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PowMr 5kW AIO inverter burned out

mrzed001

mrzed001

Voice of reason
Joined
Apr 10, 2020
Messages
1,003
Location
Hungary - EU
Hi ,

OP bought and installed a new PowMr WM5k-III inverter about a month ago.

type2.jpg


Used it with 9 solar panels:
- 6pcs of 410W, 49.5Voc, 40.9Vmpp
- 3pcs of 390W, 45.06Voc, 38.01Vmpp. One of them was connected to a TIGO optimizer (because of shadows)
All together 432Voc, (would be 475Voc in -10 Celsius), 359Vmpp (near the inverters ideal 320Vmpp)
So ideal for the MPPT specification.
DC fuse and DC overvoltage protection was on the PV string (there was no storm, no lightning).


And then in a sunny day ... the magic smoke escaped from the unit.
Cause unknown.
The MPPT part is heavily damaged. The DC bus is fried. And it even burned out the AC side.

We still do not know what caused this brutal malfunction.
Any ideas are welcome :)

Some pics from the motherboard of the inverter

IMG_20220330_173820.jpg


IMG_20220330_190404.jpg


IMG_20220330_190508.jpg


IMG_20220330_190909.jpg


IMG_20220330_173718.jpg


IMG_20220330_173743.jpg
 
Rednecktek said:
Any word from PowMr yet?

I'm guessing maybe you had the Red Bull Mt Dew X-Treme MaXXX Power Point firmware installed? :LOL::oops:
Click to expand...

No response until now :)

Lately we see several bad clone units.
Hungarian users bough about 6 blue-white units from EASun lately.
And 2 of them arrived dead (from German warehause).
It is always a struggle to convince them to replace bad units.
 
Read through this post from yesterday-

diysolarforum.com

Is it possible to limit number of watts from solar panel array to inverter?

In most places, winter solar output is far less than summer, right? So to keep your batteries charged, you actually want a larger array during the winter than the summer. Is there any way to automatically accomplish this? Say your inverter maxes out at 8000 watts. You buy a 14000 watt array...
diysolarforum.com diysolarforum.com

and it may give you some idea.

mrzed001 said:
All together 432Voc, (would be 475Voc in -10 Celsius), 359Vmpp (near the inverters ideal 320Vmpp)
So ideal for the MPPT specification.
Click to expand...
In the manual-

"The solar inverter accepts a maximum of 500VDC input and requires a 48V battery input to operate. This will require combining solar panels in series or series parallel to achieve the minimum voltage DC requirement. Due to many factors affecting PV performance, it is recommended to utilize the open circuit voltage (Voc) when connecting panels in series to make sure you stay under the 450VDC input"

450vdc????
 
mrzed001 said:
Hi ,

OP bought and installed a new PowMr WM5k-III inverter about a month ago.

View attachment 89999


Used it with 9 solar panels:
- 6pcs of 410W, 49.5Voc, 40.9Vmpp
- 3pcs of 390W, 45.06Voc, 38.01Vmpp. One of them was connected to a TIGO optimizer (because of shadows)
All together 432Voc, (would be 475Voc in -10 Celsius), 359Vmpp (near the inverters ideal 320Vmpp)
So ideal for the MPPT specification.
DC fuse and DC overvoltage protection was on the PV string (there was no storm, no lightning).


And then in a sunny day ... the magic smoke escaped from the unit.
Cause unknown.
The MPPT part is heavily damaged. The DC bus is fried. And it even burned out the AC side.

We still do not know what caused this brutal malfunction.
Any ideas are welcome :)

Some pics from the motherboard of the inverter

View attachment 90003


View attachment 90005


View attachment 90007


View attachment 90008


View attachment 90009


View attachment 90010
Click to expand...

ouch, this one is def. gone with the wind.
What i was told by voltronics is to always keep the Voltage below 450..
While it should be able handle 500 , it is for a very short time only

That being said...
i am still not convinced Powmr and EAsun use the same quality component that Voltronics/Mpp-solar use
 
sunshine said:
Read through this post from yesterday-

diysolarforum.com

Is it possible to limit number of watts from solar panel array to inverter?

