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No Faith Or Trust In the EG4 6500 EX. Looking For Recommendations.

W

Wes975

New Member
Joined
May 19, 2023
Messages
63
Location
Missouri
Good morning DIY community!

After weeks of phone support, emails and troubleshooting I finally received a RMA from SS to return one of the defective inverters that was in operation for two days. I dropped it off at the shipping store yesterday and thought " Finally - we are moving forward!"

Feeling excited about the forward movement this morning at 4am, I made a good cup of coffee in the coffee press and sat down to enjoy it.
After my first sip I was greeted by the sound of fireworks (capacitors popping) and electric blue fireworks coming from the second inverter. Shortly followed by the magic smoke. During this early morning excitement, my coffee managed to make it to that sensitive spot in my lap. In agony and with the boys burning, I powered everything down and killed all of the disconnects (DC in, PV in, all batteries).

I'm pissed.

Had this failure happened 30 minutes later, the system would have sat there all day until my wife or myself got home to do something about it. It could have been much worse!

I have lost faith and trust in this model, especially after two failures.

Now that I have additional wait time to get this resolved, I'd like some recommendations on different models or manufactures that can provide a better inverter. I don't mind spending additional money for a safer, less buggy, quality inverter that I don't have to worry about daily.

I appreciate everyone's input.

Thanks
 
Yikes!

Sorry to hear about all the issues you’ve been experiencing, both with SS and the inverters. Unfortunately communication and timeliness is not their forte.

Are you looking to replace the inverters with ones similar in size? I know Victron just came out with a Multiplus 2 5kva unit that looks pretty slick on paper. LF inverter with I believe 15w idle consumption. You could stack 2 pairs to give you more power than the 6500s had. Victron gear just seems to work with no issues…
 
Last edited:
The older 250V PV input version SP6548/LV6548 are much superior and are great units. I have beat the snot of of them and no fireworks so far in 6 months. Several others here have them running long term with no complaints.
Solark 12/15k and Schneider XW Pro 6848 are olde faithfuls and the new EG4 18k looks promising.
 
Failure that soon after replacing a component is rarely the component but more of how its being implemented.

Got full details of f how you’re using this AIO?
 
Mattb4 said:
A failure as you describe should be investigated thoroughly to see what happened. You would not want to keep experiencing equipment failure if some other element than the EG4's were in play.
Click to expand...
Agreed.
Had to go make a living today, further investigation after work.
Can't imaging what could happen on my side, only had two window AC's running and the back porch Christmas lights. No tie to the grid.
Moved the AC's and the lights back to the grid and didn't have any issues.
 
Wes975 said:
Agreed.
Had to go make a living today, further investigation after work.
Can't imaging what could happen on my side, only had two window AC's running and the back porch Christmas lights. No tie to the grid.
Moved the AC's and the lights back to the grid and didn't have any issues.
Click to expand...
What they are telling you is eg4 6500s don't fail so if they did, you did something wrong /s
 
Last thing touched is always the first place to look. Just simple troubleshooting 101.
 
740GLE said:
Failure that soon after replacing a component is rarely the component but more of how its being implemented.

Got full details of f how you’re using this AIO?
Click to expand...
This inverter has been running for about a month without issue. When the first inverter failed after day 2, I placed this one in service.

I'll take that back. Wife said she heard it "buzzing" yesterday intermittently.
 
Wes975 said:
This inverter has been running for about a month without issue. When the first inverter failed after day 2, I placed this one in service.

I'll take that back. Wife said she heard it "buzzing" yesterday intermittently.
Click to expand...
Ahh I got confused with the RMA process not knowing you already had a replacement up and running before.

Either way a 1 month failure could be considered crib death vs a system configuration issue.
 
1201 said:
On principle I wouldn't buy a solark. Ever. When deye comes back to the u.s market I'll jump on one.

But that's just me
Click to expand...
Agreed.
I'd also buy a lux power before they jacked there prices...

Currently Schneider XW Pro is the way to go with the Midnight Rosie being 2nd, in my opinion.
 
Wes975 said:
Good morning DIY community!

After weeks of phone support, emails and troubleshooting I finally received a RMA from SS to return one of the defective inverters that was in operation for two days. I dropped it off at the shipping store yesterday and thought " Finally - we are moving forward!"

