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diy solar

EG4 48v 25a Battery Charger Update

Not specifically swamped with this issue - just a general "BUSY AS ALL GET OUT" due to a full website redesign (seriously, give me some feedback on the new site, my team and me have busted our butts on it!) and all the other craziness that comes with being a solar company right now. Send me your info and I'll see if I can get you an update.


Will there be a 25 Amp version to swap in any sort of reasonable time frame?

I'd rather you keep the money and get what I ordered vs return the one I have and start shopping again.
 
Will there be a 25 Amp version to swap in any sort of reasonable time frame?

I'd rather you keep the money and get what I ordered vs return the one I have and start shopping again.
We have done a tremendous amount of searching to find a suitable replacement, we are working on it. I have no guaranteed vendor as of yet, but I do know this is on our product acquisitions teams radar.
 
So you can't sell an item for 25A, then deliver an item that isn't it. It's against the law in the USA. Of course, they do it in China, but this isn't China. This is why we buy from the USA. You also can't offer a partial refund. Sales people starting mailing items to people they didn't buy, and then trying to get money out of them. So they made it against the law. Then they claimed they did it by honest mistake, as a new way to scam them. So they also made that against the law. These are 100 years old laws... You really need a delivery a 25A charger if somebody buys a 25A charger, or full refund. The law states they don't have to return anything. It would be nice but under the law it isn't required.
 
So you can't sell an item for 25A, then deliver an item that isn't it. It's against the law in the USA. Of course, they do it in China, but this isn't China. This is why we buy from the USA. You also can't offer a partial refund. Sales people starting mailing items to people they didn't buy, and then trying to get money out of them. So they made it against the law. Then they claimed they did it by honest mistake, as a new way to scam them. So they also made that against the law. These are 100 years old laws... You really need a delivery a 25A charger if somebody buys a 25A charger, or full refund. The law states they don't have to return anything. It would be nice but under the law it isn't required.
A full refund is one of the options you can choose.
They are just offering several options to give the customer a chance to be satisfied in one way or another.
 
So you can't sell an item for 25A, then deliver an item that isn't it. It's against the law in the USA. Of course, they do it in China, but this isn't China. This is why we buy from the USA. You also can't offer a partial refund. Sales people starting mailing items to people they didn't buy, and then trying to get money out of them. So they made it against the law. Then they claimed they did it by honest mistake, as a new way to scam them. So they also made that against the law. These are 100 years old laws... You really need a delivery a 25A charger if somebody buys a 25A charger, or full refund. The law states they don't have to return anything. It would be nice but under the law it isn't required.
Bonus points for 1 not reading the refund options, 2 being that guy and letting everyone know
 
Bonus points for 1 not reading the refund options, 2 being that guy and letting everyone know

The option was to get a 25A by the first week of march. It's March 15 buddy.
Then their terms changed ?? Or we don't quiet know for sure. Signature Solar has been completely dishonest with the entire process so I don't know if they are waiting for 25A or just talking to talk. We have no idea.

So if we assume the situation has changed, apparently you are referring to their new terms? "You can return it and get a full refund." This would be the nice thing to do, but according to the law you are entitled to a full refund regardless if you returned it or not. You didn't read my post.

So is signature solar going to get 25A charger or are they going to follow the law and refund people regardless of return status?

I'm waiting for my 25A charger please.
 
The option was to get a 25A by the first week of march. It's March 15 buddy.
Then their terms changed ?? Or we don't quiet know for sure. Signature Solar has been completely dishonest with the entire process so I don't know if they are waiting for 25A or just talking to talk. We have no idea.

So if we assume the situation has changed, apparently you are referring to their new terms? "You can return it and get a full refund." This would be the nice thing to do, but according to the law you are entitled to a full refund regardless if you returned it or not. You didn't read my post.

So is signature solar going to get 25A charger or are they going to follow the law and refund people regardless of return status?

I'm waiting for my 25A charger please.
Hold your breath and continue stamping your foot like my 13 year old niece does, and I'm sure the supply chain gods will hear you...
 
The option was to get a 25A by the first week of march. It's March 15 buddy.
Then their terms changed ?? Or we don't quiet know for sure. Signature Solar has been completely dishonest with the entire process so I don't know if they are waiting for 25A or just talking to talk. We have no idea.

So if we assume the situation has changed, apparently you are referring to their new terms? "You can return it and get a full refund." This would be the nice thing to do, but according to the law you are entitled to a full refund regardless if you returned it or not. You didn't read my post.

So is signature solar going to get 25A charger or are they going to follow the law and refund people regardless of return status?