In most places, winter solar output is far less than summer, right? So to keep your batteries charged, you actually want a larger array during the winter than the summer. Is there any way to automatically accomplish this? Say your inverter maxes out at 8000 watts. You buy a 14000 watt array...
diysolarforum.com diysolarforum.com

and it may give you some idea.


In the manual-

"The solar inverter accepts a maximum of 500VDC input and requires a 48V battery input to operate. This will require combining solar panels in series or series parallel to achieve the minimum voltage DC requirement. Due to many factors affecting PV performance, it is recommended to utilize the open circuit voltage (Voc) when connecting panels in series to make sure you stay under the 450VDC input"

450vdc????
Click to expand...

And 432Voc is less. Even lesser by the low, early spring sun.
OP measured about 404Voc.
I would used 1 PV panel less ... but it is still according to specs :)

And this damage is extensive ... the motherboard almost burned through in one place.


houseofancients said:
ouch, this one is def. gone with the wind.
What i was told by voltronics is to always keep the Voltage below 450..
While it should be able handle 500 , it is for a very short time only
Click to expand...
Of course because it works to the 400V DC Bus. The max is 500Vdc this Bus can handle (really 550V).
If it reaches 500V then inverter stops and throws: Error 08 DC Bus over voltage

houseofancients said:
That being said...
i am still not convinced Powmr and EAsun use the same quality component that Voltronics/Mpp-solar use
Click to expand...
I never said they do :)
To be 10-20% cheaper on the same manufacturing country (or line) you must loose some protection, use cheaper components, ...
 
mrzed001 said:
And 432Voc is less. Even lesser by the low, early spring sun.
OP measured about 404Voc.
I would used 1 PV panel less ... but it is still according to specs :)

And this damage is extensive ... the motherboard almost burned through in one place.



Of course because it works to the 400V DC Bus. The max is 500Vdc this Bus can handle (really 550V).
If it reaches 500V then inverter stops and throws: Error 08 DC Bus over voltage


I never said they do :)
To be 10-20% cheaper on the same manufacturing country (or line) you must loose some protection, use cheaper components, ...
Click to expand...
I wish that did not happen to you.

Do you know if any other components are damaged? How are your batteries and wiring from the panels?
 
mrzed001 said:
To be 10-20% cheaper on the same manufacturing country (or line) you must loose some protection, use cheaper components, ...
Click to expand...
PowerMR, Epever, Mppsolar, Growatt obviously use the same manufacturing facilities. No doubt many other companies do as well and isn't PowerMR and Growatt the same company? May even see some type of Victrons travelling down the same conveyor belts.

To differentiate when a economy branded case comes along the hand goes into the economy parts bin and not the more expensive one beside it.
Look up teardowns on YouTube....same cases different insides. Time allowed for the hand soldering, assembly, and quality control would vary with make.....Victrons will come along the belt early in the shift....PowerMr in the last hour....
The clones that some brand name companies complain about may have been knowingly designed by that same company to compete in a different value market.

All this doesn't take the pain away from your 5000kw inverter failure but it may help to explain how different branded 5000kw inverters coming out of the same factory may need to be treated differently.

An analogy to all this is that accident down in Melbourne where a pedestrian being killed by a Tesla on Autopilot. Elon Musk is not the one up on a manslaughter charge as it should be. It is the one that bought his hype!
 
Last edited:
sunshine said:
PowerMR, Epever, Mppsolar, Growatt obviously use the same manufacturing facilities. No doubt many other companies do as well and isn't PowerMR and Growatt the same company? May even see some type of Victrons travelling down the same conveyor belts.

