3 SolarEdge 18XB7 Failures

[Redhill_qik]

Not a 18XB7 issue, that I know of, but do we need another Solaredge thread?

I lost my solar production yesterday in the afternoon. We were having some rain over the last day and it was cloudy at the time, but I was getting production throughout the day and I also lost direct IP login connection to my TEG. Using the TEG WiFi I was able to login and see that the solar production was 0 kW and my meter was reporting only draw that matched what the TEG was reporting. My Solaredge SE7600H-US (non-LCD) had a solid green LED indicating that it was producing and an occasional blue LED indicating that it was communicating with the Zigbee monitoring gateway.

I did a TEG reset with an unused pencil through the opening with no change other than being able to use the house WiFi IP login again. I did a Solaredge shutdown and restart (switch to O, turn off DC, AC breaker open waited 30 secs then the reverse) again no change. I don't have a Solaredge account, but I was able to use the Solaredge SetApp to connect with the inverter WiFi in view mode, but nothing was really there to report. I tried holding the switch to P for 5 seconds to re-pair the optimizers result in flashing red/green/blue LEDs for about 2 minutes and then back to solid green with no change. After sundown the Inverter did start blinking green indicating that it wasn't producing which makes sense as it was night.

I was hoping that something might resolve over night, but the same behavior in the morning with a solid green and occasional blue. Started a chat with Telsa Support and their remote diagnostics indicated that none of the optimizers were paired with the inverter. They couldn't do anything on their end beyond that, so now I have a service appointment scheduled for October 3rd and at least 2 weeks without any production.

Any thoughts? I've got pigeons that like my roof could they have caused some problem that impacts the optimizer communication, but still allows the inverter to think that it is producing?

Damn picked the right thread afterall I was trying the SetApp again and the banner flipped to "Error 18xB7: Vcap21 Surge" twice. This was installed in Sep 2020 and I thought it was well past the bad capacitor builds.

 

[Leonard1]

My inverter was finally replaced yesterday after nearly two months of lost production.

To be fair to Tesla they installed it 3 working days after the replacement arrived at their warehouse from SolarEdge so I can't really blame them for the huge delay, it just sucks to have lost two months of production at the best time of year - particularly because the weather has been so great this year!

Got notified by Tesla that they had an inverter for and gave me a date of a month out. My response was that I will expect them on Thursday. My outage started in January. And I expect some priority.

 

[MP3Mike]

I hope the couple reports of replacement SolarEdge inverters finally showing up means that SolarEdge finally got the parts they need to refurbish inverters and that they will now quickly get replacements shipped out for everyone that needs one.

 

[JPP]

Slightly off topic...

FWIW I have a 16kW 64 panel SolarCity (now Tesla Energy) PV system under a PPA from 2013. 4 SolarEdge 3600 inverters and Canadian Solar panels. A few years ago one of the SolarEdge inverters failed--Tesla replaced it no problem. A couple of months ago I was seeing isolation faults on one of my inverters. Tesla Energy came out. Turns out that several panels had water intrusion, due to bad adhesive sealant employed by Canadian Solar when making the panels. Tesla had some kind of backcharge agreement, and thus came out and replaced ALL of my panels with new Trina panels (better production), but used the old optimizer modules on the back of each panel (necessary with the SolarEdge inverters). A few weeks ago one of my (10 year old) SolarEdge inverters would not go out of Night Mode and thus no production. Tesla Energy came out again and determined that the optimizers were failing. Last week Tesla Energy sent out a crew of 6. They deinstalled all of my old SolarEdge inverters and installed 4 new Tesla liquid cooled inverters (white glass front), and then went up onto my roof to deinstall all 64 optimizer modules from the back of the panels (not needed with Tesla inverters). So I basically have a brand new system. I assume that Tesla was getting tired of dealing with SolarEdge hardware and failures.

 

[MP3Mike]

A few weeks ago one of my (10 year old) SolarEdge inverters would not go out of Night Mode and thus no production. Tesla Energy came out again and determined that the optimizers were failing. Last week Tesla Energy sent out a crew of 6. They deinstalled all of my old SolarEdge inverters and installed 4 new Tesla liquid cooled inverters (white glass front), and then went up onto my roof to deinstall all 64 optimizer modules from the back of the panels (not needed with Tesla inverters). So I basically have a brand new system. I assume that Tesla was getting tired of dealing with SolarEdge hardware and failures.

I think that 10 years is the warranty that SolarEdge provides, so since your system is more than 10 years old SolarEdge is no longer on the hook and it is Tesla's problem to resolve. Also, you don't own the system since it is a PPA, so there are probably production guarantees in your contract. (They only bill you for what it actually produces right?)

 

[JPP]

I think that 10 years is the warranty that SolarEdge provides, so since your system is more than 10 years old SolarEdge is no longer on the hook and it is Tesla's problem to resolve. Also, you don't own the system since it is a PPA, so there are probably production guarantees in your contract. (They only bill you for what it actually produces right?)

