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BATTERY WARRANTY ISSUE - YOUR OPINION?


Gabriël

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i ordered inter alia 4x250ah sonic gel batteries during 2016 as part of my solar system. three payments followed, one in may 2016, followed by another in feb 2017 and april 2017. the installer brought and installed the batteries mid april 2017.
after installing icc and the bmv702 during early jan 2018 i picked up a serious mid-point deviation during the charge phase of up to 5%.
battery measurements during that phase indicated one unit with a voltage of 10.8 whilst the other three indicated a healthy 13.1v, indicating one failing battery.
now the installer states that as he purchased the batteries during may 2016- and they were in his storage up till install mid april 2017 - the warranty has expired; alternatively me affixing the bmv702 midpoint probes and shunt voided the warranty.
what would you say?

:unsure:

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I would say that your installer is dodging what is clearly a warranty issue.

I suggest taking the system out of service NOW before the failed battery results in total bank failure (when one starts to go your other batteries will drop like dominoes). Bypass the inverter for now so that you are grid only until the issue is resolved.

After taking the system out of service try and charge up the faulty battery with a high quality 12v battery charger - if it responds then you can try putting it back into service, but my guess is that you will have to replace the dodgy battery (which i would recommend over replacing the entire bank in this instance, considering their relative youth).

Note that if the battery does respond to individual charge and you decide to put it back into service then charge ALL the batteries in the same way before doing so, and then make sure to fit an HA-01 battery balancer to limit the chance of re-occurrence.

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4 hours ago, pilotfish said:

I suggest taking the system out of service NOW before  ...

... there is an explosion. At least a potential of one, for that batt would, I bet, gets pretty hot.

 

4 hours ago, gabriel said:

... brought and installed the batteries mid april 2017.

So then the warranty started in Arpil 2017 in my mind, when you got it. The fact the he bought the batteries during may 2016, is not really your concern.

Talk very firm and nicely. Then consider the Consumer Protection Act.

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  • 3 months later...

I am chiming in a bit late here. Warranty starts when you receive.

I think one of the challenges here is going to be the importer. Lesson here is buy known brands and always look at the warranty they offer. It will tell you a lot about the quality of the battery. Nervermind claims regarding cycle life etc. More often than not they are very inflated. 

Hope you get this sorted without to much trouble.

 

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thanks @LivSol, i learned this lesson. it took a lot of pressurizing the installer; initially he wanted to get away by stating the warranty is void because i had attached the bmv702 shunt, then he tried to hide behind the fact that his importer had no stock and we will have to wait for the shipment from china etc. in the end i had to source a replacement from limpopo for which the installer eventually paid the major part of 6k - the sudden change in the installers attitude only came about after i confronted him with the fact that he installed solar systems and geysers without a wireman's license, being unqualified to do it in other words and that the mere fact that he connected the system to the utility not only made him criminally liable but also voided any warranty on anything he installed. he has since stopped installing solar systems but still does the odd geyser install. the world is full of these pieces of skubala. <_<

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3 hours ago, gabriel said:

....... after i confronted him with the fact that he installed solar systems and geysers without a wireman's license, being unqualified to do it in other words and that the mere fact that he connected the system to the utility not only made him criminally liable but also voided any warranty on anything he installed. he has since stopped installing solar systems but still does the odd geyser install. the world is full of these pieces of skubala. <_<

He can still install but needs to get a qualified person to sign off on the certificate of compliance (COC). After my first install the guy doing the COC asked whether I did not want to join him :lol:. I said that at the age of 50 I was probably too old to be an apprentice.

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40 minutes ago, Chris Hobson said:

I said that at the age of 50 I was probably too old to be an apprentice.

At age 50, we can be what we want.

Become an apprentice. (... or newbie truck driver)
Buy into a business as a partner.
Or buy the business if we don't want to be an apprentice and then hire all the apprentices we need.

Or some such ... if the bank manager approves.

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35 minutes ago, Chris Hobson said:

He can still install but needs to get a qualified person to sign off on the certificate of compliance (COC)

when the whole debacle of the battery started, about a year after he finished installing, he all of a sudden offered to get me a coc - he should have played open cards from the beginning, i mean he asked me professional install prices way back in 2016 and i was under the impression he is a qualified person - withholding the truth i call lying, that's what he did. in the meantime the qualified guy who did my house, he also happens to be a qualified solar installer, will give me a coc for the solar AFTER he checked it; he already found a fault, the solar system's earth was amiss

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14 hours ago, gabriel said:

pieces of skubala

You probably know this, but that swear word is actually in The Bible. When Paul says in Philippians 3 that he now considers all his former accomplishments to be worthless... well worthless is a very kind English translation of what he really said :-)

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The word probably translates a bit more closely to "crap" or the German "drek", which are slightly milder swear words. Which reminds me of an aunt of mine who lived in a garden flat owned by A German lady... and on the first trash day asked what she was supposed to do with her "drek" (garbage)... to which the landlady asked: Deine mann oder deine Küchedrek?

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12 hours ago, plonkster said:

to which the landlady asked

the german 'Dreck' is often used to denounce something as garbage or trash, the koine greek 'skubala' would rather be translated as the german 'Kacke'. the sense in which paul used it in philippians 3:8 is human faeces.

so the landlady's reference to your uncle was derogatory but still borderline 'acceptable' in german culture, very subjective though - paul's skubala is objective

my two-pence, grew up in germania ;)

 

 

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On 2018/04/30 at 4:36 AM, gabriel said:

thanks @LivSol, i learned this lesson. it took a lot of pressurizing the installer; initially he wanted to get away by stating the warranty is void because i had attached the bmv702 shunt, then he tried to hide behind the fact that his importer had no stock and we will have to wait for the shipment from china etc. in the end i had to source a replacement from limpopo for which the installer eventually paid the major part of 6k - the sudden change in the installers attitude only came about after i confronted him with the fact that he installed solar systems and geysers without a wireman's license, being unqualified to do it in other words and that the mere fact that he connected the system to the utility not only made him criminally liable but also voided any warranty on anything he installed. he has since stopped installing solar systems but still does the odd geyser install. the world is full of these pieces of skubala. <_<

It is a sad fact, but being nice gets no results, it often takes a bit of firm hand to get people to act with integrity and ethics. 

I am glad that is was taken care off. 

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10 hours ago, LivSol said:

act with integrity and ethics

i agree, it takes them to act, integrity and ethics though will not become part of them like this - it is inherently absent, the saying comes to mind "morality might keep a man out of jail, but it wont keep him out of hell"  :(

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