SolarEdge inverter failure -- fair timeline for repair?

[pete4]

25 Years is only for optimizers, inverters have 12 yr warranty as far as I know, but you can buy extended warranty for couple hundred bucks. And I think SE will pay to the installer for labor as well, so installer doesn't do free warranty work, if SE equipment fails. Problem with such long warranty is, what happens if installer retires or goes out of business, hopefully you can find somebody else to take over warranty work etc. but not sure how that works in real life.

[qrper]

25 Years is only for optimizers, inverters have 12 yr warranty as far as I know, but you can buy extended warranty for couple hundred bucks. And I think SE will pay to the installer for labor as well, so installer doesn't do free warranty work, if SE equipment fails. Problem with such long warranty is, what happens if installer retires or goes out of business, hopefully you can find somebody else to take over warranty work etc. but not sure how that works in real life.

That’s good to know. I haven’t read the warranty that deeply.

[solarix]

I was the first installer in Arizona to go with SolarEdge. (Back a while) Loved the design and system architecture. Used them almost exclusively for 18 months until started to get failures. After one incident with goo running out of the blown-up inverter, down the customer's wall, I quit installing them. Since then, I've had to replace at least half of all the inverters I put in and a bunch of the optimizers too. I'm sure the newer models are better, but my policy with inverters is like with real estate - the top three factors in choosing an inverter are: 1) Reliability 2) Reliability 3) Reliability. and SolarEdge is not it. For example, the plastic they use on the optimizer's MC4 connectors just disintegrate in our hot Arizona heat. (and that is in the shade) Plus, they've never compensated me a dime for all the service calls we've done on their junk.

[qrper]

I was the first installer in Arizona to go with SolarEdge. (Back a while) Loved the design and system architecture. Used them almost exclusively for 18 months until started to get failures. After one incident with goo running out of the blown-up inverter, down the customer's wall, I quit installing them. Since then, I've had to replace at least half of all the inverters I put in and a bunch of the optimizers too. I'm sure the newer models are better, but my policy with inverters is like with real estate - the top three factors in choosing an inverter are: 1) Reliability 2) Reliability 3) Reliability. and SolarEdge is not it. For example, the plastic they use on the optimizer's MC4 connectors just disintegrate in our hot Arizona heat. (and that is in the shade) Plus, they've never compensated me a dime for all the service calls we've done on their junk.

Interesting!

I have installed 6kWp and I have this grandiose plan of adding in another 3kW.

I have three options:

1. Add another 3kW Solaredge inverter
2. Replace the 6kW Solaredge inverter with a 10kW one and sell the smaller on on eBay. (After reading your post, perhaps keep it as a back up?)
3. Install a SMA string inverter.

So far, this is only a plan that is floating around in my head. I have yet to look into any compatibility issues between the SMA and the Solaredge, after all they will be living right next to each other.

Wondering out loud, what inverters do you install now?

[JSchnee21]

According to greentechmedia, in US for the first 3 quarters of 2019, Solar Edge was used in 60% of residential installations, Enphase in about 20% and 20% others. Also keep in mind, most of forum postings would be about problems, very rarely would you see a post saying "I have such and such equipment and it's working great, what do I do now?" LOL, so judging equipment reliability by forum postings is not that reliable, especially if it's dominant system ATM. Anyhow, the only solid data on equipment reliability could come from installers etc. do we have any and are they willing to share some insight? I'm interested as well since I have SE system and would like to know what to expect.

+1 Was going to say the same thing myself. Granted the newer HD and SetApp inverters do "seem" to have more problems (mostly firmware related, though definitely a fair amount of infant mortality) than the older A-Series like I have. Installer/Electrician quality also has a huge impact. Stuff breaks, it happens.

[gvl]

Just had a failed SE10000A replaced with the newer HD Wave variant of the same power. Lasted 5 years and 1 month, which is I thought was pretty disappointing considering it was undersized for the 9kW array size, but reading all these failure reports it seems it actually fared okay relatively speaking. The panels are arranged in 2 strings 15 panels each. My installer caught the failure about the same time I did through remote monitoring and opened a case with SE, it took about 2 weeks to receive the replacement. It appears the electrolytic caps were bulging and there was some burnout next to them. When I was getting the system put in back in 2014 Solaredge was all the rage with Enphase just recovering from the wave of the early generation inverter failures, now it seems the situation is the exact opposite.

se.jpg