the system in question I
>> suspect that there must be some finer points that were not shared
>> with Solark, a load side wiring problem or perhaps an installation
>> error that is causing the repeated failures. I suggest that your
>> friend gets a fresh set of eyes on the system and look for that
>> oversite we have all made and just can’t seem to see it on our own.
>>
>> Pieter Huebner
>>
>> Off Grid Enterprises
>>
>> *From:* RE-wrenches <re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org> *On
>> Behalf Of *Jerry Shafer via RE-wrenches
>> *Sent:* Thursday, September 29, 2022 10:25 AM
>> *To:* RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>> *Cc:* Jerry Shafer <jerrysgarage01 at gmail.com>
>> *Subject:* Re: [RE-wrenches] sol ark reliability question
>>
>> Wrenches
>>
>> Solark issues, I have them living off grid, 3 phase and grid tied
>> back up, both AC and DC coupled with only one intermittent comms
>> issue, does not seem to have any more issues than OB and less
>> than Schnieder, all are connected to Fortress 18.5's or Blue Planet
>> BMS interface seems hardy,
>>
>> Would be good to know what issues he is having to accurately help
>>
>> Jerry
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 29, 2022 at 7:01 AM jay via RE-wrenches
>> <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I’ve got a question about how many folks are having issues with
>> sol-ark products?
>>
>> the reason i ask is that i’ve got a friend, a good competent
>> installer ( well versed in OB, Schneider, magnum) who’s had
>> continuing nightmares with them.
>>
>> he’s got 2 systems each on is a stacked pair of 12kw units, both
>> offgrid.
>>
>> each system was designed by sol-ark, meaning the design was
>> approved by them for the loads/solar etc.
>>
>> He’s been through 7 MCU swaps.
>> He’s been through a field call required because the over the air
>> firmware update caused the inverters to go into 50hz and for some
>> reason that isn’t fixable via the web.
>> He had an inverter that didn’t work correctly out of the box.
>> They charged him $2500 deposit for a replacement.
>>
>> Then they charged him $1500 to fix the inverter he sent back
>> under warranty. Thats right $1500 to fix a warranty which they
>> agreed was a warranty issue.
>> Hes not going to pay but this $1500 has been going on a while.
>>
>> The inverter they sent to replace the broken one had a older MCU
>> firmware so wouldn’t stack and it took tech support way to long
>> to figure that out then they had to send him a new MCU…...
>>
>> And the list goes on.
>>
>> But Im asking, is this poor guy just an anomaly or will anyone
>> else chime in about issues?,
>>
>> Because at this point I have no desire to install one given his
>> experiences
>>
>> Jay
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