What would have been nice is if you had Solar Assistant on it. Things like overheating or extreme line imbalance are two events that would have been extremely interesting to see afterwards. It still isn’t an excuse for the inverter to commence an early 4th of July in an improper setting.
No Faith Or Trust In the EG4 6500 EX. Looking For Recommendations.
- Thread starter Wes975
- Start date
Funny you mention that.
I looked at SA two minutes before it happened. 160 watts from the outside repurposed Christmas lights on the porch. AC's were off when the first mortar went off.
Well that greatly reduces the odds of any meaningful postmortem diagnosis via SA. Those inverters should have all kinds safeties that should have shut it down like grid sneaking around to the wrong side, imbalance, over heat and much more. In most cases, if something is terribly wrong, they just brick themselves. Perhaps you were very unlucky to get two bad units. And yes, I’d be spooked too and not confident about leaving it unattended.
DIYrich
Solar Wizard
If Sol-ark is too rich for you, then the EG4 18k looks interesting. Will has had nothing bad to say about it. Should be easy to make the exchange with Signature Solar.
I've been digging into those heavily.
As @sunsurfer mentioned - redundancy.
I'll get the failed inverters repaired / replaced, tested and placed on a shelf or set up as a back up. Eventually I will win the 6500 war.
New inverter into use.
This event has reminded me of something I've been told again and again - don't put all your eggs in one basket. Especially me considering I can trip over a tile on the floor that is a 1/16" higher than the neighboring tiles.
DIYrich
Solar Wizard
Only the Military can say: "Two is one, one is none, and three is better". When you have unlimited funds, redundancy is what you want. Also, when you need to know it will work 100% of the time.
Lots of people praise the Honda Generators because they just work. Sometimes it is better to pay for one that you know will work than for two that may or may not work. I personally got a cheap generator because if it doesn't work, oh well. I'm no worse off than having to live through a blackout with everyone else. But, the generator is the backup to the backup, which is the Sol-Ark.
Tom Funchess
New Member
I went through this same process back in February, finally deciding to change to a different system. I went through the complete process of evaluating my inverters over several months, replaced the 2P2 inverter twice, and SS eventually decided to replace both inverters. I drove over and picked ip both 6500s under warranty, along with my new, dual Schneider XW Pro system.
I got home with the intent to install the Schneider system, but in the meantime (and because the wiring was still in place for the EG4-6500s), I figured I would install the 6500s while I figured out what I needed to do to install the Schneiders.
The new EG4-6500s have worked flawlessly since March, with zero downtime. The Schneiders are still in the boxes...
houseofancients
Solar Wizard
and here i thought that was only said in IT
EastTexCowboy
Solar Wizard
I'm big on redundancy and my wife preaches the two is one sermon frequently. The problem with the 6500 or any of the 120v output AIOs that can be paired for 240v (I have two LV6548s what have been flawless) is that if you lose one of them you lose all your 240v capability. That's why I'm looking at two of the 18kpv units. It's a lot more money but if I lose one I'm still in business. I would like to see some resolution to those backfeeding to the grid even when set up not to do so. But that's the only complaint I've seen.
houseofancients
Solar Wizard
yep, and was ( amongst others) the reason for me to swap my 3 voltronic 8000 max's in a 3 phase setup, for 2 12k 3 phase inverters..
should 1 of the 12k fail, life continues as we know it ( and trust me, wife would kill me if there's a prolongued power loss
)I've pulled the trigger on one 18kpv to avoid the 120/240 (dual AIO's and loosing one) to solve half the issue. Found half of the cost of the another 18kpv in a jar in the back yard. Redundancy in route.
I've read a bunch of good reviews, read through others load testing adventures, and hopefully those systems continue to work as claimed. My primary concern as well is ensuring they don't feedback to the grid as I've read some have (only a small amount, still don't want the power company on my door step asking questions or the possibility of hurting a lineman). My understanding (could be wrong) is that they can AC couple through the GEN port to avoid this, but I'd like to leave it for its intended purpose - a generator.
