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I fear Magnum is done.

OffGridIdaho said:
Get a Samlex EVO. Made in Taiwan, quality product with Canadian support on the first ring. I have one and its 100% quality.
Better quality than a Magnum and waaaaayyyyyyyyyy better support.
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Maybe, at this point I might need to hedge my bets and wire for 120 only which helps with inverters. I am considering victron, best warranty I’ve seen yet.
 
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Update from Magnum to me.

Today I got an email back from Magnum Energy after months of un answered emails and calls. I never expected a replay at this point. They have offered to replace my broken (non charging) 4448PAE under warranty. They explained that they don’t have a repair facility yet since they have moved. I gave them the information they requested and will wait and see what happens.
 
Jack Rabbit Off Grid said:
I’ve been on the phone all day long trying to find Answers as to why Magnum won’t return an email or phone call.

I now believe they are out of business. Ive spoke with several vendors with different stories but that last made it clear. This guy told me he has dealt with them for 20 years and believes they are out of business or in the process of going out of business. That he thinks they are not going to make it. He also told me that he was told by his vendor that they would be shipping new product in January 2023.


This is all speculation. I think what they are trying to do is move the Magnum energy production to ether China or Mexico. That was two more rumors I was told by vendors. But when the last guy said (I don’t think they are going to make it) leads me to believe it.

What was once a good American made brand that I wasted over $5k on. :(
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Hi Jack, I actually work for a registered dealer for Magnum Energy (believe me or not) - and to put it lightly it has been an absolute nightmare. For myself and all customers. Magnum has been equally un-cooperative with their customers as they have been with their distributors. I've heard many different stories but we were given a maze of emails of who to contact for inverters that were late by almost 2 years. Supply issues is absolutely no excuse to treat your trusted consumers and distributors like garbage. Magnum has been around since the dinosaur ages, especially in north America. So unfortunately there's literally no one to fully fill-in their shoes with regards to meeting the electrical code as seamlessly as their product line.

So fortunately; they are not (yet) out of business. But I do hope they can reconcile an incredibly fractured relationship with their distributors (whom we have absolutely 0 trust in them or their word to deliver on promise.) They have severely damaged their reputation as a trusted brand with this charade of "supply issues". Regardless of whether genuinely true or not, how it was handled was utterly despicable. Constant lying, "shipment is on it's way" was something we heard too often. We opted to telling our customers the whole damn truth which was just that magnum is a liar. "we have no idea when they'll be available since magnum is a liar" effectively was the message.

The word on the street these days is Magnum was moving their manufacturing warehouses from America down more south towards Mexico. And apparently that has taken 2 years. This is seemingly true since they are slightly beginning to manufacture (trace amounts of inverters are whispering their way into the markets again). But again no way of confirming. They don't seem to give a crap and they're pulling back on servicing locations. (removing them entirely for some areas)
 
Cklio said:
Hi Jack, I actually work for a registered dealer for Magnum Energy (believe me or not) - and to put it lightly it has been an absolute nightmare. For myself and all customers. Magnum has been equally un-cooperative with their customers as they have been with their distributors. I've heard many different stories but we were given a maze of emails of who to contact for inverters that were late by almost 2 years. Supply issues is absolutely no excuse to treat your trusted consumers and distributors like garbage. Magnum has been around since the dinosaur ages, especially in north America. So unfortunately there's literally no one to fully fill-in their shoes with regards to meeting the electrical code as seamlessly as their product line.

So fortunately; they are not (yet) out of business. But I do hope they can reconcile an incredibly fractured relationship with their distributors (whom we have absolutely 0 trust in them or their word to deliver on promise.) They have severely damaged their reputation as a trusted brand with this charade of "supply issues". Regardless of whether genuinely true or not, how it was handled was utterly despicable. Constant lying, "shipment is on it's way" was something we heard too often. We opted to telling our customers the whole damn truth which was just that magnum is a liar. "we have no idea when they'll be available since magnum is a liar" effectively was the message.

The word on the street these days is Magnum was moving their manufacturing warehouses from America down more south towards Mexico. And apparently that has taken 2 years. This is seemingly true since they are slightly beginning to manufacture (trace amounts of inverters are whispering their way into the markets again). But again no way of confirming. They don't seem to give a crap and they're pulling back on servicing locations. (removing them entirely for some areas)
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Mexico wont work.
As an old IT guy I had a BIG customer that "attempted" to move their manufacturing plant to Mexico. After less than 1 year they moved it back with millions in losses.
They had to contend with crime cartels, extortion, employee extortion, bribes, workers demanding raises as they were forced to pay "protection" money out their paychecks etc etc etc.........
 
