[RE-wrenches] Sol-Ark Tech Support - Getting Nowhere

Sun Jun 15 14:28:26 PDT 2025

I'm not sure that I have standing. I did not purchase the inverter. And I
do not own the inverter. I simply installed it. But I do like the idea.

I have not tried to switch the master slave relationship of the system, but
that is not really the issue. Sol-Ark can see the dongle on their end, but
the inverter attached to it is not reporting data. I already replaced the
Wi-Fi board at their direction (after I told them that it was ridiculous
and unlikely to resolve the issue because the dongle was already obviously
connected to their servers). At this point, they should be sending me a new
inverter. The whole situation is totally asinine.

And yesterday when I looked for an update I got the good old, "actively
investigating" BS. I don't know about you, but when I get a client that is
having a serious issue that has dragged on for this long, I am banging
heads together and not sleeping until it is resolved.

Here's what I think the real problem is. I think they are relying on people
overseas who wrote the software and handle the servers to resolve the
issue, but they have no real direct control over them. I could be way off
base on this, but I'm not buying the claims that everything has been
brought in house and they have control over all of the software and
settings and monitoring.

At this point, there is no excuse. Once it gets escalated to the highest
level of technical support, and it can't get resolved in 24 hours, send me
a new inverter already. I am literally in direct contact with the head of
technical support. They really do not understand the concept of what a
reasonable service, support, and warranty policy is.

If these were EG4 inverters and James Showalter got wind of this issue, I'd
venture to say I would have a new inverter and an apology right now. I'm no
EG4 fanboy, quite the skeptic actually, but they are listening to their
customers. They're going to wipe out Sol-Ark if things don't change.

Jason Szumlanski
Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group
NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP)
Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956
Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208

On Sun, Jun 15, 2025, 5:12 PM david quattro <david at quattrosolar.com> wrote:

> sounds like you don’t want to take them to small claims court. I found it
> to be easy and very effective.
>   Did you try switching which inverter is the lead vs follower?
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 10, 2025 at 4:07 PM Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches <
> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
>> I’m once again dealing with a painful support experience from Sol-Ark
>> that’s confirming the broader concerns we’ve all been talking about.
>>
>> Today a customer's system went completely down due to an AC coupling
>> issue that seems to have been triggered by a factory reset I was instructed
>> to perform on a previous visit. On that previous visit, the master
>> inverter would not connect to MySolArk, regardless of what dongle is
>> used on it, so remote monitoring is dead. Despite promises of escalation
>> to Level 3 support last week, no one has followed up. I’m still in the
>> dark, and the master inverter remains offline. Calling Sol-Ark today was
>> pretty useless, as they were having phone problems. The level 1 tech I
>> finally reached was no help whatsoever. They told me the level 2 tech I was
>> previously talking to would call me. That never happened. Sound familiar?
>> No follow-through as usual. I "resolved" the AC Coupling issue myself by
>> turning it off, but we need that solar production!
>>
>> I have tried to resolve this MySolArk connection issue on multiple trips
>> to the site. Any dongle I use in the master inverter connects to MySolArk
>> (Connection Status OK), and they can see the dongle on their end. But they
>> can't see the inverter. Replaced the WiFi /RS232 board already under RMA.
>> That was useless. That was after having to convince the completely
>> illogical Level 1 support tech that the dongle was not the issue.
>>
>> To make matters worse, I have a slave inverter that needs replacement,
>> but I’m reluctant to proceed while the master is still offline. Sol-Ark’s
>> RMA process is a mess—slow responses, redundant requests, and a $3,000
>> deposit with no real accountability or urgency on their part. Phone calls
>> drop, emails go unanswered, and when I do get someone, they’re clearly not
>> up to speed on the case. This isn’t a one-off experience anymore—this is a
>> pattern. If you’re considering using Sol-Ark on any upcoming projects,
>> proceed with extreme caution. Their hardware might still check boxes on
>> paper, but the support is downright awful.
>>
>> The return visits to this remote site have easily cost me more than a new
>> inverter.
>>
>> Jason Szumlanski
>> Principal Solar Designer
>> Florida Solar Design Group
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