[RE-wrenches] Discover battery RMA costs
Ray Walters
ray at solarray.com
Thu Feb 26 12:34:54 PST 2026
What I think we need is a Wrenches Vote list; a compiled list of all the
products, and manus we use, and all of our combined experiences. Each
of us individually is probably not enough buying power to be a blip on
the radar screen, but all of us combined is a force to be reckoned
with. Each of us are confirmed installers, or we are not on the RE
Wrenches. That means we each get a vote to rate these products, and we
should be able to vote anonymously to avoid fear of reprisals from manus.
What do you think oh grand poobah list administrator, Michael Welch? I
would start the product/ manufacturer list. I'm not saying a separate
email list, just a compiled list of products that would live on RE
Wrenches area.
Ray Walters
Remote Solar
On 2/26/2026 1:01 PM, Michael Morningstar wrote:
> Yes Please!!! A Good, Bad and Ugly list
>
> On Thu, Feb 26, 2026 at 11:41 AM Ray Walters via RE-wrenches
> <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
> Hi Laura;
>
> You didn't state how old the batteries were. If its an "out of the
> box"
> problem, then I don't even consider that a warranty issue. The
> company
> has an initial obligation to sell you a functioning product, not a
> big
> hunk of junk. That's part of the initial sale; you bought a battery,
> you should get a battery. Speaking of Rolls, that's why I quit
> selling
> their batteries; they sent me a battery that was wired internally
> backwards, so it had no voltage. This was a simple quality control
> issue they should have caught at the factory, but instead they
> insisted
> on charging a serious freight charge to correct it. Never sold their
> series 5000 stuff again (sorry Steve) so they might have controlled
> costs, but they lost about a train load worth of sales with me
> over the
> years, so I think their internal business calculus was flawed.
>
> I went on to sell HUP batteries (now gone, RIP) and they had what I
> thought was a very fair warranty policy. For the first year they paid
> parts, labor, and freight. For years 2 through 7, they gave full
> credit, but the dealer paid freight and labor, and years 8 through 10
> were prorated, so you got a little credit, but definitely were
> going to
> be paying some. Overall, we rarely used the warranty, but it was
> fair.
> I also recently had a minor issue with Midnite, and they sent a
> new unit
> out, at their cost, and I put the old unit in the box and sent it
> back
> to them. Magnum used to be that way too, for "out of the box" or DOA
> products.
>
> The other issue, is that you quickly quit selling products you have
> trouble with. I'm considering posting a Good, Bad, and the Ugly
> list of
> my experiences with all manus.....
>
> Ray Walters
> Remote Solar
>
>
> On 2/26/2026 8:59 AM, Laura Conchelos via RE-wrenches wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > I need to replace a Discover rack-mounted battery under
> warranty. When
> > I started the RMA process, I was told I'd have to pay shipping
> costs
> > for the replacement battery, which I found appalling. That, of
> course,
> > is on top of the fact that they will not pay any cost for my
> labor or
> > for the disposal of the battery. I'm in a rural area, so
> disposal is
> > difficult. If anyone knows of a place to dispose of lithium
> batteries
> > in Denver, please let me know. I can haul it up with me next
> time I go!
> >
> > I'm not as surprised that Discover is not paying for my labor.
> though
> > that sucks. It's a fight to get Solaredge to pay for my labor for
> > inverter replacements and I've never been reimbursed for
> > module replacement. But the shipping really surprised me. I've
> never
> > had to pay shipping for an RMA before.
> >
> > So I'm wondering what costs y'all are having to absorb when RMA-ing
> > equipment these days? A guy at Discover told me that Sol Ark was
> now
> > charging shipping for replacement products?
> >
> > It feels very bad to have to pass these costs onto the consumer
> when
> > the equipment they purchased fails, so I guess these are costs I'm
> > going to have to build into the initial install going forward.
> Thoughts?
> >
> > Laura Conchelos
> > Sandhill Solar LLC
> > Monte Vista CO
> >
> >
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>
> --
>
> Michael Morningstar
>
>
> Morningstar Electric Inc
>
> PO Box 1494
>
> Mount Shasta, CA 96067
>
> 530-921-0560
>
> CSLB 1116835
>
> mjmorningstar at gmail.com
>
>
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