This has a a a copy&paste of the email I got yesterday.

Dave,



Sorry you haven’t gotten any response to calls and emails in Customer Support.



Who is the repair facility that did not want to repair the inverter?



I’m in Tech Support but can help you get a warranty claim started. At this time we are not doing repairs here as we’ve moved manufacturing and the new location is not ready for repairs yet.



If you will send me a mailing address and the model/serial number of the inverter I will start an RMA to get you a replacement.





Best Regards,

Jesse White.
 
Cklio said:
Hi Jack, I actually work for a registered dealer for Magnum Energy (believe me or not) - and to put it lightly it has been an absolute nightmare. For myself and all customers. Magnum has been equally un-cooperative with their customers as they have been with their distributors. I've heard many different stories but we were given a maze of emails of who to contact for inverters that were late by almost 2 years. Supply issues is absolutely no excuse to treat your trusted consumers and distributors like garbage. Magnum has been around since the dinosaur ages, especially in north America. So unfortunately there's literally no one to fully fill-in their shoes with regards to meeting the electrical code as seamlessly as their product line.

So fortunately; they are not (yet) out of business. But I do hope they can reconcile an incredibly fractured relationship with their distributors (whom we have absolutely 0 trust in them or their word to deliver on promise.) They have severely damaged their reputation as a trusted brand with this charade of "supply issues". Regardless of whether genuinely true or not, how it was handled was utterly despicable. Constant lying, "shipment is on it's way" was something we heard too often. We opted to telling our customers the whole damn truth which was just that magnum is a liar. "we have no idea when they'll be available since magnum is a liar" effectively was the message.

The word on the street these days is Magnum was moving their manufacturing warehouses from America down more south towards Mexico. And apparently that has taken 2 years. This is seemingly true since they are slightly beginning to manufacture (trace amounts of inverters are whispering their way into the markets again). But again no way of confirming. They don't seem to give a crap and they're pulling back on servicing locations. (removing them entirely for some areas)
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Not only Mexico but Juárez Mexico of all places.

I worked on a farm with hundreds of Mexicans. None of them like to go there. Was told by them it was the most corrupt State in Mexico.
 
Jack Rabbit Off Grid said:
Not only Mexico but Juárez Mexico of all places.

I worked on a farm with hundreds of Mexicans. None of them like to go there. Was told by them it was the most corrupt State in Mexico.
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Yikes. Yeah we'll see what happens from here. I'm just hoping for the best on people who are dependant and off the Grid. They need a brand they can trust and for a long time that was the case. Too bad.

Cheers,
 
OffGridIdaho said:
Mexico wont work.
As an old IT guy I had a BIG customer that "attempted" to move their manufacturing plant to Mexico. After less than 1 year they moved it back with millions in losses.
They had to contend with crime cartels, extortion, employee extortion, bribes, workers demanding raises as they were forced to pay "protection" money out their paychecks etc etc etc.........
Click to expand...
well done, edit your comment and then cry to whomever will listen.
 
sunshine_eggo said:
Multiple calls and emails about a mysterious drop to 58.3Hz from 60Hz for several hours on some days unless he's pulling a heavy load on another inverter attached to the same bank running his well pump. On days he doesn't run his well pump, he loses 7-8 minutes on many of his clocks that are 60Hz dependent.
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Most likely he is in "Custom" battery settings and it is frequency dithering. Magnums PAE inverters frequency dither to regulate the AC coupled inverters they used to sell. As the battery gets close to the setpoints the PAE wold alter the frequency to throttle the micro inverters
 
Halfcrazy said:
Most likely he is in "Custom" battery settings and it is frequency dithering.
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Nope. Using defaults. No other hardware is Magnum, and he doesn't even have the control panel to change settings. Rarely uses it for charging.

Halfcrazy said:
Magnums PAE inverters frequency dither to regulate the AC coupled inverters they used to sell. As the battery gets close to the setpoints the PAE wold alter the frequency to throttle the micro inverters
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Interesting.
 
Happy to hear something is coming down the pipeline, at least.
I just heard a story the other day of a user being screamed at by magnum tech support. tech support although never a fun thing to deal with... never an excuse to treat people badly :- ).

let me know how it concludes when you get your inverter. if there's delays etc..
 
