then stop buying 2nd and 3rd tier units. Schnieder, Victron, Magnum, Outback, Midnight Solar these are names you can rely upon to work for years and years.
Well, if you can believe it, I don't have the option to buy any of those in Thailand. Not one. Victron is completely unavailable here, and I've looked for the others, too, with no success so far. Now, if you can point me to a domestic source within Thailand, and/or one that is accessible via shopee.co.th or lazada.co.th, I would be very much obliged.
I know, you will suggest that I import one. However, you may not realize how difficult that is in this "Land of
Smiles Scams". I have had first-hand experience with "importing" a second-hand, "for parts" (broken) electronic item from eBay (without batteries) and getting heaps of paperwork, fines and fees to fully equal the purchase price of the item, and weeks, literally, of daily phone calls to this office, to that official, etc. trying to get the item released from customs. Perhaps you can understand why I do not wish to go through this "lovely experience" again. One of the officials' claims was that we were supposed to have requested permission to import
before doing so--but how were we to know this? This is why I must have a local source.
I have chosen the best available products, as in top-tier for what is available here. This included EPEVER charge controllers--which I was very thankful to find--for two of the three strings of Longi panels. Unfortunately, the inverter has had issues. But I think, if I am not mistaken, any product has a certain percentage of duds and/or users with less than satisfactory experiences--even so-called "top tier" ones. There are threads even on this forum which bash the Victron, despite its huge base of supporters.
I would buy the LVTOPSUN again if I had it to do over. I just wouldn't connect it to the battery. It was working fabulously, and until the RS485 connection burned it out, I was more than satisfied with it. It runs quietly most of the time, and only turned the fan on at occasional intervals when it was warm enough to require this. It charged from the panels. It produced a steady current--I don't remember even seeing a flicker in the lights when a fan was powered on. It simply did its job like any inverter should...until I tried connecting it to the JK BMS of the battery. I guess I was just too wet behind the ears to know how to do that part properly, using a standard Cat. 5e cable instead of whatever (I still don't know what) I was supposed to do.