Side note: SS did make my "series of unfortunate events" right. I'm greatly appreciative of that. I do the same for my customers - and sometimes the boss don't like it and it costs money - but it's the right thing to do to ensure a happy - return customer.
Gavin Stone
Solar Addict
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the 18k. There is finally a good amount of them being commissioned now. So I’m seeing more feedback from people that have installed them.
THERED117
Sparky, Sparky, yeah, yeah, yeah
Me too I lost both of mine two days ago.
Hopefully a Saturday install once I get out of KY and back home. It's currently sitting in our warehouse waiting for me to take it home.
knexbuilder
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2022
- Messages
- 60
I have been running on two Schneider XW pros for about 2 months now and run 700kw of load through them. If you can stomach the cost go with Schneider. They are built like tanks and will take everything you can throw at them and keep on trucking. I'm sorry your EG4s did not work out. I ran a pair of them for about 6 months and was more or less pleased with them. Unfortunately they just couldn't handle all my loads.
MichaelK
Solar Wizard
Go with Schneider. A single 6848 is superior to a Sol-Ark 12k. My XW+ has been on for 6 years now, with one single planned shutdown when I laid tile on the utility room floor. That was three years ago.
42OhmsPA
What's in a title?
Have you paid much attention to MidNite's Rosie?
I'm really torn between the XW pro and the Rosie. NAZ has a great price on the Rosie with an additional 6% off.
MichaelK
Solar Wizard
I like Midnight's products, and I use both their Classic200s and their combiners. I have not had time yet to even glance at the new Rosie. Will try to get to it.
Perhaps you can "AC couple" through the Gen port on one, and reserve the Gen port on the second unit for "its intended purpose." Best (or least bad) of both worlds. Any any case, good luck!
I dont know what else is good, but I will say to stay away from anything Voltronics makes. The units themselves seem ok, but if you do have any kinds of issues, the tech support they give to their resellers is absolutely abyssmal. I took a Voltronics Infinipower 6kw unit down off the wall before I even commissioned it due to lack of support from my reseller and Voltronics itself. I have two of the EG4 6500EX units running offgrid for about two weeks now. No sparks flying yet, but lots of calls to tech support to truly understand how they work because their documentation is garbage. Their docs are so bad, that they're actually rewriting them from scratch and will publish a new manual in about a month that will include a lot more detail.
42OhmsPA
What's in a title?
You are aware the 6500ex is a Voltronics unit correct?
I ran a TP6048 from SGP made by Voltronics for nearly a year with minimal issues and 0 random reboots I only upgrading for more AC output capacity.
What is the relationship between EG4 and Voltronics? Why aren't EG4 dealers selling other voltronics units? And biggest question -- my EG4 dealer can actually support what they sell (more or less) but none of the voltronics folks can support their own gear. Can you point me to the corresponding voltronics model that is the same as the EG4 6500ex? Inquiring minds want to know.
All you have to do is pay attention to the numbers.
If there are units from voltronics with the same model number its a rebranded voltronics unit.
42OhmsPA
What's in a title?
It's my understanding EG4 buys in bulk from Voltronic (for certain models), rebrands them and modifies the firmware.
They are. The 6500EX, 6000EX,
I'm not certain what the specific voltronic model is, I'd bet it's from the Axpert line. It's pretty much the same as the MPP LV6548, SGP SP6548 and a few other rebadges I can't think of.
The EG4 18kPV is a Lux Power 12k, the EG4 8k is a Megarevo R8KLNA.
Again EG4 is modifying the firmware on all of these to the best of my knowledge, they have not designed any inverter on there own.
If any of my info I incorrect, please correct me and I'll edit the post.
Edit - looks like the 3k isn't voltronic.
Last edited:
Gavin Stone
Solar Addict
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