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    <p>I really think that the Fortress battery could easily be the top
      battery choice right now, if......they could vastly improve their
      customer support.  Tom has been great now that he contacted me,
      but it was weeks of frustration and no communication before that.
      Completely unacceptable, especially for a new emerging technology
      that we are going to have extra issues integrating into old
      systems.  I second your assessment of the integration guides as
      well.   I have a 4 hour round trip to change some voltage
      settings.................RETURN TRIPS is LOSING $$$!!! <br>
    </p>
    <p>However, once they cure those issues, the product itself is way
      beyond others such as Simpliphi or Blue Ion.  <br>
    </p>
    <p>Blue Ion = half a day of assembly and cell wiring, monitoring is
      by E-gage (AC only) through the customer's router, price way too
      high <br>
    </p>
    <p>Fortress = remove crating material from pallet and roll into
      place, with built in color touch screen for monitoring, price much
      better.  <br>
    </p>
    <p>Simpliphi = no monitoring at all, have to parallel ridiculous qty
      of batteries to do a normal off grid home, but integration guides
      are the best.</p>
    <p>Ray Walters<br>
    </p>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 11/17/2022 1:16 PM,
      <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:rich@solartechvt.com">rich@solartechvt.com</a> wrote:<br>
    </div>
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      cite="mid:024a01d8fac1$6e4cf900$4ae6eb00$@solartechvt.com">
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        <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">We’ve
            started to use Fortress batteries for off grid installations
            lately as well. The tech support has been very frustrating
            and the integration guides are ridiculous – the Magnum guide
            was the worst – absolute nonsense, I believe most of which
            has been pulled from the Fortress site now. The variation in
            charge parameters for the inverter vs the charge controller
            for the Outback guide doesn’t make sense either. Lack of
            generator start/stop parameters in the integration guides
            have resulted in trial and error programming on our part to
            zero in on what works best.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Poor
            tech support on battery based systems is one of my biggest
            pet peeves in the industry………off grid customers rely on
            their equipment, unlike net metered installations it’s not
            just a matter of reducing their electrical bill it’s about
            keeping the lights on and the fridge working.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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            <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">
                RE-wrenches
                [<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:re-wrenches-bounces@lists.re-wrenches.org">mailto:re-wrenches-bounces@lists.re-wrenches.org</a>] <b>On
                  Behalf Of </b>Ray Walters via RE-wrenches<br>
                <b>Sent:</b> Thursday, November 17, 2022 1:43 AM<br>
                <b>To:</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org">re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org</a><br>
                <b>Cc:</b> Ray Walters<br>
                <b>Subject:</b> Re: [RE-wrenches] Sol-Ark/Fortress
                charging issue<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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        <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
        <p>Talk to Thomas Honey.  He is the Fortress rep, nice guy, and
          knowledgeable wrench.   He has stepped in on my issue.  <o:p></o:p></p>
        <p>Ray  <o:p></o:p></p>
        <div>
          <p class="MsoNormal">On 11/16/2022 10:58 PM, Howie Michaelson
            via RE-wrenches wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
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              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                  style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"">Good
                  Evening,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
            </div>
            <div>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                  style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
            </div>
            <div>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                  style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"">I
                  have a frustrating charging issue involving 2 Fortress
                  eVault Maxs connected to a Sol-Ark 15k. Commissioned
                  the system last week, replacing a legacy off-grid Dual
                  Stack SunnyIsland 5048s and 2-volt Rolls battery
                  system.  Initially, we connected one of the eVaults to
                  the Sol-Ark, programmed it to Fortress' and Sol-Ark's
                  specs, setup closed loop, and things seemed fine.  The
                  battery charged at around 95 amps off the 20kW Kohler.
                  The next day we connected the 2nd eVault, went through
                  the procedures as Fortress suggested, made the
                  necessary settings changes in the Sol-Ark, and that is
                  when the issue started.  <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                  style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
            </div>
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              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                  style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"">Ever
                  since we connected the 2nd eVault, we have not been
                  able to get the charge rate much above a combined
                  total of 35 amps.  Fortress has pretty much said that
                  it can't be anything on their end (although the
                  communication with them has been very much limited and
                  frustrating). They say that nothing on their side
                  would limit the charge rate to that low, especially if
                  the batteries were in a lower state of charge.  We've
                  talked to at least 3 different Sol-Ark technicians
                  more than once.  We have changed the setting between
                  closed loop, % SOC, and Battery Voltage multiple
                  times.  We've tried dropping back to a single battery,
                  both the first one we had connected and the second one
                  (changing the battery setup and the Sol-Ark
                  parameters, but have only seen at times a moderate
                  increase in maximum charge rate (up to about 40 amps
                  total).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
            </div>
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              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                  style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
            </div>
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              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                  style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"">This
                  small increase happened after a Fortress technician
                  suggested that we turn on both the generator and the
                  grid charging toggles (the generator is connected to
                  the grid port on the Sol-Ark as per Sol-Ark's
                  recommendation.  Sol-Ark has run out of suggestions at
                  the moment, and are having us cycle the batteries
                  tonight and they will start another charge cycle in
                  the morning to see if having a lower SOC along with
                  the firmware reload will change anyhing (I don't think
                  it will - it didn't the last several times.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
            </div>
            <div>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                  style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
            </div>
            <div>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                  style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"">Has
                  anybody seen this type of behavior before?  I don't
                  think it is a settings issue, as several technicians
                  have gone through them, I have gone over them many
                  times using the Fortress/Sol-Ark integration white
                  papers. Hoping to get higher level  tech involved
                  ASAP, since I don't feel like the lower level techs
                  know enough to provide useful ideas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
            </div>
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              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                  style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
            </div>
            <div>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                  style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"">Thanks,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
            </div>
            <div>
              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                  style="font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"">Howie<br
                    clear="all">
                  <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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                                          <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span
                                                style="color:#783F04">Howie
                                                Michaelson<br>
                                              </span></b><b><span
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                                                Catcher</span></b><span
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