1 hour ago, TaliaB said:

If there is one thing I have learnt in business, I have said this on numerous occasions. The products you buy and install are only as good as the support from the supplier.

@TaliaB this is extremely worrying. I've just pulled finger on buying a Sunsynk and now wondering if I should maybe just cancel my order. Because it was over the Christmas holidays, they deservedly went on a break (can't fault them) and then my bank has been giving me stupid issues that they'll only check if money did not go into Powerforum Store account, if I get a confirmation that they didn't receive it and then it'll be another 30days for them to reverse or try to get my money back, with no guarantees. Now we're back to warranty issues and this inverter is meant to be installed in Zimbabwe. Now if I have an issue it means my installer will simply wash his hands as he did not supply the unit and then I begin the back and form, meanwhile am in the dark with loadshedding. I've had an PIP 2424MSX since 2015 with no issues at all, save changing AGM batteries in 2018 and now thought of increasing capacity to 5kVa. With this old inverter, I've never had to do any firmware updates at all. Only thing I've occasionally done is to open it and blow dust out of it once every year or two. Victron for me has not been an option because of cost and too many components to buy (it's expensive). Am "sweating" and wondering what to do now...

@Keith Goughto be honest, your supply chain guys clearly from this very long thread are absolutely not helping the brand, I had recommended the brand to a lot of people since 2018/19 and am now nervous to do so.

Edited January 2, 20242 yr by Moffat

On 2024/01/02 at 8:28 AM, Steve87 said:

Give the Sunsynk support in Randburg a call. The reality is this is how they operate. You can wait up to 6 weeks for a machine to be ready & repaired. They have a very poor RMA process. If the inverter was bought from Herholdts you may have better results as they repair themselves. 

So it seems from you as a installer having to wait 6 weeks means the commitment from @Keith Gough that if it takes longer than 2 weeks a new unit will be supplied was just another promise-very sad indeed. 

Hi @Scorp007that commitment is for Herholds customers. But in saying that I have asked about these loan units. I have had a lemon machine that went in for repairs on at least 3 occasions. They refused a loan unit. In fact they wanted me to bring both units in. They were the 12kW system in parallel. The 2 machines just refused to parallel. I can't tell you from an installers point of view how frustrating these long RMAs can be. 

Imagine a scenario where you have revived the 80% deposit of R150k worth of funds & then you explain to your customer that the heart of the system will not be available for up to 6weeks. Most ppl will think you have scammed them. 

I tell my clients up front about the challenge & I prefer to Install Deye because 2 weeks delay is reasonable but 6weeks is just unacceptable...But the customer is forewarned. If they insist on this machine then I tell them it's at their own risk. 

1 hour ago, Steve87 said:

Hi @Scorp007that commitment is for Herholds customers. But in saying that I have asked about these loan units. I have had a lemon machine that went in for repairs on at least 3 occasions. They refused a loan unit. In fact they wanted me to bring both units in. They were the 12kW system in parallel. The 2 machines just refused to parallel. I can't tell you from an installers point of view how frustrating these long RMAs can be. 

Imagine a scenario where you have revived the 80% deposit of R150k worth of funds & then you explain to your customer that the heart of the system will not be available for up to 6weeks. Most ppl will think you have scammed them. 

I tell my clients up front about the challenge & I prefer to Install Deye because 2 weeks delay is reasonable but 6weeks is just unacceptable...But the customer is forewarned. If they insist on this machine then I tell them it's at their own risk. 

Thanks for the reply. The statement from @Keith Gough mentioned ALL our major suppliers around the 2 week undertaking. 

My inverter which is a single Phase 8Kw, had a Dongle Failure after 3 months, it didn't worry me much as I use the Solar Assistant Dongle and I was not going to decommission it and send it in just for that ... Last week the screen and LED's died and it stopped reporting via the Solar Assistant Dongle. 

The RMA was done and it was received by the centre this morning, thankfully my installer happened to have a spare which he loaned me for 30 days, so let's see if @Keith Gough lives up to the promise and as per the attached document  which also conveniently states ... " Timelines for assessment and repair are to be interpreted as a guide only, we endeavour to complete all repairs as quickly as possible." 

