mberding
New Member
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2019
- Messages
- 73
I ordered a EG4 48v 100ah battery from Signature solar. After modifying a couple of 2/0 lugs to fit within the battery terminals of the unit, everything got up and running pretty well.
Then one day we turned on the vacuum cleaner. This isn't some industrial-sized piece of equipment, this is an appliance that plugs into a standard 15-amp 120v receptacle.
According to the specifications of the battery, it can handle 100 amps continuous output. That's around 5,000 watts, depending on the exact voltage of the battery. The BMS is setup to protect the unit but shutting it off under certain conditions. One of those conditions is a short circuit, which it does instantly (less than 1 second) at 250 amps of output.
This EG4 battery was going into short circuit protection when we turned on the vacuum cleaner. That means, if it was working correctly, that it was receiving a load of over 12,500 watts. Out of a vacuum cleaner.
Just to prove that the unit was going into short circuit protection earlier than it should, I took the vacuum and hooked it up to a Jackery 1500. The Jackery could run the vacuum with no problems and showed its running wattage to be around 822 watts.
So even if the vacuum had a 10x startup surge (which it obviously doesn't because the Jackery could power the vacuum), we'd still be well under the 12,500 watt short-circuit protection that the EG4's BMS was complaining about.
Also it should be noted that the battery was able to handle lots of other kinds of loads. Microwave, resistive heaters, mini split, they all worked great. We could even run all of those loads at the same time without any issues. It was just the startup surge of a vacuum that caused it to instantly shut off.
For reference, we were using a MPP LV 6548 as our inverter/charger with 2/0 cables connecting the two. There was also a T-class fuse and a Victron shunt.
So I contacted Signature Solar customer service to see what's going on. They had me run through all sorts of tests and eventually decided that the battery might be faulty and that they wanted to test it, so we arrange to get it shipped back to them.
Once they receive the battery, they run their own series of tests, declare that it's fine, has no issues, and it's up to me to pay to have the battery shipped back to me or to accept a fractional refund.
I'm pissed! Would I have gone through all this trouble if the battery was working properly? Do I want to receive back the same faulty battery? No!
My purchase price for the battery was $1,499 + $189.12 (shipping) = $1,688.12 total.
After multiple rounds of dealing with customer service, I ended up being refunded a total of $939.05, mostly because they declared the battery was fine and had no issues.
It failed every time we started a vacuum that a JACKERY could run!
So this is my warning -- don't buy from Signature Solar. They have terrible customer service and refund policies and will short you heavily if there's an issue. I'm out $749.07 and a battery. I will never purchase from them again and I'll avoid the EG4 brand in the future.
The pictures and videos that are included show the short circuit error the battery was throwing, the vacuum and its 15-amp plug, and a shot of the Jackery running said vacuum.
Then one day we turned on the vacuum cleaner. This isn't some industrial-sized piece of equipment, this is an appliance that plugs into a standard 15-amp 120v receptacle.
According to the specifications of the battery, it can handle 100 amps continuous output. That's around 5,000 watts, depending on the exact voltage of the battery. The BMS is setup to protect the unit but shutting it off under certain conditions. One of those conditions is a short circuit, which it does instantly (less than 1 second) at 250 amps of output.
This EG4 battery was going into short circuit protection when we turned on the vacuum cleaner. That means, if it was working correctly, that it was receiving a load of over 12,500 watts. Out of a vacuum cleaner.
Just to prove that the unit was going into short circuit protection earlier than it should, I took the vacuum and hooked it up to a Jackery 1500. The Jackery could run the vacuum with no problems and showed its running wattage to be around 822 watts.
So even if the vacuum had a 10x startup surge (which it obviously doesn't because the Jackery could power the vacuum), we'd still be well under the 12,500 watt short-circuit protection that the EG4's BMS was complaining about.
Also it should be noted that the battery was able to handle lots of other kinds of loads. Microwave, resistive heaters, mini split, they all worked great. We could even run all of those loads at the same time without any issues. It was just the startup surge of a vacuum that caused it to instantly shut off.
For reference, we were using a MPP LV 6548 as our inverter/charger with 2/0 cables connecting the two. There was also a T-class fuse and a Victron shunt.
So I contacted Signature Solar customer service to see what's going on. They had me run through all sorts of tests and eventually decided that the battery might be faulty and that they wanted to test it, so we arrange to get it shipped back to them.
Once they receive the battery, they run their own series of tests, declare that it's fine, has no issues, and it's up to me to pay to have the battery shipped back to me or to accept a fractional refund.
I'm pissed! Would I have gone through all this trouble if the battery was working properly? Do I want to receive back the same faulty battery? No!
My purchase price for the battery was $1,499 + $189.12 (shipping) = $1,688.12 total.
After multiple rounds of dealing with customer service, I ended up being refunded a total of $939.05, mostly because they declared the battery was fine and had no issues.
It failed every time we started a vacuum that a JACKERY could run!
So this is my warning -- don't buy from Signature Solar. They have terrible customer service and refund policies and will short you heavily if there's an issue. I'm out $749.07 and a battery. I will never purchase from them again and I'll avoid the EG4 brand in the future.
The pictures and videos that are included show the short circuit error the battery was throwing, the vacuum and its 15-amp plug, and a shot of the Jackery running said vacuum.