To differentiate when a economy branded case comes along the hand goes into the economy parts bin and not the more expensive one beside it.
Look up teardowns on YouTube....same cases different insides. Time allowed for the hand soldering, assembly, and quality control would vary with make.....Victrons will come along the belt early in the shift....PowerMr in the last hour....
The clones that some brand name companies complain about may have been knowingly designed by that same company to compete in a different value market.

All this doesn't take the pain away from your 5000kw inverter failure but it may help to explain how different branded 5000kw inverters coming out of the same factory may need to be treated differently.

An analogy to all this is that accident down in Melbourne where a pedestrian being killed by a Tesla on Autopilot. Elon Musk is not the one up on a manslaughter charge as it should be. It is the one that bought his hype!
Click to expand...

You know in China sometimes the same line produces the Nike shoes by day and Nika/Niko/Nake (cheap counterfeit) shoes by night.
And the original is good and the copy is bad.
They are made from different materials ...

One other important part is quality control.

Believe me there are no wonders.
If both are made in the same country, in the same line, and one is 20% cheaper ... then it is not the same quality.

Victron is made in India. So not China :)

And ... back to the topic :)
 
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mrzed001 said:
It seems everything else survived it.
Batteries OK, PV OK.
Click to expand...
Cool,
I have the AIO powmr 3000 watt unit, which I hope to put into service soon. I also purchased an Epever 4615 charge controller which will keep me from approaching the PV input limits of the AIO. My anticipated loads will approach 2000 watts at peak. I have heard of folks running their powmr units at or near the limits but whenever it comes to budget equipment, I stay away from limits.

I look forward to seeing how this plays out.
Are you using a translator or writing in English?
 
PowMr are Chinese ripoff of another Chinese brand, MakeSkyBlue.
They seam to really sell all the same exact things than MakeSkyBlue, but they use different color for there ripoff brand.
It's not abnormal to see PowMr unit catch on fire. It's actually pretty common from when I saw on the web.

The original brand, MakeSkyBlue, is fine (and quite good for the price actually).
Always buy these from original MakeSkyBlue aliexpress store, if it's not at makeskyblue store, then it's surelly a fake or another ripoff brand like PowMr. Also take it apart when you receive it to be sure it say MakeSkyBlue somewhere on the PCB silkscreen.

Here an example with there charge controller units.

1649865032334.png

1649865084698.png

1649865147673.png
 
Last edited:
DestroyFX said:
PowMr are Chinese ripoff of another Chinese brand, MakeSkyBlue.
They seam to really sell all the same exact things than MakeSkyBlue, but they use different color for there ripoff brand.
It's not abnormal to see PowMr unit catch on fire. It's actually pretty common from when I saw on the web.

The original brand, MakeSkyBlue, is fine (and quite good for the price actually).
Always buy these from original MakeSkyBlue aliexpress store, if it's not at makeskyblue store, then it's surelly a fake or another ripoff brand like PowMr. Also take it apart when you receive it to be sure it say MakeSkyBlue somewhere on the PCB silkscreen.

Here an example with there charge controller units.

View attachment 91080

View attachment 91081

View attachment 91082
Click to expand...
I wonder if the two companies are owned by cousins?
 
WYtreasure said:
Any updates for us, ON TOPIC?
Click to expand...

Still waiting ... maybe they send a replacement unit (or only motherboard) .... maybe not.

With EASun we had some bad experience.
2 unit arrived bad.
- burned on first power up. They still did not send the replacement.
- only display was not working. They denied the replacement. We opened it up and found that they forgot to connect the display cable. 1 minute fix and working :)
 
mrzed001 said:
Still waiting ... maybe they send a replacement unit (or only motherboard) .... maybe not.

With EASun we had some bad experience.
2 unit arrived bad.
- burned on first power up. They still did not send the replacement.
- only display was not working. They denied the replacement. We opened it up and found that they forgot to connect the display cable. 1 minute fix and working :)
Click to expand...
Would you provide a link to the EASun products?
 
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