[RE-wrenches] Outback in general

[jay]

HI Dan,

I can only talk about my experience.  

Outback tech support has been going downhill for years and if hadn't been for Lones would have really sucked.  

The support I’ve got from Signature  has been good.  So far its only been for programming and commisssioning help but its been quick, easy and accurate.  
Conversely getting someone on the line from fortress is a disaster, same inverter.

I  have 5 of the LUX inverters installed and so far no issues. 


I don’t use Sol Ark due to a few competent friends who have had major fights with them over warranty issues.  
One issue I’ve mentioned before was a system that was designed by Sol ark, and monitored as well.  There were inverter firmware issues no  one knew about which caused multiple failures of which they tried to charge my buddy for, yes under warranty. 


I am waiting to be able to get the right project for the AIO.

Jay




> On Jul 20, 2024, at 5:24 PM, Dan Fink via RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
> 
> James Showalter from Signature Solar and Eric Lundgren from Big Battery purchased Outback Solar. I have had terrible tech support experiences from both of those outfits, they tend to conveniently "forget" your engineering and NEC code compliance support requests when the answer is just simply "no, not yet UL listed" or "we don't know if that feature works or not." I'm not sure how these prolific suppliers of cheap crap products with terrible QC and NIB failure rates intend to compete, but my guess is that they have control of the big crap overseas product pipeline nozzle and intend to steer the huge stream of sewage in our direction. Sol-Ark just imports Deye products and retrofits them with their own upgrades and firmware. Magnum has vanished, much to my dismay as my own system is Magnum as are dozens of my customers.
> 
> Us off-grid folks still have a couple guys named boB and Robin at Midnite that still manufacture, sell and support good products. Maybe Morningstar will up their game into larger inverters. Why are all these shady import companies based in Texas? Inquiring minds want to know! BTW, I hate all-in-ones, never had a single good experience, just endless firmware and comms updates and such simple issues resulting in multiple truck rolls.
> 
> I miss Lones Tuss of Outback calling me back on a Friday evening at 7PM and remotely diagnosing my client's VFX / Mate 3S issues whilst doing his laundry at home, after I submitted a ticket earlier that day. The client seriously thought I was pulling a practical joke on him until I put Lones on speaker.
> 
> Strange new world for us off-grid folks. I'll have to stick with the very few companies left that I trust. Yes, yes, Schneider, but their tech support is almost impenetrable. 
> 
> Our strange new off-grid world seems to be destined as crap from Alibaba and Amazon, and it all smells rather off to me, like the "fresh fish" at a run-down Safeway in eastern Kansas....
> 
> Dan Fink
> Owner, Buckville Energy Consulting LLC
> IREC Certified Instructor for PV and Small Wind Installation
> NABCEP Certified PV System Inspector
> NABCEP PV Associate
> d <mailto:dan.fink at greendustrialtraining.com>anbob88 at gmail.com <mailto:anbob88 at gmail.com>
> 970-672-4342
> 
>  
> 
> 
> On Sat, Jul 20, 2024 at 3:22 PM Jay via RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org <mailto:re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>> wrote:
> I just checked the OB forums page and there is nothing current. 
> 
> One thing I found says that the new president of OB is the CEO of Big Battery. I don’t know that to be a fact. 
> Which is also somehow related to signature solar/ EG4. 
> 
> My guess is that if/when OB resurfaces it won’t have the same products. It’ll just be an old name selling new products and they won’t be dealing with old legacy products, warranty or MX or tech support. 
> 
> I could be way wrong. 
> 
> But anyone trying to keep a product line going wouldn’t just stop all communication for a few months. 
> 
> Maybe someone who has been an OB distributor might know more about what’s up?  I no longer have any of those contacts. 
> 
> New world, fellow wrenches. 
> 
> Jay
> 
> 
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