This seems to be a very touchy issue with folks that have bought Sol Ark and like the product. Nobody is telling you to return the product. I for one am thrilled that you like Sol Ark and have had a positive experience installing these units. That’s all great. I did consider getting Sol Ark for my system, as the 12k seemed to tick of a lot of boxes for me. Upon doing my due diligence however, I was incredibly put off by the mischaracterization that this was a US made product, as the centrepiece to their marketing is how rah rah American they are. Put put it simply, it’s complete BS, and yes, there is the issue of them charging 3x for a rebranded product. Knowing this doesn’t sit well with me, nor does it sit well with plenty of others. That’s ok. I’m not judging you for buying a Sol Ark; I think it’s terrific that you did. I’m happy with my purchase of SMA Sunny Islands… different strokes
Sol-Ark inverters where designed in the USA and the first 30 units of the 8K model where made in the USA.
I am in 100% agreement that they should have changed the label to "Designed in the USA" the moment they started to have Deye make the upper half of the units for them. I suspect that they thought they might get away with it, but it exploded in their face.
This design issue was debated in another thread and I showed videos plus pictures of Sol-Ark 8K being for sale long before Sunsync or Deye had a model that was even similar. I also have a picture that was sent to me of one of the first 30 units that was made in the USA for beta testing and as the person told me you can clearly see that is was not made with a proper finish on the outside.
Why is it so hard for people to comprehend something that is so common in the US tech industry! There is absolutely nothing new about US companies designing equipment in the USA and then sending it over to China or other countries to have it made. This is the way that about 95% of American designed products are made. Do you think that Foxconn in China designs each new model of the iPhone?
When Sol-Ark's CEO Tom Brennan came on the Forum and Directly posted that his company was the designer/IP holder of the Inverter did you really need more proof than that? If this was false information it could easily been used in a multi million dollar lawsuit by the real owners of the IP against Sol-Ark. Yet some people still did not want to believe it.
When Sol-Ark told Deye to stop making split phase units I posted that this was enough proof that Sol-Ark was indeed the IP holder and that Deye was simply a manufacturer.
A new spin was created that Sol-Ark is such a big buyer and that Deye was forced to comply.
These statements come from people who have done zero business with Chinese manufactures.
I have had about 20 years of work dealing with them and nobody tells a large Chinese manufacturer what to do unless their pay check to the company is what keeps it running or they actually do hold the rights to the IP they are using. If not they will simply tell you to piss off and then they will find another North American partner to deal with.
Sol-Ark is not even close to being that size. Deye and its sales to numerous other third party brands of 220V single and three phase Inverters models dwarfs the purchasing power of Sol-Ark.
As Sol-Ark stated they let Deye Manufacturer certain Inverter models for the Domestic Chinese market as part of the deal they made when they partnered with them. Sol-Ark drew a red line when Deye started to produce grey market Split phase versions and then told Deye to cease production of them (which Deye did) and then Sol-Ark stopped sharing Firmware updates with them.
As for David Poz posting a hit piece, that really is a hysterical view of what he posted.
I’m not really a fan of David Poz to be honest, however I watched the video, and I’ve watched others, and I don’t get the sense that they dude has it in him to do a “hit piece” as you say.
It was a hit piece that was designed by Signature Solar to make the Sol-Ark look bad. They guy isn’t running for political office for christs also. Also, he uses and espouses plenty of cheaper Chinese made gear.
For the last year almost every video David Poz has made on new solar equipment is about gear that is sold by Signature Solar and it was Signature Solar that "anonymously" sent him that Sol-Ark inverter to be tested. Signature Solar is how he makes most of his YouTube revenue, basically through the promotional codes he pushes to viewers to get discounts. Use his code and he makes hundreds of dollars on your purchase. Signature Solar has always liked to compare themselves to Sol-Ark and that was exactly what this video was about.
It was 100% a hit job engineered by them and Poz to make Sol-Ark look bad.
The fact that he had an issue with Sol Ark with his installation, one that others have also had is just a fact, flawed installation or not.
He did not have a problem with the Inverter, he was told before hand that the old firmware in the unit was literally Beta firmware and that it would trip the Inverter at a very conservative level if an imbalance was detected. He was told at exactly what level and how to recreate this by a poster in his first setup video. Instead of heeding this warning or updating the firmware he went straight in and used those numbers to create some theater for the audience.
BTW the Initial use of conservative firmware settings is a very common practice in the engineering world. You have to be very conservative with your fixed firmware settings on the first units sold or you possibly face disaster with loads of returned units. As you get a better idea of how the device is working in the real world you move up the settings via firmware updates and so long as data is good and confidence in higher settings on your test devices is good you go higher to get the best performance possible out of the unit without a risk of frying any units.
There have NOT been a whole lot of people with Sol-Arks complaining about problems but there is certainly no end of various Growatt complaints. Also the fact that they have yet to provide a way to use the grid with the unit in a way that does not use multiple grounds or is compliant with NEC wiring is disturbing and dangerous.