Indeed--the upside of a PPA is guaranteed production. The downside is more cost to me and they get the tax benefits etc. But interesting that Tesla just fully upgraded the system.

 

[Olly_]

Got notified by Tesla that they had an inverter for and gave me a date of a month out. My response was that I will expect them on Thursday. My outage started in January. And I expect some priority.

Good news about the inverter but another month before they can install it is really bad. I guess it varies massively depending on where you are in the country.

 

[Alex_M]

One more failed 1 year old SE10000H. SolarEdge issued an RMA 3 weeks ago, but no tracking info or ETA yet. Very frustrated.... I would be curious how long it took folks to get a replacemenr recently.

 

[Laketime]

One more failed 1 year old SE10000H. SolarEdge issued an RMA 3 weeks ago, but no tracking info or ETA yet. Very frustrated.... I would be curious how long it took folks to get a replacemenr recently.

My SE10000 went around 6/2. I was home and heard a loud bang from the garage. Sure enough it was dead. They came and diagnosed around 2-3 weeks later and ordered a warranty replacement. I called and followed up along the way and finally the new one was installed on 9/15. That's thousands in lost production...

 

[jhn_]

One more failed 1 year old SE10000H. SolarEdge issued an RMA 3 weeks ago, but no tracking info or ETA yet. Very frustrated.... I would be curious how long it took folks to get a replacemenr recently.

Lost my 1 year old SE10000 Inverter this week. Of course, neither Tesla nor SolarEdge has any stock on replacement and to ETA. Anyone has any information on lead times these days?

I’m not trying to be a jerk. And I sympathize with everyone loosing an inverter. But what with the inconsistencies of your two posts last night on different threads? Did it fail this week or three weeks ago?

 

[Leonard1]

I want to give you all an update. A few weeks ago, I was told my SolarEdge inverter replacement (3rd this year) finally arrived to the warehouse. After struggling to get it scheduled, and then rescheduled, they arrived today. As the tech, who I very much respect, walked up the driveway, he said, I hope your not expecting me to install your inverter. My jaw dropped. He said he was there to do a system inspection that Resolutions demanded. Resolutions demanded this several months ago, and the service region said they would not do it until the inverter arrived. Well then I learned that the inverter had not yet arrived to the warehouse and there was no outlook as to when it might arrive. The technician went on to say, that he had checked everything out on all his prior visits and this was a waste of time. Especially because he could have seen everything remotely. Net, I have been down since January. Tesla just does not care and has taken no action to get my system running. I have been lied to, mislead and in general treated like I am not there. This extends to almost all parts of the Tesla Solar Division with the exception of the technician who I have gotten to know due to his frequent visits.

I have also taken my issue to the Better Business Bureau and the State Attorney Generals Office. The BBB complaint was closed out as no resolution and the State Attorney Generals office has dispersed the case to various agencies. Tesla has displayed an level of arrogance that is remarkable. I was telling the tech today, as he was admiring my 2021 M3 and 2022 MX that this solar experience with Tesla makes me want to sell them and go back to gas (I will not do that). I went all in with Tesla, with 2 cars and Solar and they just left me hanging without a care in the world. If asked today, I was strongly advise to avoid Tesla.

 

[h2ofun]

I want to give you all an update. A few weeks ago, I was told my SolarEdge inverter replacement (3rd this year) finally arrived to the warehouse. After struggling to get it scheduled, and then rescheduled, they arrived today. As the tech, who I very much respect, walked up the driveway, he said, I hope your not expecting me to install your inverter. My jaw dropped. He said he was there to do a system inspection that Resolutions demanded. Resolutions demanded this several months ago, and the service region said they would not do it until the inverter arrived. Well then I learned that the inverter had not yet arrived to the warehouse and there was no outlook as to when it might arrive. The technician went on to say, that he had checked everything out on all his prior visits and this was a waste of time. Especially because he could have seen everything remotely. Net, I have been down since January. Tesla just does not care and has taken no action to get my system running. I have been lied to, mislead and in general treated like I am not there. This extends to almost all parts of the Tesla Solar Division with the exception of the technician who I have gotten to know due to his frequent visits.

I have also taken my issue to the Better Business Bureau and the State Attorney Generals Office. The BBB complaint was closed out as no resolution and the State Attorney Generals office has dispersed the case to various agencies. Tesla has displayed an level of arrogance that is remarkable. I was telling the tech today, as he was admiring my 2021 M3 and 2022 MX that this solar experience with Tesla makes me want to sell them and go back to gas (I will not do that). I went all in with Tesla, with 2 cars and Solar and they just left me hanging without a care in the world. If asked today, I was strongly advise to avoid Tesla.

So glad I went with a 3rd party, even though has cost me more money. I am getting updates all the time from them on my possible 2 more batteries, and they answer questions, which I have a lot of, in real time.