Feeling excited about the forward movement this morning at 4am, I made a good cup of coffee in the coffee press and sat down to enjoy it.
After my first sip I was greeted by the sound of fireworks (capacitors popping) and electric blue fireworks coming from the second inverter. Shortly followed by the magic smoke. During this early morning excitement, my coffee managed to make it to that sensitive spot in my lap. In agony and with the boys burning, I powered everything down and killed all of the disconnects (DC in, PV in, all batteries).

I'm pissed.

Had this failure happened 30 minutes later, the system would have sat there all day until my wife or myself got home to do something about it. It could have been much worse!

I have lost faith and trust in this model, especially after two failures.

Now that I have additional wait time to get this resolved, I'd like some recommendations on different models or manufactures that can provide a better inverter. I don't mind spending additional money for a safer, less buggy, quality inverter that I don't have to worry about daily.

I appreciate everyone's input.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Wes,
Problem with those AIOs when they go you loose everything. My setup is designed around the most redundancy and distributed load(low power density). I use multiple charge controllers, batteries and inverters. I also am working on multiple separate systems that can cross connect if needed. My second system is running and half way to completion. I'm using my second one to run my AC and well right now. Its usable because I can just stack on more power/inverters as I go.

I also try to avoid high energy density paths. Example, Instead of having 1 or 2 high energy panel strings I will have 6 or more less wattage strings. It keeps failures down to maybe a burnt connector vs panel fire. It's more wiring but safer and more redundant.

I also try to use multiple inverters vs 1 giant one. It's more management which allot of people don't like but its more reliable and less BIG failures.
 
1201 said:
On principle I wouldn't buy a solark. Ever. When deye comes back to the u.s market I'll jump on one.

But that's just me
Click to expand...

I agree as I have Deye myself.
But for the availability in the US Sol Ark is the thing.
Miles ahead of EG4 in my opinion.
It just works.
 
I greatly appreciate all the feedback!

I did take a look at my set up and loads to this evening to verify nothing was out of the ordinary. AC units ran all day on the grid, took an amp probe after them to check full load draw and inrush currents. Nothing caught my attention there. Equipment grounds all test good as well as the connection at the ground rod and the NG bond. Battery voltage looked good, prior to the disconnect, not turning that one on, on show a day for this guy. Verified not shorts between the hot lead of the breakers and ground. Not seeing anything that would have tripped its trigger this morning. Inverter does have that nice aroma - if you’ve ever walked up on a bad three phase motor or other unhappy electronic device - you know the smell.

I did reach out to SS this morning and received a response stating that they would make things right. Very pleased with the response,

I also had the opportunity today at lunch to read the manual on the new PV18K, looks like a nice unit. Going to try to find others experiences with it tonight. Tomorrow - read more manuals of some of the suggestions above.

Thanks again for the feedback. It is greatly appreciated!
 
Wes975 said:
I greatly appreciate all the feedback!

I did take a look at my set up and loads to this evening to verify nothing was out of the ordinary. AC units ran all day on the grid, took an amp probe after them to check full load draw and inrush currents. Nothing caught my attention there. Equipment grounds all test good as well as the connection at the ground rod and the NG bond. Battery voltage looked good, prior to the disconnect, not turning that one on, on show a day for this guy. Verified not shorts between the hot lead of the breakers and ground. Not seeing anything that would have tripped its trigger this morning. Inverter does have that nice aroma - if you’ve ever walked up on a bad three phase motor or other unhappy electronic device - you know the smell.

I did reach out to SS this morning and received a response stating that they would make things right. Very pleased with the response,

I also had the opportunity today at lunch to read the manual on the new PV18K, looks like a nice unit. Going to try to find others experiences with it tonight. Tomorrow - read more manuals of some of the suggestions above.

Thanks again for the feedback. It is greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
If your interested in the 18kPV, take a look at this thread. Prob wana start around page 40 or so for experiences.

diysolarforum.com

EG4 new AIO rated 12K output and 18kPV aka "EG4-18Kpv-12LV"

Someone needs to build an off-grid specific unit with solark/luxpower level software and without grid interactive features so the price is lower. Like an upgraded lv6548.
diysolarforum.com diysolarforum.com
 
1201 said:
On principle I wouldn't buy a solark. Ever. When deye comes back to the u.s market I'll jump on one.

But that's just me
Click to expand...
I've looked at the solarks online and in my local solar store.
Little to rich for my blood, and it's getting thin.
 
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