I'm waiting for my 25A charger please.
We had a shipment that came in. We tested them before selling them or exchanging and they didn’t give 25a. So we started looking into finding a new supplier who can deliver to specs, and haven’t secured one yet. The original post I made was in anticipation of the new shipment with the hypothesis that it was just one run that were incorrectly marked or not working to specs. As soon as we got the shipment in, we changed our options for customers in accordance with our inventory and our expectations - at no point did we try to be dishonest or hide this information. I’ve stated multiple times we are trying to find a 25a replacement and if we do, I will gladly update these options again. Until then I’ve done my best to be transparent and let everyone know that you have options - full refund, partial refund and keep the unit, or store credit with a bonus $50 of credit.
 
We had a shipment that came in. We tested them before selling them or exchanging and they didn’t give 25a. So we started looking into finding a new supplier who can deliver to specs, and haven’t secured one yet. The original post I made was in anticipation of the new shipment with the hypothesis that it was just one run that were incorrectly marked or not working to specs. As soon as we got the shipment in, we changed our options for customers in accordance with our inventory and our expectations - at no point did we try to be dishonest or hide this information. I’ve stated multiple times we are trying to find a 25a replacement and if we do, I will gladly update these options again. Until then I’ve done my best to be transparent and let everyone know that you have options - full refund, partial refund and keep the unit, or store credit with a bonus $50 of credit.
I think that most of us appreciate your efforts to satisfy everyone.
 
@RichardfromSignatureSolar Depending on the price, it might be interested in purchasing one of the lower amperage units that has been returned. Could you please either let me know here, or via PM if that's something we could discuss? Much appreciated.
 
We had a shipment that came in. We tested them before selling them or exchanging and they didn’t give 25a. So we started looking into finding a new supplier who can deliver to specs, and haven’t secured one yet. The original post I made was in anticipation of the new shipment with the hypothesis that it was just one run that were incorrectly marked or not working to specs. As soon as we got the shipment in, we changed our options for customers in accordance with our inventory and our expectations - at no point did we try to be dishonest or hide this information. I’ve stated multiple times we are trying to find a 25a replacement and if we do, I will gladly update these options again. Until then I’ve done my best to be transparent and let everyone know that you have options - full refund, partial refund and keep the unit, or store credit with a bonus $50 of credit.
As the middle man, this was out of your control. I was satisfied with the options offered. Thank you.
 
As the middle man, this was out of your control. I was satisfied with the options offered. Thank you.

When this first started and customers starting noticing problems it was a disaster.

Originally signature solar said they individually tested each unit "in a lab". Then, they said it was the battery's fault was limiting the charge. Then they said, it was supposed to be this way, and we were wrong. It wasn't until multiple posters here pointed things out, they actually tested the units. Then they claimed some units were OK and some weren't. But then later they admitted all of them were 18A, and they never had 25A. They kept selling them as 25A for a while. They kept selling them as 25A. At one point, one of their employees came on here drunk and told us we were stupid (it has been deleted). So then, they claimed they were getting the 25A ones for replacement. Now they are saying, they got the "25A" but tested them, and they didn't work, but previously he said he never got them due to a miscommunication. We don't know if he got them or not.

Every day there's a new twist. And a dozen or so sock puppet accounts here with zero post history that only post in here in support of signature solar. These socket puppet accounts are turning DIY Solar Forum into a clown fest.

Gas lighting, lies, socket puppet accounts, changing the story, changing refund policy, ignoring laws. It's been a total nightmare. If they could just be honest and admit they sent a bunch of Chinese crap to us to beta test and then lied every step of the way, we can forgive and forget. But it just keeps going on and on.

At this point I am at the realization that no matter what Signature Solar does not have the free will to admit it has been a total disaster and has to double down with sock puppet accounts and more lies.
 
When this first started and customers starting noticing problems it was a disaster.

Originally signature solar said they individually tested each unit "in a lab". Then, they said it was the battery's fault was limiting the charge. Then they said, it was supposed to be this way, and we were wrong. It wasn't until multiple posters here pointed things out, they actually tested the units. Then they claimed some units were OK and some weren't. But then later they admitted all of them were 18A, and they never had 25A. They kept selling them as 25A for a while. They kept selling them as 25A. At one point, one of their employees came on here drunk and told us we were stupid (it has been deleted). So then, they claimed they were getting the 25A ones for replacement. Now they are saying, they got the "25A" but tested them, and they didn't work, but previously he said he never got them due to a miscommunication. We don't know if he got them or not.

Every day there's a new twist. And a dozen or so sock puppet accounts here with zero post history that only post in here in support of signature solar. These socket puppet accounts are turning DIY Solar Forum into a clown fest.

