I think it's 3 years if you don't use their batteries. But from my experience their main objective when helping me was to find a reason not to honor the warranty.
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- Thread starter Kennyh327
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dougbert
Solar Addict
I ask because my son bought a set and 2 of the EG4 Lifepower batteries in June of 2022, then began building a storage and power room for them back then BUT due to effort of building we are just now installing the system
I am putting together a list of things we need to check AND watch out for, and we are watching all the issues posted over the past year
primary use will be as a UPS at first for freezers, then grow as battery counts are added
thanks
wildbillpdx
Solar Enthusiast
With EG4 batteries it's 5 years. Without, I think it maybe only 2.
Quattrohead
Solar Wizard
What is the build date on your inverters? I think there was a range where they were more susceptible to problems. Was it October 22 builds that had an issue?
dougbert
Solar Addict
question for me?
he bought them in June of 2022, and I know of the bad EPROM chip issue substituted by a supplier got slipped in to the parts stream, unknown by SS. Don't know date of build yet
Mine are 08/22
dougbert
Solar Addict
where is the build date located on the inverters? they are at my son's house not here with me
UPDATE: Son found it, 05/2022
good for us to know
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@Kennyh327 Is there any way you can superimpose battery and bus voltage and zoom in on just the shutdown? You are pretty heavily loaded in Inverter 2 if you have any kind of inrush at the same time, but there is not enough data to really. E able to say that was the issue.
windsurfer
New Member
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If they are not working and Signature is not helping, try contacting your credit card company to initiate a charge back.
B-Mod
Solar Enthusiast
Just something to check. I had an issue with a cheap Chinese breaker feeding a inverter battery input that died. I actually had two so far and one of them was intermittent. Not saying this is your issue, but just something to think about.
Adam De Lay
Solar Wizard
Can you share a few pictures of how you have everything wired up? It seems odd that only 1 inverter is losing the battery connection.
My new thought now that it has happened a couple more times is the BMS is stopping output of the battery in heavy loads. Still not sure why yet. This is causing the F52 error on the inverters.
The grid does kick in but only enough to keep the inverters on but they shutdown AC output.
Seems to me the F52 error is a problem with the inverter as it should just switch to Grid to keep everything going.
Thoughts on this?
Adam De Lay
Solar Wizard
I know it works the other way around where if grid is lost is switches to battery. Not sure if it should switch to grid if battery is lost. You would think it would. I'm wondering though if it's having issues because the 2p1 inverter is still connected to battery while 2p2 is trying to switch to grid? Your data shows that 2p2 is the one that lost battery connection. Since the inverters are supposed to be in sync in everything they do, maybe that's why you're getting the error.
Quattrohead
Solar Wizard
Yes I have noticed the same thing as Adam so I would concentrate your search in that specific area. For example do you have a battery circuit breaker for each inverter or are they sharing one. And yes the inverters will switch back and forth with loss of AC input but not battery, that is a whole different situation.
I also can't rule out that this is Solar Assistant data which is in 10 second intervals. Even tho the data showed that slight difference when one inverter lost battery connection I think it's more probable that they actually lost at the same time.
Adam De Lay
Solar Wizard
It’s possible, but with everything else between the inverters being synced, I would assume that data would be as well.
Timing is everything. Unfortunately even *cough* WatchPower when directly connected between a computer and inverter doesn’t log fine grained details.
I do have a separate breaker for each inverter.
So it is in fact normal that a sudden loss of battery shuts the entire system down? Except the inverters remain on with the help of the grid.
ghostwriter66
"Here - Hold my Beer"
The credit card company will not be very helpful in this situation ... They will contact SS and SS will explain to them that YES the system is STILL under warranty BUT (according to SS) the credit card holder did something that violated the warranty ((Like plugged it in))((I crack myself up)) and therefore they will refuse the chargeback - and probably will win --
BUT there is Light at the end of a tunnel -- SO - then the credit card owner can reach out to the CC company again and ask them if THEIR EXTENDED WARRANTY PROGRAM ON THE CC will cover the repairs -- many of the credit card companies have an extended warranty program that covers "events" well outside of the normal SS warranty ...
For example -- we purchased 20 VSUN535 panels and sent a now "former" intern to Houston to pick them up ... He loaded them all wrong (stacked them on top of each other and put them on the very back of a 20 foot trailer where they bounced and shook themselves to death -- when he finally made it back here (6) of them was cracked and broken ... we called the CC company and they refunded our charges ... its just part of their insurance packages ... anyway -- check with your CC company and see if they can help you at least get back the $150 you spent ..
BUT again, the CC is not going to allow a Chargeback under the conditions that were stated by the OP above --
Again SS is not set up for Customer Service nor Technical Support -- they seem to be (not saying they are - just guessing)) just a RETAIL distributor. The reason they hate doing warranty work is that they probably have to either send the thing back to China ($$$$$$) or spend allot of frustrating hours on the phone with their Chinese counterparts trying to fix something they themselves aren't sure they know how works ... so its much easier just to blame you for purchasing their stuff and move on to the next customer in the cue ...
Adam De Lay
Solar Wizard
I think the one time I actually tested that (which was completely by accident), I didn't have the grid connected, so the system just shutdown.
I might suggest switching the breakers around between the inverters and see if you notice the problem still reflecting that inverter 2 lost battery connection. At least it might help narrow something down.
Just now a surge kicked in. Lights flickered and I happened to have Solar Assistant in front of me.
Sudden drop in PV power, battery dropped from charging +2000w to drawing -100w or more (no drop in voltage) and the Grid kicked on. Exactly what I'd expect to happen when battery and PV cannot handle the load.
This again leads me to my thinking that the BMS shutting the voltage down when its under heavy draw is resulting in the F52 error.
Thinking maybe another battery is the answer but it a very expensive solution.
I'm hoping that after this heat wave passes and the Central Air is no longer needed, I won't see the F52 error til next summer.
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