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

[MichaelK]

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]

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.

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]

Have you paid much attention to MidNite's Rosie?

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.

 

[xzyn10]

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.

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!

 

[Gruic]

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

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]

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.

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.

 

[Gruic]

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.

 

[Crowz]

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 is the relationship between EG4 and Voltronics?

It's my understanding EG4 buys in bulk from Voltronic (for certain models), rebrands them and modifies the firmware.

Why aren't EG4 dealers selling other voltronics units?

They are. The 6500EX, 6000EX, 3000EHV are all voltronic, as well as some 24v options I'm sure.

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?

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.

Inquiring minds want to know.

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.

 

[Gavin Stone]

It's my understanding EG4 buys in bulk from Voltronic (for certain models), rebrands them and modifies the firmware.

They are. The 6500EX, 6000EX, 3000EHV are all voltronic, as well as some 24v options I'm sure.

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.

I don’t believe the EG4 3k is a voltronic unit.

 

[Crowz]

This shows what protocols you set it solar assistant which gives away who makes them.

EG4 inverter model	SolarAssistant selection
6000EX, 6500EX	Voltronic
3000EHV	Sumry
18KPV Luxpower	See our Luxpower guide

 

[Gruic]

It's my understanding EG4 buys in bulk from Voltronic (for certain models), rebrands them and modifies the firmware.

They are. The 6500EX, 6000EX, 3000EHV are all voltronic, as well as some 24v options I'm sure.

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.

This is all good information, thanks for sharing. I guess if EG4 is developing their own firmware and not making any changes to the hardware on the unit, one should be able to run EG4 firmware on any of the corresponding units. Also if it's their own firmware, then they have to support what they modify. That support is worth it's weight in gold because I can assure you, Voltronics won't adequately support what they sell through their dealer network. Does EG4 make something that corresponds to the voltronics infinipower 6000 unit?

 

[TK1979]

This shows what protocols you set it solar assistant which gives away who makes them.

EG4 inverter model	SolarAssistant selection
6000EX, 6500EX	Voltronic
3000EHV	Sumry
18KPV Luxpower	See our Luxpower guide

Bingo

 

[42OhmsPA]

This is all good information, thanks for sharing. I guess if EG4 is developing their own firmware and not making any changes to the hardware on the unit, one should be able to run EG4 firmware on any of the corresponding units. Also if it's their own firmware, then they have to support what they modify. That support is worth it's weight in gold because I can assure you, Voltronics won't adequately support what they sell through their dealer network.

There has to be some minor hardware changes because of the higher PV inputs on some units.
You can search the forum and make your own decisions on the support that is provided. I will say it appears, at times, they are trying and appear to be having immense growing pains; which isn't a bad thing if handled correctly.

Does EG4 make something that corresponds to the voltronics infinipower 6000 unit?

That looks a lot like the 6000ex / lvx6048 / tp6048... 6kw total, 3kw per leg.

Voltronic Power On-Grid with Energy-Storage Inverter InfiniSolar VII 6KW (Split Phase)

voltronicpower.com

 

[Gruic]

There has to be some minor hardware changes because of the higher PV inputs on some units.
You can search the forum and make your own decisions on the support that is provided. I will say it appears, at times, they are trying and appear to be having immense growing pains; which isn't a bad thing if handled correctly.

That looks a lot like the 6000ex / lvx6048 / tp6048... 6kw total, 3kw per leg.

Voltronic Power On-Grid with Energy-Storage Inverter InfiniSolar VII 6KW (Split Phase)

voltronicpower.com

It's not the 6000ex. The EG4 6500EX is a single phase unit and the voltronics 6000ex is a split phase unit, capable of producing 240V AC. Voltronics makes two versions of it's 6k split phase. One uses a high frequency transformer and the other one does not. The weight difference is at least 50 pounds.

 

[42OhmsPA]

It's not the 6000ex.

Are you sure?

The EG4 6500EX is a single phase unit

Correct

and the voltronics 6000ex is a split phase unit, capable of producing 240V AC.

And the EG4 6000EX is also a split phase 240V AC unit.

Voltronics makes two versions of it's 6k split phase. One uses a high frequency transformer and the other one does not. The weight difference is at least 50 pounds.

Yup, I believe they would be the MPP LV6048 and LVX6048.