Cklio said:
Happy to hear something is coming down the pipeline, at least.
I just heard a story the other day of a user being screamed at by magnum tech support. tech support although never a fun thing to deal with... never an excuse to treat people badly :- ).

let me know how it concludes when you get your inverter. if there's delays etc..
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The fact that somebody talked to magnum tech support at all is pretty shocking. They haven't answered their phones since 2016 at least, had their equipment fail (during warranty period) back then and they were just as useless and unresponsive.
 
I just purchased a MS4024 on eBay, mfg. date 7/22, so apparently they're not done yet. Made in Mexico, btw.
 
Mr.Peabody said:
I just purchased a MS4024 on eBay, mfg. date 7/22, so apparently they're not done yet. Made in Mexico, btw.
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Did you buy it knowing of the issues with Magnum?

As of today still have not received my replacement inverter, It’s been almost two months. But it sounds like they are at least building them again, Sadly in Mexico. The guy I spoke with did say it may take 3 months.

Good luck with your Mexico made purchase. Another sad thing my replacement will also be hecho en mexico.
 
Yeah I was aware of their issues but my current MS4024 has been running 24/7 for over 16 years without missing a beat. There's something to be said for never needing customer service or parts. It's also mounted on a Midnite e-panel which isn't compatible with another brand so I'd have to redo a lot of things. I was able to replace my current unit in 30 minutes and now I have a fully functional spare. The new unit seems identical to the old one as far as I can tell.

I'm also 73 and figured I wouldn't outlive 2 of them.
 
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Lilikoi_Heavy_Industries said:
The fact that somebody talked to magnum tech support at all is pretty shocking. They haven't answered their phones since 2016 at least, had their equipment fail (during warranty period) back then and they were just as useless and unresponsive.
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My neighbor got the shock of his life when his contact answered the phone for the first time in several months. He confirmed the struggles that Magnum is having with both supply chain and personnel retention, but was confident that things are turning around.
 
Distributor I talked to last week told me that they had their backorder cancelled after waiting 9 months with no inventory. They're now doing victron/sol-ark instead.
 
Update.

It’s been since October 2022 when I was told they started an RMA for me. After much bugging them I finally got a RMA number and an order number. They told me I should see an email in the next week confirming shipment of a replacement inverter.

I think it’s been almost a year now since I started all this.
 
My MS4024PAE (in a 4024+midnite-classic+mini-panel cfg) is past it's 5-yr warranty by a year or so, and still going strong ... every time I've ever emailed them (the only way I do business), they've emailed back after a day, and we've always received good advice. This thing is solid ...

I'm self-supporting, so haven't ever needed more than an occasional email to confirm anything I was thinking ...

If and when this workhorse finally dies, I might choose to try an EBAY'd 4024 replacement ... if the core of it, the 4024 itself, weren't so pricy (pretty much $3000), I would've had a spare on the shelf by now (I like redundancy in everything).

More likely, I'll see what I can do with $3k in moving to an AIO and 48v. Either way, it's a snap to roll out a temporary AIO scenario while decisions are made, parts are ordered/rec'd, solution put in place.

However, supply chains, support mechanisms ... they've all fallen by the wayside for most every company, or have morphed into something not pretty. Either be self-supporting, or be happy with the grid ...

I expect I'll be making board-level repairs before long, and hope I have a decent electronics bench in place by then ... as long as the world hasn't moved to potting the crap out of everything!
 
50ShadesOfDirt said:
My MS4024PAE (in a 4024+midnite-classic+mini-panel cfg) is past it's 5-yr warranty by a year or so, and still going strong ... every time I've ever emailed them (the only way I do business), they've emailed back after a day, and we've always received good advice. This thing is solid ...
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When was the last time this happened? My neighbor has tried all avenues and rarely gets a call answered or a return email.

Does your MS4024PAE drop to 58.3Hz output for several hours every day and then go back to 60Hz?

50ShadesOfDirt said:
I'm self-supporting, so haven't ever needed more than an occasional email to confirm anything I was thinking ...
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Cool. How would you address the above issue?
 
Even though I almost gave up trying to get into Magnums tech support via the phone, I sent an email and a tech (Michael Campbell) wrote back and was able to help me with a question I had with their MR-ARC remote. He then gave me his direct extension so I've been able to get in with no waiting on subsquint calls. He did say that since they were acquired the new owners are revamping their phone customer service department and expected it to be fully online shortly.
 
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