Growatt SPF 12000 Build Quality Video

This story is a little long, but the problem was quite involved. I bought a new Growatt SPF 12000 at the end of last year and it's been sitting in the garage, still in the crate. Just got around to hanging it on the wall this week, that was a significant chore and I was glad to have it done. Since I was replacing a Growatt 6k unit, the wiring was all there so connection was easy. Initial power up looked good but it was late an I was exhausted so I didn't dig in to details until the next morning. As soon as I turned on the breaker from the solar panels and put a load on the inverter, I got the dreaded error 61. The voltage calibration was way off so I turned off the PV and AC, connected the computer, and went to calibrating the DC voltage. I set the voltage, it was stable for a moment, then went all over the place. I did a reset on the unit and tried again with the same result. Decided to run it a little while and see what happened. In the meantime, I called Signature Solar and spent about a half hour on the phone with Dylan. He did his best to help, even got out the manual and went through a few things with me. It looked like I'd be taking the beast back off the wall! Totally disgusted, I went back to the garage to power it down and get ready to start removing everything. When I removed the red cap from the positive battery connection, the terminal was hot. I only had a 20 - 30 amp load on it and this same ring terminal had been fine on the 6k Growatt with much higher loads. Deciding there had to be a problem with the DC bus inside the unit, I removed the font cover. Everything looked good visually but then I removed the screw that connects the positive bus to the battery connection stud and it became obvious what the issue was. Watch the attached video. And as Paul Harvey would say, that's the rest of the story. I want to add this unit has never been opened and Signature Solar would have had no way of knowing about this problem. They were eager to do whatever it took to make things right and I can't say enough good things about their response. I have over 40 years in field service of communications equipment and without my experience in troubleshooting, would have never found and corrected this problem. I'm happy to say the Growatt is working flawlessly now and I didn't have to take it back down off the wall!

As you can see, the bus bar and screw were very hot! I cleaned the mating surface of the bar and heatsink with 500 grit sand paper and used a new screw.

Sucks it shipped like that but glad you were able to solve it.

Starting to remind me of these two growatt SPF5000ES I have they don't like being together on the single phase. One RCD B will turn off or the other one will. Plus you can not hang line voltages up to both to sync them.

So @Brett V - Once you cleaned up the metal and tightened it back into place was everything OK?

Did the story end happily? (so far?)

Horsefly said:

So @Brett V - Once you cleaned up the metal and tightened it back into place was everything OK?

Did the story end happily? (so far?)

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Yes it did. Everything is working as expected and I didn't have to take that beast back down off the wall!

I have the same unit. I haven't noticed any issues with mine, but this makes me want to open it up and check those connections. Would Signature Solar allow breaking the seal on the case to check without voiding the warranty?

Brett V said:

I didn't have to take that beast back down off the wall

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This is the best win of the day.

My eyes just rolled to the back of my head, lol. I mean, I am afraid to hook mine up! I have been searching the forum for months reading as much as I can and not much on this unit. Now, another thing I have to worry about. Any chance you can post a pic of your setup?

SniperX said:

My eyes just rolled to the back of my head, lol. I mean, I am afraid to hook mine up! I have been searching the forum for months reading as much as I can and not much on this unit. Now, another thing I have to worry about. Any chance you can post a pic of your setup?

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I believe this was an isolated instance. This is my second Growatt, the 6k was only replaced because I needed higher capacity due to a total failure at training my wife about having multiple things turned on at the same time. The 6k is mounted on the wall over by the new battery rack because I didn't know what else to do with it. The batteries I have now are in the silver toolbox on the floor. I couldn't get a better picture because it's raining and I didn't want to put the top up on the Jag to pull it out of the garage.

Brett V said:

I believe this was an isolated instance. This is my second Growatt, the 6k was only replaced because I needed higher capacity due to a total failure at training my wife about having multiple things turned on at the same time. The 6k is mounted on the wall over by the new battery rack because I didn't know what else to do with it. The batteries I have now are in the silver toolbox on the floor. I couldn't get a better picture because it's raining and I didn't want to put the top up on the Jag to pull it out of the garage.

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Thanks very much for the photo. Very nice setup.