Schneider MPPT80 over voltage repair

Wondered if anybody has had luck fixing Schneider MPPT80 600s that they suspect have been subjected to an unknown over voltage incident.

We lost 4 of them - can't figure out how the over voltage occurred but they are definitely fried and won't come online. We tested the solar inputs on a very cold very sunny day and nothing was even close to 600V (mostly high 200V, low 300V @ 20ºF).

I have heard the Schneider charge controllers are sensitive to power surges.
(Possibly all Charge controllers are?)
They can come from lightning or from the system itself. Surge protectors are a smart investment.
Did you get an over voltage fault or warning?

@Mtnsun The SCP says error F9 (and the MPPT80 displays a red light). According to the manual:

F9 = InputOVErr
Input voltage has exceeded the input over voltage shut off value, which is dependent upon temperature measured on the heatsink
(Vin High Threshold in Figure 3-2 on page 3–11). The error clears itself when the input voltage falls below the input over voltage restart value (Vin Restart Threshold in Figure 3-2 on page 3–11).

But it hasn't cleared...system was certainly subject to below -20ºC/-4ºF for a short period during some December cold snaps, so the cliff in Figure 3-2 is certainly relevant.

Referenced Figure 3-2 below:

Over the years we have had quite a few of the Schneider Mppt80 600s fail. They seem to be a bit finicky. I can't say 100% for sure that your issues are same as what we ran into, but we honestly never really came to a solid conclusion on the cause. On all of the ones that were within warranty, Schneider warranted them. but we had a few that were out of warranty as well.

It has been a few years since I personally was out on one of these service calls, but if I remember correctly we would sometimes see a "fan_fast_overcurrent" fault or something like that. I can't say for sure if we ever had the exact fault you mentioned, but I do know there were at least 2 different faults, if not 3, that we would see from time to time.

We did install a few of the Mppt100 600s and those seemed to have less issues. But we didn't install very many of them, as we have been switching over to using a lot of Sol-Ark all-in-ones in the last 3 years or so. A full Schneider system is not price competitive to a Sol-Ark, especially on bigger systems!

Have you tried disconnecting them from pv and battery power for a while and reconnecting? Hopefully your using breakers and pv disconnects.
That is cold weather, there are Voc calculators to see what your open circuit voltage with your specific panel configuration could be at those temps.

I saved this link from another member of this forum. I've never even contacted them, but the member reported good results on equipment sent in for repair.

@Cmiller interesting lead on the Sol-Ark for future installs. These MPPT80s are out of warranty, all we have found so far is a company in PA willing to buy them for $100/unit. I'll pass along the info about MPPT100 being less finicky/self-destructive.

@Mtnsun We've got breakers and PV disconnects (no surge that I know of on this system), basic powering off-on stuff didn't do much. The fried ones are totally disconnected right now, so next time someone is on site we will turn them on one more time and see what happens.

@400bird Great lead, I gave them a call, very nice but they basically said "we were an authorized service provider for Xantrex but not anymore" "we have parts still for the [XW] inverters but I don't know anybody that services charge controllers". Darn!

sondroyo said:

@Cmiller interesting lead on the Sol-Ark for future installs. These MPPT80s are out of warranty, all we have found so far is a company in PA willing to buy them for $100/unit. I'll pass along the info about MPPT100 being less finicky/self-destructive.

Click to expand...

That doesn't happen to be Zonna Energy by chance? I know they are handling a bit of Schneider parts. In fact, Schneider parts are hard to come by, so they actually are getting a lot of the Schneider warranty/replacement units directly from Schneider and pulling good parts to resell. If you have not talked with them, it would be worth contacting them. I would be a bit surprised if they would be interested in repairing for you... But then again, that may be who you are potentially selling the old ones to.

Another note as well. The new Midnite all-in-one inverter looks to be a great upcoming option as well! Power output ratings similar to the Sol-Ark 15K, but only 100A transfer switch. 100A transfer switch is still better than the 60A in the Schneider XW. According to @SpongeboB Sinewave the price will possibly be in the $5,500 ball park. And that will be ~11,400 watts continuous output with 15,000 watts of solar! Compared to a full Schneider system, 2x XWs would be 13.2kw AC, and 3x Mppt100 600s would be ~15kw PV.

@Cmiller Zonna Energy is correct! (I didn't know either, the powers that be just told me they just found "a company in PA"). Their offer is $100 and a free shipping label. That makes sense if they are collecting parts. I guess these MPPT80s require whole circuit board swaps for repairs to work out.

This particular system has 30kW of solar input, but I like these all-in-ones that are coming out for my future residential project...

@sondro Zonna Energy is absolutely great to work with! We literally buy hundreds of inverters, charge controllers, etc, etc, etc. from them every year! Most of our stuff comes out of their Millersburg, OH location though, as that is local for us. But I personally know the guys at the PA location as well. They are all great guys!