4th unit came in today just fine. I hooked it up and then realized I lied about not charging the battery to full, I have to do that at least one more time to calibrate the BMV-712 shunt. I now have 17.5 kW (nominal) of big battery, watch the sun stay out for a month now. LOL
Two units came in one day and the other came in the next. Photos from that first shipment are attached in case anyone is interested in how they package these things.
They are basically surrounded by foam. Which is good because there is no way the delivery people (FedEx in this case) are...
I wanted to follow up and say that I recieved the (brand new?) replacement unit from Renogy today. I've got to wire it up of course to confirm that it works and return the old unit. I'll let you know how that goes as well.
Checking back in to say that I received the replacement (or repaired?) 24v Hawk unit today. It was packaged the same as the rest and the volt meter appears to work properly / match the other units. On the whole the RMA process was fairly easy. BigBattery got the replacement unit to me in about...
So I've had the 3 units hooked in and running for a bit. I know someone will say don't use gel duh! but coming from the 7.2kW nominal (3.6kW usable) gel (@12v) battery bank to the ~13kW (@24v) has been a major upgrade! Both in useable battery / runtime and the ability to charge. Call me a...
Please reply back and let me know if you have issues. I will be sure do to the same. Spent too much money on these things not to monitor them.
I installed the 3 HAWKs last night and they are on their backs. Since my install is fixed (vs. say an RV or something mobile), I'm hoping that the...
So I returned the unit today. Pro tip: Do yourself a favor and schedule the pickup. Most of the FedEx Locations will NOT accept these 'dangerous' packages. I had to run to the main dist center in my city because of this.
I finally got thru (after calling and waiting on the phone for over 30 minutes) to Renogy and they DO NOT crossship ever. Horrible customer service! Do not recommend this vendor.
Edit: After mentioning this post (and Will's channel) they are now looking into the cross shipping option. SMH.
We live in an imperfect world. I expect to pay premium prices for 100% QA. On the other end, I simply ask that vendors honor their warrenty when things slip thru. I think BB did that here for me. Renogy did too but just was a bit more of a hassle. That being said, I've found value in both...
one year in to Covid, under staffing is no excuse for failing to reply to multiple emails over almost 3 weeks. Seriously, if you can't reply to an support email in 3 weeks you shouldn't be in business.
Then when I waited on hold, they gave me the run around and were refusing the replace the...
The unit is about 13 months old (on a 24 month warranty). So returning to Amazon (where I purchased) is no longer an option :(
I just want vendors with decent products, good prices, and ok customer service when things go wrong. That seems like a unicorn in the off grid market.
Yea, I have the same thoughts as you. I'll keep them on their back and hope for a long life given that they will almost never be charged to full - better yet over charged. (numbers indicate a 25% to 75% charge cycle for long term life of these batteries).
The fourth is in transit and should...
That seems very cool! I don't think I've ever heard of a battery pack with a fire extinguisher built in. Thank you for sharing!
I do wish they would update their website to reflect this new feature - it seems to be missing from the Hawk's page at least.
I'm thinking the Hawk units I...
Yea Big Battery's QA isn't great. I have purchased 8 units (2 Max 2s and 6 regular hawks) and 1 was defective out of the box and had to be returned full stop.
Another one has a bad volt meter LED display and I am one week into the support process. With just one email reply back so far...
On Friday, I ordered 3 of the 24v HAWKS. Reading the responses here give me hope that the QA @ BB is sky high right now. The additon of the fire extinguisher to the HAWK was (as mentioned in this thread) is why I am keeping my order. My install will horizontal in a fixed location so should be...
Yea real volt meter confirms it is off. So I'm betting the BMS is working on its own meter and that outside of the display this unit is functioning properly. I just don't understand out a QC/QA would have missed this very basic thing.
In any event, I am going to phone them today and see if...
Checking back in to say that the replacement renogy CC and Big Battery Hawk have both been 100% rock solid. I just placed an order for 2 more of the hawks (which would give me 6 total). I'll be sure to report in if there are any problems getting the 2 new ones added in.
I would eventually...
I have waited a week so that BB can be given a chance to not only reply but revise their reply.
Their only reply so far was that I am "most likely experiencing is the batteries actively trying to balance themselves. ". Which is an odd statement given the fact that I sent them photos of the...
Important notes from the Renogy support policy:
"Returns must include all parts and accessories that were shipped at the time of purchase. Any parts or accessories not included in your return will have their replacement cost deducted from any refund, or we may remove duplicate accessories from...
Looking back at it, I noticed that the hawk maxs have the white handles (like my 4th unit) but of course the regular hawks have the black handles. So maybe they were running out of handles? Or they are going to phase out the old hawks?
Sorry for the bad camera work, hard to hold the probs, meter, and camera without falling.
reading from first / right panel - direct probes no branch
43 volts / 5.68 amps
Left panel clamp reading, 0.11 amps. This is fully connected to the branch connectors and down to the combiner box to the charge controller.
Note the other posts are NOT connected to anything.
Using the built in volt meter. Here is a photo of the 3 units in order. The 1st unit is out of the picture and the 4th unit is on the left in the photo.
Right panel clamp reading, 0.07 amps. This is fully connected to the branch connectors and down to the combiner box to the charge controller.
Note the other posts are NOT connected to anything.
For the tests, the right panel was on the 'top' part of the branch connector when plugged in and the left one was on the 'bottom' part when plugged in.
Results repeat with replacment branch connector (renogy). Sounds like both connectors are toast. I have new ones coming in tomorrow to test.
I know it is hard to see but in the photo the readings are 26.2v from the display on the 4th unit, 22.93v from the meterk volt meter that is probed to the y adapter that is connected to units 3 and 4 but disconnected for this test. Unit 3 is powered off but as soon as unit 4 was powered on, it...
When using the clamp meters, the system was fully connected / under load to charge the system - yes I confirmed the CC is pulling power in. When using the probes of course this can't be the case as the probes are directly into the panel MC4 connectors or branch connectors.