Just got 3 Growatt 80 amp chargers to replace failed victrons

I've had 3 out of 4 victron 150/100's go bad on me so far. They replaced 2 of them but wouldn't on the 3rd, said it was wired wrong which is bullshit so I'm ditching their crap & trying out these Growatt mppt chargers. About the size of a shoebox, screw terminal lugs, better warranty than victron plus rated tier 1 quality & these 3 cost the same as 1 victron 150/100 @ 140 amps more power.
My system has been up & running a couple years & except for a relay going bad, 2 inverters & everything else has been working flawless except for these failing victrons. I'll be posting a youtube video in great detail about that shortly, they're gonna pay for stiffing me on a valid warranty claim but even if they did replace it, I've had it with their poor reliability & pulling their crap outta my system. Hoping these Growatts will be the last chargers I need replace.

How did they say it was wired wrong?

sunshine_eggo said:

How did they say it was wired wrong?

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They didn't but it's wired the same as the 1st 2 that bit the dust that they did replace. Victron is using a solar supplier called "altestore" as a gatekeeper to screen warranty claims & the moron that denied my claim goes by the name louis. So there's a company to avoid doing biz with as lyers who'll cheat people.

Any idea what caused the failure?
High but within spec PV Voc resulting in breakdown?
High current?
Overheating?

What are your PV panel specs and array configuration?

Maybe this is something where people can avoid it by derating, or maybe it is random defects and aging.

Bossrox said:

They didn't but it's wired the same as the 1st 2 that bit the dust that they did replace. Victron is using a solar supplier called "altestore" as a gatekeeper to screen warranty claims & the moron that denied my claim goes by the name louis. So there's a company to avoid doing biz with as lyers who'll cheat people.

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hmmm - That failure rate is not realistic for a top tier manufacture. Having owned the 250/100 and 150/100 controllers for almost 4 years they were built like tanks. I would echo Hedges questions to rule out a setup issue or you may encounter the same issue with your replacement devices.

3x 250V 80A GroWatt?


Looks like that would give headroom for voltage, current, and watts, after you repartition array across three of them. So if any of those parameters was what broke Victron, should have much more margin.

Other possibilities could be transients on battery side, if something like BMS, breaker, or fuse suddenly open-circuited. Obviously those events can occur in a system. SCC has an inductor. One would hope design and test takes that into account. (in automotive field, instructions on alternator say to NOT disconnect battery while vehicle is running. But there is a fusible link ...)

Hedges said:

Any idea what caused the failure?
High but within spec PV Voc resulting in breakdown?
High current?
Overheating?

What are your PV panel specs and array configuration?

Maybe this is something where people can avoid it by derating, or maybe it is random defects and aging.

Click to expand...

I'm well aware of it's limits, I use 3 string sets, each string is aprox 1000 watts & volts never go over 110v so @ 48v I can do 6 strings which falls within it's 5800 watt, 150v limit. I even have cooling fans behind them 'cuz I do push them as hard as it's rated for.

The unit I'm having an issue with, won't shut down at nite so the display stays on & won't reset for the next days use, so unless I disconnect the battery & reconnect it acts as if its still in previous days mode & goes straight from bulk to float the next day.

As you may know as a victron owner, once it drops into float mode, it won't return to absorption during that days cycling. On top of that it gets stuck frequently to limiting output to 10-20 amps for which I have to disconnect & reconnect the pv input & it starts working again.

It's still charging but it's got some serious flakey malfunctions going on. I paid the premium price of these because of the built like tanks reputation they had but I'd say they've cut some corners on quality on the current stuff coming out judging by this stack of failures.

Bossrox said:

I've had 3 out of 4 victron 150/100's go bad on me so far. They replaced 2 of them but wouldn't on the 3rd, said it was wired wrong which is bullshit so I'm ditching their crap & trying out these Growatt mppt chargers. About the size of a shoebox, screw terminal lugs, better warranty than victron plus rated tier 1 quality & these 3 cost the same as 1 victron 150/100 @ 140 amps more power.
My system has been up & running a couple years & except for a relay going bad, 2 inverters & everything else has been working flawless except for these failing victrons. I'll be posting a youtube video in great detail about that shortly, they're gonna pay for stiffing me on a valid warranty claim but even if they did replace it, I've had it with their poor reliability & pulling their crap outta my system. Hoping these Growatts will be the last chargers I need replace.

Click to expand...

I have six of them running and yet to encounter any issues.

Bossrox said:

The unit I'm having an issue with, won't shut down at nite so the display stays on & won't reset for the next days use, so unless I disconnect the battery & reconnect it acts as if its still in previous days mode & goes straight from bulk to float the next day.

As you may know as a victron owner, once it drops into float mode, it won't return to absorption during that days cycling. On top of that it gets stuck frequently to limiting output to 10-20 amps for which I have to disconnect & reconnect the pv input & it starts working again.

Click to expand...

So functional other than that, not catastrophic failure as I had assumed?
(might be useful for someone else here)

I'm using all SMA, not Victron, so I'm not very familiar. But I can see how algorithms for cycles can be a problem. For lead-acid users, issue might be that after a night off, it doesn't finish an absorption that wasn't sufficient.

