diy solar

diy solar

Rant About Snobby Elitist Brands

A

AgroVenturesPeru

New Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2020
Messages
411
I'm trying to figure out how to put a system together, so the first thing I check is the manual, and here's what I see:

"VEConfigure is a powerful tool, and is intended for use by Victron-trained Engineers, Installers and Dealers. Its usage must not be attempted by system Owners and Users.


Configuring our Inverter/chargers, such as Multis and Quattros, requires both training and experience. We offer no direct support for un-trained individuals carrying-out configuration."
Click to expand...

As if spending thousands of bucks for your components wasn't enough! Now I need to fork over some more to have a "victron-approved" person connect their laptop to my components and toggle a couple options. Get real!

I should've just went with the Growatt.

What does everyone else do when they need to put these proprietary components together? God forbid I void their sacred warranty!
 
AgroVenturesPeru said:
I'm trying to figure out how to put a system together, so the first thing I check is the manual, and here's what I see:



As if spending thousands of bucks for your components wasn't enough! Now I need to fork over some more to have a "victron-approved" person connect their laptop to my components and toggle a couple options. Get real!

I should've just went with the Growatt.

What does everyone else do when they need to put these proprietary components together? God forbid I void their sacred warranty!
Click to expand...

I did a little internet searching and found answers to every setup question I had on the Victron community forum (including the passwords to access settings) before I bought anything. I would have gone another direction if I didn't understand what the manual said.

Just understand that if you blow something up you will bear the cost of whatever thing you blew up. Victron is not likely to honor a warranty if you break something by not understanding what happens when you change something.
 
Q-Dog said:
I did a little internet searching and found answers to every setup question I had on the Victron community forum (including the passwords to access settings) before I bought anything. I would have gone another direction if I didn't understand what the manual said.

Just understand that if you blow something up you will bear the cost of whatever thing you blew up. Victron is not likely to honor a warranty if you break something by not understanding what happens when you change something.
Click to expand...
Nothing's going to blow up....

But if that's really a concern of THEIRS, maybe they shouldn't keep the good information behind lock and key.
When you're in a setting like mine, and the nearest "Victron-Approved" TM installers are located a plane-flight away on the opposite side of the country, maybe they should be a little more helpful for the end-user who's already lined their pocket books anyway.

All the youtubers putting systems up with V components are electrical-engineers or graduates of Victron University or what?

When I hear statements like the one above, I just imagine a company lining up the excuses to deny customers' warranties.
 
Last edited:
Victron doesn’t want to support DIY types officially and that’s their boilerplate informing us of that. Same reason they don’t want to support more batteries/BMSes— it’s a fairly small company and they just don’t have the resources.

Registering for a Victron Pro account is free, however, and community support is actually pretty good.
 
AgroVenturesPeru said:
I'm trying to figure out how to put a system together, so the first thing I check is the manual, and here's what I see:



As if spending thousands of bucks for your components wasn't enough! Now I need to fork over some more to have a "victron-approved" person connect their laptop to my components and toggle a couple options. Get real!

I should've just went with the Growatt.

What does everyone else do when they need to put these proprietary components together? God forbid I void their sacred warranty!
Click to expand...
So which pieces of Victron equipment did you buy?
 
AgroVenturesPeru said:
I'm trying to figure out how to put a system together, so the first thing I check is the manual, and here's what I see:



As if spending thousands of bucks for your components wasn't enough! Now I need to fork over some more to have a "victron-approved" person connect their laptop to my components and toggle a couple options. Get real!

I should've just went with the Growatt.

What does everyone else do when they need to put these proprietary components together? God forbid I void their sacred warranty!
Click to expand...

It sounds a lot worse than it is in practice. I designed, acquired, installed, and got support for a full line of Victron equipment for my RV. Support is done via your Victron retailer/partner; they field any questions you have, and act as the intermediary between you and Victron for anything the vendor can't answer themselves. I have had no issues and I've asked a lot of questions.
 