 

Sunsynk Repair Replacement Policy 13.04.23 (5)_AW.pdf

Their T&C point 5 indicates:

Yes my installer is a friend and a client who did it as a favour and was now way obligated to do so, he is just an awesome guy who understands how important it is for me to stay online

On 2024/01/03 at 5:14 PM, Scorp007 said:

Thanks for the reply. The statement from @Keith Gough mentioned ALL our major suppliers around the 2 week undertaking. 

@Scorp007Meanwhile SolaX is reputed to be more reliable by way of replacement, not fixing (https://youtu.be/Gw72Vr9EiCE?si=UF9SKbeXv1-0yfAa)

My inverter failed end of Nov 2023 after exactly one year. Was promptly sent to Sunsynk by my installer, which Sunsynk confirmed they received on 5 Dec. Phoned today again. Support lady confirmed they had roughly 2 weeks before the Christmas holiday to repair. Apparently, it's going to take *at least* another 2 weeks (probably more, because of a backlog according to her).

Not impressed.

@Keith Gough

On 2024/01/03 at 4:11 PM, Steve87 said:

I tell my clients up front about the challenge & I prefer to Install Deye because 2 weeks delay is reasonable but 6weeks is just unacceptable...But the customer is forewarned. If they insist on this machine then I tell them it's at their own risk. 

This seems to be what installers are recommending now.

Good hardware, let down by poor service.

17 minutes ago, kripstoe said:

This seems to be what installers are recommending now.

Good hardware, let down by poor service.

Makes you think of the following:

1. Not enough technicians to cope with number of failures.
2. Not enough spares available to do the necessary repairs.
3. failure rate on these units to high.

No wonder local highly recommended and qualified installers are recommending alternative brands.

24 minutes ago, Antonio de Sa said:

cope with number of failures.

Are Deye and Sunsync not both from the same factory ?  Are the failure rates similar and just the repair services differ, or are Sunsynk inverters, with different software, more prone to failure? 

Would be interesting to see the stats..

9 minutes ago, FixAMess said:

Are Deye and Sunsync not both from the same factory ?  Are the failure rates similar and just the repair services differ, or are Sunsynk inverters, with different software, more prone to failure? 

Would be interesting to see the stats..

They are indeed; same OEM; Deye makes both.

My installer warned me of the same thing but still recommended Sunsynk because he preferred the app; the main difference he mentioned was that at the time, it wasn't possible to remotely edit all settings using the Deye app so remote support on Sunsynk was simpler. And the sunsynk.net portal was (again, at the time) somewhat better.

 

He also mentioned that while he hated Sunsynk's hardware support, he almost never needs to use it.

 

This was early last year though, so if the Deye app/portal has come along and has reached feature parity with Sunsynk then I wonder if it makes to just go with Deye hardware if their service is really that much better...

Edited January 8, 20242 yr by JayMardern

1 hour ago, JayMardern said:

They are indeed; same OEM; Deye makes both.

My installer warned me of the same thing but still recommended Sunsynk because he preferred the app; the main difference he mentioned was that at the time, it wasn't possible to remotely edit all settings using the Deye app so remote support on Sunsynk was simpler. And the sunsynk.net portal was (again, at the time) somewhat better.

 

He also mentioned that while he hated Sunsynk's hardware support, he almost never needs to use it.

 

This was early last year though, so if the Deye app/portal has come along and has reached feature parity with Sunsynk then I wonder if it makes to just go with Deye hardware if their service is really that much better...

SA solves the app issue and has been far more reliable than the Sunsynk app.

8 minutes ago, madness_za said:

SA solves the app issue and has been far more reliable than the Sunsynk app.

I dont even use the App, I use a 3rd party App and device from Solar Assistant which I purchased for my old Mercer Inverter

On some sunsynk inverters (see their website regarding compatibility) solar assistant does not work for changing settings , so it's always handy to have the sunsynk portal. Also allows you full access to very fine settings which solar assistant cannot change at all. 