 

[Redhill_qik]

Damn picked the right thread afterall I was trying the SetApp again and the banner flipped to "Error 18xB7: Vcap21 Surge" twice. This was installed in Sep 2020 and I thought it was well past the bad capacitor builds.

I had a Tesla tech onsite on 9/29 who confirmed the failure with SolarEdge and ordered the replacement. Just chatted with Tesla support today and they said 10-15 weeks to get a new unit. That seems insane as you could buy one online and have it shipped.

 

[GeorgeIoak]

I have an older thread talking about my Inverter failure but add me to the list of people with an inverter failing in less than 12 months and the replacement also failing in less than 12 months. When the first inverter failed I contacted SE directly and has a replacement at my door in 2 days (7/26/21-7/28/21). I was lucky and had a service call already in place with Tesla and when the tech came on 7/28 he was surprised that I already had the inverter but he installed it.

When I contacted Tesla this time on 9/23 (the inverter actually died a few days before that) they said the first available was 10/17. You can't talk to anyone at SE anymore but when I chatted with support he opened a RMA on 9/23 but this time I didn't get the RMA approval until 10/5 and between 10/12 @ 1:26PM and now (10/13 @ 5:15PM) I have received the SAME email 57 times with just a note saying that they apologize for not shipping yet.

You would think at this point there could be a recall sent out about these inverters but it's obviously cheaper for them to string the customers along and pay the techs to just replace units.

It would be great to have a poll at the top of this thread where people can click on how many inverters have been replaced for them. I'd be curious to really see how many failed units total we collectively account for.

 

[MP3Mike]

You would think at this point there could be a recall sent out about these inverters but it's obviously cheaper for them to string the customers along and pay the techs to just replace units.

Recalls are normally for safety issue. And I haven't seen anyone report that the inverter failure was a safety issue.

I suppose they could do a replacement campaign. But they don't have a stock of inverters to replace them with, so I'm not sure it would be any faster. (At least not until they got all of the failed inverters replaced and could start proactive replacements.)

 

[Redhill_qik]

Recalls are normally for safety issue. And I haven't seen anyone report that the inverter failure was a safety issue.

I suppose they could do a replacement campaign. But they don't have a stock of inverters to replace them with, so I'm not sure it would be any faster. (At least not until they got all of the failed inverters replaced and could start proactive replacements.)

I would be happy if they just had stock on hand to ship out as RMA replacements. Having to go to the back of the line and wait 10-15 weeks is unacceptable.

 

[Leonard1]

Outage since January continues. 3 failed inverters. Tesla does not care. They are taking advantage of the customers. The only way to do anything is with a lawyer and in most cases cost more thane the whole system. This is not ethical business.

 

[Leonard1]

Looks like my other inverter is having problems. This would be a 4th SolarEdge failure this year

 

[Leonard1]

Field Replaceable Units: I have been in technology fo a very very long time. As part of a product introduction there had to be a plan to be able to replace defective components on day one of shipping. I have been told directly by many Tesla people that Tesla has made a decision not to stock field replaceable units for the SolarEdge inverters. The inverter is a Single Point of Failure which makes the need for Field Replaceable Units even that much more impulse. I interpret the conscious decision not to stock these SolarEdge Field Replaceable Units as a decision to limit or completely negate warranty support. Early on I had several Tesla employees tell me that my contract stated that SolarEdge was accountable for warranty on the inverters. Well I did not recall that so I went to the contract and Tesla is solely responsible for warranty. After confronting Tesla they backed away from this excuse.

I have two points: 1) Tesla intentions towards warranty on the SolarEdge systems is extremely questionable base on the decision not to stock Field Replaceable Units on the inverter and 2) Tesla has given me and probably you many questionable statements and actions which puts question to the integrity of doing business.

 

[chudiddy]

Field Replaceable Units: I have been in technology fo a very very long time. As part of a product introduction there had to be a plan to be able to replace defective components on day one of shipping. I have been told directly by many Tesla people that Tesla has made a decision not to stock field replaceable units for the SolarEdge inverters. The inverter is a Single Point of Failure which makes the need for Field Replaceable Units even that much more impulse. I interpret the conscious decision not to stock these SolarEdge Field Replaceable Units as a decision to limit or completely negate warranty support. Early on I had several Tesla employees tell me that my contract stated that SolarEdge was accountable for warranty on the inverters. Well I did not recall that so I went to the contract and Tesla is solely responsible for warranty. After confronting Tesla they backed away from this excuse.

I have two points: 1) Tesla intentions towards warranty on the SolarEdge systems is extremely questionable base on the decision not to stock Field Replaceable Units on the inverter and 2) Tesla has given me and probably you many questionable statements and actions which puts question to the integrity of doing business.

There has to be something we can do. I am so annoyed and disappointed with the entire experience. I've had 3 inverters replaced over the last few years and each time, i've lost months of production. We are at the mercy of whenever they decide to ship replacement inverters that are just gonna fail again. At this point, i'd rather get rid of the entire system all together and just get back on the grid. So ridiculous.