Hello oh wise ones, really hoping somebody can shed some light on my, what seems like never-ending, issues.

 

Had a Growatt SPF5000TL-HVM commissioned and operating perfectly fine for over 6 months, then out the blue, with no warning,sounds sights or smell it came up with an Error 09. All research indicated, to me, it was a  catastrophic failure and essentially no coming back from. Attempted an in warranty repair and that went absolutely nowhere. Resigned myself to the fact I was out of pocket and out an inverter to get through loadshedding. 

 

I then purchased an interim inverter, what seems to be an axpert clone 4000w,off of the dreaded Facebook Marketplace last week, and lo and behold Error 09, 1 day after installing. No recourse with the seller of course and here I sit once again out of pocket and out an inverter for the next round of inevitable loadshedding.

The interim inverter was a stop gap and was to buy me time to save for that Sunsynk with the plan to sell the interim at some point to add to the final Synsynk payment. So much for stop gap, now I just have a gap gap.

 

The sad story above has prompted me to question all things fair and just but mostly question how in the actual f### did this happen twice. Considering the 1st time with the Growatt running perfectly fine with PV connection for quite a while, with zero changes to home wiring, can these inverter failures perhaps be linked to wiring?

My wiring isn't complex at all. Split DB, changeover switch. Essential loads on second DB, entirely isolated from Mains DB except for the common and shared Earth. Inverters powered from Mains before Earth Leakage. I even had DB SPD installed after the Growatt kicked the bucket. The interim and 2nd failed inverter wasn't even hooked up on PV when it quit on me. 

 

Also, anybody know anybody decent in Cape Town that can repair the inverters?

 

Edited August 23, 20223 yr by LumexClipsal

On 2022/08/23 at 11:35 PM, LumexClipsal said:

out the blue, with no warning, sounds sights or smell it came up with an Error 09.

I only know the Axperts, but for them fault code 09 usually has a definite sounds (bang!) and smell (burning epoxy), and on opening you can usually find cracked transistor cases, blown off legs, and so on.

On 2022/08/23 at 11:35 PM, LumexClipsal said:

what seems to be an axpert clone 4000 W, off of the dreaded Facebook Marketplace last week, and lo and behold Error 09, 1 day after installing.

You never know what you get with those clones. Certainly 1 day is astonishingly bad and completely not fit for purpose. Not being able to get that redressed is scandalous. I would always buy something dodgy like that with say Paypal, and lodge a complaint with Paypal, who have the power to withhold future payments to a bad vendor like that, if of course you can prove your case that the product is faulty. I don't know Facebook Marketplace, and what safety provisions they have or don't have.

As for a common cause, I wonder about mains transients, perhaps from inductive loads (perhaps in a nearby industrial area) disconnecting under load with regular load shedding. Genuine inverters do have transient suppressors, but the nature of those devices is that every time they have to absorb a transient, they lose some ability to absorb the next one. Under normal circumstances, these should last the life of the inverter, but regular load shedding might be a case that they are not designed for. That mechanism could explain why it took 6 months for the Growatt to die, as the protection devices gradually lost effectiveness. In the case of the clone, they possibly left the protection devices out altogether to save cost, which would explain the very sudden failure.

So the robust solution, if transients are indeed the cause of your problem, could be some sort of robust mains filter at the Eskom connection that is designed to withstand repeated transients without significant degradation. That's outside my area of expertise. I don't even know of a way to effectively measure these transients, but presumably there must be people that know these things. You might hope that Eskom or the industries that generate these transients would suppress them, but that might be expecting too much.

Thanks @Coulomb

 

Got a bit adventurous and I popped the Axpert clone open today,and the bizarre thing is there is zero indication of any damages at all. No burning or epoxy smells or scorch marks anywhere to be seen. All legs intact and still solidly soldered on the board. Checked on youtube how to test the transistors\IGBT\Mosfets (not sure what the heck they are or the right term) but a few of them on a single rail (?) tested bad. 

Looking top down at the board it's the left rail. I'm wondering if that could potentially point to a cause. Silly question but are they split rails for AC and DC?

I'm an absolute novice on electronic repairs but contemplating getting some replacements or equivalents and attempting a DIY repair. Can't possibly get any worse than it already is and with the lack of any repair sources locally it's starting to look like the most viable option.

Error 09 (fault) mean short on 400V capacitors. Check IGBT's becouse is shortcut.

Are you use witout battery?

Quote

4. 9 Error 09
Fault description: Bus soft start failed.
Analysis：
1. Battery mode setting wrong.
2. The inverter diode or the IGBT on the high voltage side of DC/DC is damaged

 

Edited August 24, 20223 yr by mihaigsm2003

21 hours ago, LumexClipsal said:

Looking top down at the board it's the left rail.

There's still too many ways to get that wrong.

Are they the larger transistors with 5.04 mm lead spacing, or the smaller TO-220 transistors with 2.54 mm lead spacing?

The former are IGBTs, and the latter are MOSFETs.

There are 16 MOSFETs on the outer heatsink (battery side of the DC-DC converter); there are 9 IGBTs and a diode on the more central heatsink.

You may find this repair topic helpful.

21 hours ago, LumexClipsal said:

there is zero indication of any damages at all. No burning or epoxy smells or scorch marks anywhere to be seen.

That's possible. Sometimes the damage is very subtle, needing magnification to see fine cracks. Be aware that often these transistors fail collector or drain to gate, which takes out the sensitive gate driver components. It's important to repair all the gate driver components before soldering in expensive replacement power devices. Otherwise, the new components can fail immediately, which can be heart breaking. Also not great for the hip pocket nerve.

Thanks @Coulomb

If anything, that link highlighted i clearly have no clue on how to repair this

Hat off to your vast knowledge and experience on the subject though.

I'm going to have to just hunt for a local repairer.