5 minutes ago, abd7 said:

On some sunsynk inverters (see their website regarding compatibility) solar assistant does not work for changing settings , so it's always handy to have the sunsynk portal. Also allows you full access to very fine settings which solar assistant cannot change at all. 

Yeah the portal and app have served me well also.

I did put in a request to drop the refresh rate to 60 seconds (rather than 5 minutes); this applied to both app and portal - but no complaints otherwise.

12 minutes ago, Chad.Robin said:

I dont even use the App, I use a 3rd party App and device from Solar Assistant which I purchased for my old Mercer Inverter

 

21 minutes ago, madness_za said:

SA solves the app issue and has been far more reliable than the Sunsynk app.

The only issue is that SA has a higher barrier to entry (it requires a paid-for license and needs hardware to run on), though I've heard only good things from those willing to set it up. But this makes it harder to recommend to the less technical among us.

 

How does the free bundled Deye app compare to the free bundled Sunsynk one?

It's no longer any secret, the Deye is much more reliable & their support is much better. RMA is much better & understand the product much better. They should, it's their product after all. The Deye & Sunsynk do support changes via the The solar assistant. If you use Pins 1 & 2 of the RS485 port the changes work on Solar assistant. I would not use the Sunsynk logger nor the Deye Solar man. They are used just for Inverter firmware purposes & that's where it ends. 

Looks like Sunsynk have become a glorified rebrander with marketing. 

But then again the entire solar market is based on these business models. It's just that some are very good with support & uphold the brand when others drop the ball. 

See below regarding settings changes 

https://solar-assistant.io/help/deye/configuration

So the rs232 port would work at the expense of removing the sunsynk dongle. 

Although as per pierre, sometimes the sunsynk 16kw settings changes do work on solar assistant even with the RS485, but it depends on the inverter batch and firmware etc, to be safe, they say no, settings changes won't work. 

1 hour ago, JayMardern said:

Yeah the portal and app have served me well also.

I did put in a request to drop the refresh rate to 60 seconds (rather than 5 minutes); this applied to both app and portal - but no complaints otherwise.

 

The only issue is that SA has a higher barrier to entry (it requires a paid-for license and needs hardware to run on), though I've heard only good things from those willing to set it up. But this makes it harder to recommend to the less technical among us.

 

How does the free bundled Deye app compare to the free bundled Sunsynk one?

On an install worth 50-100k, having a rock solid, reliable monitoring solution for ~3k is a no brianer. Also, it's pretty much fire and forget. Set it up for someone, bookmark the address for them to login via mobile phone browser and you're done. The Sunsynk app, in my humble opinion, has terrible UX and UI

@Keith Gough Very interesting considering you committed to 2 weeks

Yet another staff member says something different

It looks like no one really knows what is going on!!

 

Edited January 10, 20242 yr by Chad.Robin

21 minutes ago, Chad.Robin said:

@Keith Gough Very interesting considering you committed to 2 weeks

Yet another staff member says something different

It looks like no one really knows what is going on!!

 

Just out of interest @Chad.Robin did you or your installer opt for a "repair"?

12 minutes ago, Moffat said:

Just out of interest @Chad.Robin did you or your installer opt for a "repair"?

We didn't have a choice, they told us to send it in. I purchased it directly from Sun Solar so my installer told me to handle the claim, he just decommissioned it for me, obviously at a fee

1 hour ago, Chad.Robin said:

We didn't have a choice, they told us to send it in. I purchased it directly from Sun Solar so my installer told me to handle the claim, he just decommissioned it for me, obviously at a fee

I do understand the issue of it being sent it, but I guess since you've been experiencing "silence" from Sunsynk at this stage you'd be unaware if it needs repairs or replacement. Sad.

Just now, Moffat said:

I do understand the issue of it being sent it, but I guess since you've been experiencing "silence" from Sunsynk at this stage you'd be unaware if it needs repairs or replacement. Sad.

Yes, no feedback on whether they will replace, repair or even honour the warranty claim - I just get read receipts.