Gas lighting, lies, socket puppet accounts, changing the story, changing refund policy, ignoring laws. It's been a total nightmare. If they could just be honest and admit they sent a bunch of Chinese crap to us to beta test and then lied every step of the way, we can forgive and forget. But it just keeps going on and on.

At this point I am at the realization that no matter what Signature Solar does not have the free will to admit it has been a total disaster and has to double down with sock puppet accounts and more lies.
We definitely had multiple shipments come in and perform to spec. These things have been available for purchase for ~2 years now and it was only the latest shipments that we noticed quality issues with. That being said, I believe it was roughly 2 weeks of us going through inventory trying to figure out what was going on (I was the guy literally sitting with a clamp meter and a battery hooked up manually checking data tables - 24000 rows of data total) to verify the issue. As soon as we had the problem located and isolated, our assumption was that it was a bad run or something happened. We weren't trying to be dishonest with our literature at the time. And honestly, this happened at probably the worst time. 2 major US holidays, and chinese new year - all while our company went through a period of extreme growth and people were being trained. It really was a perfect storm. I've done my best to clear up as much confusion as possible - from explaining the actual issue, to providing options for solutions, to testing new batches and discovering similar quality issues, taking 100% ownership of the forums so we don't have issues with customer service.

I'm not saying everything we did was right, but hindsight is 20/20 and we didn't imagine that we were intentionally being misled on the specs of the chargers, or that we would have poor customer service (another issue which I corrected), but that's what happened and I'm just here to say that we are doing our best to make everyone have a positive experience when it comes to solar. And for some people, after their experience with a very strenuous, yet severe issue, it likely means that they will choose to do business with another company. And you know what? We support that decision! Yes, we want to earn your business, and yes we want everyone to be fully satisfied with our company. I know that isn't possible so I can only strive to keep moving in the right direction and do my best to be transparent, help where I can, and grow the solar community as a whole. I hope everyone can see that my intentions and actions are always with that goal in mind.

Regarding the 'sock puppet' accounts, I know that myself and pretty much the entire staff that knows about this forum directly would not be involved with that. As one of the IT admins at SS, I can definitely say there aren't any posts or funny business happening from work computers during work hours. Although I can't 100% guarantee an employee isn't doing something like that, I highly doubt it. There are only a few of us who care to take our work home with us and even less who would go out of their way on this forum and do it for free. I do know I personally have received messages from users on this forum thanking me for being a positive voice even on threads where it seems like I'm a punching bag. But in the end, I know some people are just frustrated (rightfully so!), and so I just do my best to help as much as I can.

Anyways, I know this was a long message, but I'm always here to help and anyone can feel free to PM me at any time if they have a problem or think something fishy is going on.
 
@RichardfromSignatureSolar Depending on the price, it might be interested in purchasing one of the lower amperage units that has been returned. Could you please either let me know here, or via PM if that's something we could discuss? Much appreciated.
We have finally gone through and are going to list these as open box at the lower amperage. I'll have more info soon. These will be for the people who opted to return the unit for a refund or exchange, and they have been tested to work at the lower amperage. They will be priced according the the lower amperage with the open box/used status taken into consideration.

Edit: These will be listed on our website. To re-iterate: THESE ARE THE UNITS THAT WERE RETURNED BY PEOPLE WHO DID NOT OPT TO KEEP THE CHARGER. These are not brand new and will be priced based on condition, function, etc. If you message me directly about purchasing these units, please include an email I can have my sales team reach you at. Additionally, we are also listing some open box/cosmetic damage batteries this way as well at a 15-30% that we have been using in house/ customer returns because they accidently bought wrong item/cosmetic damages from shipping etc.
 
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I almost bought one of those SS chargers but opted for Meanwell Instead since it's a company I dealt with as an EE for commercial grade equipment. They make top notch stuff that is very good.

You can try this one, Pretty much the same price as SS. EG4
Meanwell 1600

Just buy some new Jumper cables and two nuts & bolts + Crimp connectors and wire on 6ft of one end of the jumper cable and it's good to go for about 46A @ 48V-58V adjustable with 3 stage charging. You might want to add a 30 Amps fuse into the wiring although I think the Mean-well will shutdown if there is a short.
Hey Robby, are you able to get max output from the Meanwell 1600? The derate curve (attached) on that model's spec sheet suggests it'll only put out its rated power when fed 230 VAC.

On 115 VAC, it looks like the Meanwell 1600 will produce 75-80% of rated power. What's your experience?1652474071027.png
 
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