I did have a funny similar issue with a Sunny Boy GT PV inverter. All night it showed it was harvesting a few watts, and day's production reported reflected multiple days because it never reset. I considered whether yard light was source, but calculated what fell on the panel was much less than reported wattage. My guess is that >something< was coupling from AC (which is always on) to PV DC (which ought to be off at night). The unit is powered strictly from DC. Another unit didn't do this. I thought it could be some hardware failure, and possible funny electrical noise from other new equipment that drove enough signal through line filters.

Bossrox said:

I'm well aware of it's limits, I use 3 string sets, each string is aprox 1000 watts & volts never go over 110v so @ 48v I can do 6 strings which falls within it's 5800 watt, 150v limit.

Click to expand...

What voltage are your batteries?
Your previous post says 24v so need to reduce the max output.

https://diysolarforum.com/threads/my-observations-combining-lead-acid-lithium.33818/

Growatt, MPPsolar, PowerMR use the same factory for many products. Maybe Victron does also. So probably you are not derating the specs for the Chinese build.

Edit- "They didn't but it's wired the same as the 1st 2 that bit the dust that they did replace. Victron is using a solar supplier called "altestore" as a gatekeeper to screen warranty claims & the moron that denied my claim goes by the name louis."
...............maybe delete some history....................

Bossrox said:

I'm well aware of it's limits, I use 3 string sets, each string is aprox 1000 watts & volts never go over 110v so @ 48v I can do 6 strings which falls within it's 5800 watt, 150v limit. I even have cooling fans behind them 'cuz I do push them as hard as it's rated for.

Click to expand...

Voc or Vmp?

I doubt it, but are you exceeding the 70A PV input limit?

Bossrox said:

The unit I'm having an issue with, won't shut down at nite so the display stays on & won't reset for the next days use, so unless I disconnect the battery & reconnect it acts as if its still in previous days mode & goes straight from bulk to float the next day.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't know. None of mine have displays.

Bossrox said:

As you may know as a victron owner, once it drops into float mode, it won't return to absorption during that days cycling.

Click to expand...

This is false. There is a re-bulk value. If battery drops by that much, it will re-enter a full bulk/absorption/float phase depending on available solar.





My 250/100 drops to bulk a second time every day that it achieves float:



This is because what little available solar there is, it can't maintain the float voltage due to my loads, so it switches to bulk. this literally happens every single day float is achieved.

Bossrox said:

On top of that it gets stuck frequently to limiting output to 10-20 amps for which I have to disconnect & reconnect the pv input & it starts working again.

Click to expand...

Certainly doesn't sound normal unless settings, battery voltage or solar conditions are limiting.

Bossrox said:

It's still charging but it's got some serious flakey malfunctions going on. I paid the premium price of these because of the built like tanks reputation they had but I'd say they've cut some corners on quality on the current stuff coming out judging by this stack of failures.

Click to expand...

I had a 150/100, which I wired with 3S and was dangerously close to the 150Voc limit. Upgraded it to a 250/100 in 2020. Not sure how that timeframe compares to yours.

Victron has been failure free for me, 24/7 for 1.5 years now. I hope your Growatts do what you need.

Alt-E has folks on this forum, they might clarify the issue. Either way, good luck!

My Victron MPPT 250/100 and RS 450/200 and several of their inverters, cerbo, BMV etc have all been running flawless for years.

You need to:
1: Step back from the electrical work before you burn your house down (Mr. I'm an electrician yet has a problem inserting cable without allowing strands to bunch up due to wrong gauge and lack of ferrules, and calls a chicken scratch cartoon a "block diagram").
2: Stop disparaging companies before you find yourself in court for reputational damage.
3: Be grateful they took back the two you already burned up.
4: Get back on the grid, it's safer for you there.

Have a good day.
Jennifer

My Victron gears has been operating for more than 4 years without issues.

Congrats @Bossrox on your Growatt purchase, hope you get a good run out of them

I run two 150/100 and never had any issues with them, they work very well in my opinion. Seems like the warranty process with victron is not that great something to consider when buying. I've been waiting for a few weeks now for my Cerbo to get looked at or whatever they are going to do. My Growatt inverter has two built in mppt charge controllers and my latest installed solar array is running on one of them. So far it seems to work and perform descent but it seems to be a little slower to adjust and once the battery is charged it basically shuts off for a while until it hits the float voltage. Both brands seem to be decent. I like the victrons better so far though.

'They said it was wired wrong.'

'They didn't say it was wired wrong.'

Kinda stopped worrying about it right there.

But, I hope the Growatts work out well. The 48120 seems like a great way to get 100a charging at an awesome price.

I’ve found every brand assumes the standard lead-acid charge profile unless you have BMS communication, which is annoying. Unless you purposely keep your battery voltage bulk and float in a lower range that is safe to float the battery at, they won’t opportunistically recharge after immediate discharge. (I try to use batteries as a buffer energy pool more than nighttime storage).