Ampster said:
I don't have Victron equipment but I would read the manual, search for You tube videos and in my case go to the manufacturers user forum and watch manufacturer Webinars.
Click to expand...
This. That's exactly what I've been doing. The good thing is the community level support with Victron. I've watched a couple webinars on these things, so slowly figuring it out. Better safe than sorry. I don't think I could afford to buy these components a second time.
 
cinergi said:
It sounds a lot worse than it is in practice. I designed, acquired, installed, and got support for a full line of Victron equipment for my RV. Support is done via your Victron retailer/partner; they field any questions you have, and act as the intermediary between you and Victron for anything the vendor can't answer themselves. I have had no issues and I've asked a lot of questions.
Click to expand...
I realize most of that is stated, because the lawyers have their say.
My problem is that my distributor's stance is "if you do the installation yourself, we won't honor the warranties." Nowhere was this stated before the purchase over four months ago, but that is what they told me recently when I reached out for help. They're basically attempting to blackmail me to fork over more money to have someone from their side of the country come on an all-expenses paid vacation to my side of the country in order to help me install what they call a "plug and play" system.
 
AgroVenturesPeru said:
I realize most of that is stated, because the lawyers have their say.
My problem is that my distributor's stance is "if you do the installation yourself, we won't honor the warranties." Nowhere was this stated before the purchase over four months ago, but that is what they told me recently when I reached out for help. They're basically attempting to blackmail me to fork over more money to have someone from their side of the country come on an all-expenses paid vacation to my side of the country in order to help me install what they call a "plug and play" system.
Click to expand...

That's crazy - shame on them. I wonder if you can find another distributor who will support you from now on even though you didn't make your initial purchases through them. Maybe give Alt-E a call? There's someone here in the forums, too (I wish I could remember the name).

Hell, *I* will support you as much as I reasonably can ...
 
cinergi said:
That's crazy - shame on them. I wonder if you can find another distributor who will support you from now on even though you didn't make your initial purchases through them. Maybe give Alt-E a call? There's someone here in the forums, too (I wish I could remember the name).

Hell, *I* will support you as much as I reasonably can ...
Click to expand...

Justin from Bay Marine Supply?
 
I just bought a Multi 24/3000, Cerbo, Shunt, and Charge controller (happy bday to me).

I had it all setup and running within an hour. The only tricky part was me not reading the fact that I needed to enable remote configure on my Cerbo to program the multiplus.

Everything you need is here. There are lots of good youtube videos about programming the multi / quattro too.
It's fun to learn!
 
AgroVenturesPeru said:
I'm trying to figure out how to put a system together, so the first thing I check is the manual, and here's what I see:



As if spending thousands of bucks for your components wasn't enough! Now I need to fork over some more to have a "victron-approved" person connect their laptop to my components and toggle a couple options. Get real!

I should've just went with the Growatt.

What does everyone else do when they need to put these proprietary components together? God forbid I void their sacred warranty!
Click to expand...
I went with a samlex, myself.

Thread 'DIY MCI Bus Conversion'
https://diysolarforum.com/threads/diy-mci-bus-conversion.20908/
 
DerpsyDoodler said:
Actually, maybe this is depending on which distributor you go through, but don’t they usually preconfigured the equipment for you with the victron stuff? Not sure what made me think that.
Click to expand...

It think it would depend on how much stuff you bought from them. For most of them, the product never comes out of the box before they send it to you. A place like Bay Marine Supply, that has (had?) the option to purchase design services, might do some configuration for you.

You sure aren't going to get any setup or support from Amazon.
 
I probably just saw it on a youtuber’s vid, and they probably did it specifically for that person, perhaps to make sure the whole thing went smooth and to impress the watchers of the video. Perhaps also because they didn’t have a lot of good faith in the actual person doing the install. Speculation, but I can see how that could’ve been the case. It’s complicated, and I’m not going to bash any youtubers here; so, I will leave it at that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top