Is buying a used inverter worth the risk?

[oilerlord]

Hello everyone,

I bought 9.45kW of used SunPower panels that I'm fairly confident should continue to product power without issue for 25 years or more. I was about to buy a couple of new SB3800's at about $1700 each but found a couple of used (SunPower rebranded) SB5000's for about $500 each. I don't need (or will ever use) the additional capacity, I'm just considering them because they are cheap. They are six years old, and I'm assuming were in service for that long. What is their expected lifespan? I want to save money but not at the expense of an early failure. What are the chances that I'd be able to get at least another 10 years of of them?

[oilerlord]

Well, as it turns out; those cheap SB5000's did not have AFCI built in - which is a basic requirement for the permit where I live. I think it's reasonable to assume that inverter problems may develop within 10-15 years of service so I'm going to stick with new SB3000-US-12 and SB3800-US-12 inverters for peace of mind. I'm really excited to get this 9.45kW project moving forward. Hopefully I'll have it all installed by mid-May. I'll post some installation photos when the project gets under way.