3 SolarEdge 18XB7 Failures

[Leonard1]

I file a complaint with BBB and Tesla did not respond Othman to say they are addressing the issue. I did not accept and the complaint got closed out as unresolved and will remain on the Tesla profile.

I also requested help from the States Attorney General’s office and the distributed it to two groups that are part of the AG organization. I know one has been in contact with me and is actively investigating. They were struggling to find anyone at Tesla who might be responsible.

I am thinking of opening up an arbitration case. Tesla pays the bill. Other than those item I am trying to be annoying on social media.

 

[Redhill_qik]

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.

From the SolarEdge warranty

Where replacement Products are sent, SolarEdge generally sends such products within 48 hours. SolarEdge may use new, used or refurbished parts that are at least functionally equivalent to the original part when making warranty repairs.

It's not a guarantee with 48 hours, but there is certainly an implied quick shipment and not 10-15 weeks. Could be a class action case.

 

[Leonard1]

The other consideration is the terms of the contract between Tesla and SolarEdge. I would guess that SolarEdge diminished the importance of Tesla as an account when Tesla dropped SolarEdge. Tesla still should have made arrangements to continue support even if they had to swap out the brand inverters or buy an inventory as a buffer. Instead Tesla probably maintained or increased profits and let all of us bear the brunt. The issue with these SolarEdge inverters is with Tesla. Tesla designed these inverters into our systems, Tesla contracted with us and Tesla is suppose to provide the warranty service. Tesla has done a slick job trying to convince us that it is a SolarEdge issue. We are suffering because of Tesla.

 

[CalMdl3]

As an update to my original post in August... I submitted a BBB complaint with Tesla in Austin Texas. For previous failures, I have also filed complaints with the California Department of Consumer Affairs. I messaged the GM of Solar Edge North America- Peter Mathews in early August and he actually responded back on Aug 19 after I tweeted during one of their product launches. I did get a call that weekend from a SolarEdge support tech - and within about two weeks had a replacement inverter (my third in 17 months of ownership) installed. My system was offline from first week of July through first week of September.

Unfortunately, when installing my new inverter the Tesla tech said something about removing my Zigbee module from my old inverter and placing it in my new inverter. I now can no longer see production of the string of panels in the MySolarEdge app. I do see production in Tesla app - but cannot us that to verify each panel is working. I have been unable to resolve between Tesla and SolarEdge - with each pointing me to the other. Finally, Tesla said so sorry but we don't support SolarEdge monitoring.

At this point I am happy to have a working system - but nervous that this will happen again and again.

 

[jigs2008]

My system has been offline since mid-August, and it took Tesla until Oct 6 to do an RMA remotely, but I found out today Tesla didn't provide an address to ship the unit, so SolarEdge won't process shipment until an address is confirmed and all this time I have been waiting for shipping of the replacement inverter. I am so frustrated with Tesla on how they handle warranty issues; my system is less than two years old.

 

[Redhill_qik]

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.

Tesla received my RMA replacement on 10/25 (4 weeks from RMA approval) and I received notification to schedule the service on 10/26 (I would have called in if this didn't happen today). First available date was on 11/8, so hopefully only 50 days of downtime.

 

[Leonard1]

Let me provide an update. An inverter showed up last week. Not sure how it got from a not shipped status to received. They called on Monday for installation on Tuesday. I had asked him to insure Zigbee was working so I could get SolarEdge data and he said Tesla does not support SolarEdge data. Before he left the app showed no production. He looked at the inverter and said they are working fine. Did not seem to care that the app was Tesla’s official source of customer information. It looked like production was very inconsistent and the inverters seemed to be going into standby mode. It was a bright sunny day.

On day 2 or first full day, production seemed normal. But day 3, a blue sky day without a cloud, production was about half of day 2. From there production seemed erratic and the numbers were very low. Both inverters had green LED’s. I reported this information with screenshots. They came back after a couple of days saying they do not know why my system is under performing and was going to try and get a person from SolarEdge to come out. From that point they have gone dark. No one will return a call or respond to an email.

At this point I still do not believe the system issues are resolved. My problems began in January an continue.

 

[Redhill_qik]

Tesla received my RMA replacement on 10/25 (4 weeks from RMA approval) and I received notification to schedule the service on 10/26 (I would have called in if this didn't happen today). First available date was on 11/8, so hopefully only 50 days of downtime.

Installed this morning and my system is live now. I had 50 days of downtime and lost an estimated 1,148 kWh of production based on the same period from last year.

 

[chudiddy]

Back online today after 84 days of downtime. Let's see how long this inverter lasts.

 

[stevemmett]

At this point I wonder if it makes sense to pursue a class action lawsuit- it would appear Solar Edge has manufactured a product that has 10-20% of its warranted life. 1-2 years versus 10 or 25 years and has failed to provide adequate replacement parts. This is costing customer $100s and maybe $1,000 in lost production or forced grid energy purchases. I am not sure how we get their attention as today they were focused on announcing their latest products while existing customer wait…. Check out their Twitter announcement today.

I am up for starting a class action lawsuit !!!!

 

[stevemmett]

I've been without solar for 11 months. It took 4 visits from tesla to diagnose my inverter had failed. Each visit required about an hour of time playing phone tag with them. Every conversation about my solar was as if I had never talked to them before, they basically just play dumb. About 6 months ago they told me they would order a new inverter and that it may take a month or 2 to get here. After waiting those 2 months with no updates I went back to playing phone tag, since then I've been lied to by tesla and by solaredge multiple times about my inverter being shipped. Finally yesterday a solaredge manager admitted to me that the item was out of stock, and that I was 38th on the list for a new one when they arrived, which he said would be somewhere between 30 days and forever. I've decided to pursue arbitration.

Never in my life have I dealt with any companies that were anywhere close to as dishonest and useless as tesla and solaredge. I can not understand how either of them are still in business.

I feel your pain on forth inverter replacement.

 

[CrazyRabbit]

I paid a premium for my enphase system, but this thread reinforces my decision. enphase will send replacement inverters directly to the customer if need be. So far I’ve replaced zero inverters, but had to replace bypass diodes on seven panels (repair) after lightning strike.

 

[Yermell]

I have a 2016 SE11400A inverter that died on Dec 5, 2022 showing “Night Mode”. My installer is not Tesla, but it has left my 3 PW’s and MY high and dry. My installer finally filed an RMA with Solar Edge on 1/6/23, received a refurbished inverter on 1/20 and installed it on 1/24. It immediately went to Night Mode from the start which did not surprise him as he is dealing with multiple inverter failures and then failures of the refurbished replacements. The replacement inverter is also reading 32000 volts which is impossible And Solar Edge can see that. Both he and I have been talking to Solar Edge every few days. Today he had to come over to speak to Tech support onsite for the third time while he again took inverter apart to trouble shoot with them before they would put in another RMA. That RMA ETA is 14 weeks! Totally unacceptable but there is apparently no recourse even under warranty. He is dealing with many other commercial customers with large multi million dollar PV systems with several inverters that have wholesale failed and have been out in some cases over a year. Supposedly, brand new inverters will not be available until 2024. In Massachusetts we have SRECs which pay for our Solar loans on our PV arrays and the Connected Solutions Program for peak distribution periods which helps pay for the HEAT Loan on Tesla batteries. Without Solar generation we have no way to pay these loans, we have no net metering credits, our powerwalls are not available for backup and we are now charging our Model Y 100% off of the grid. We are retired seniors on fixed incomes and this is definitely not part of the budget.

 

[Redhill_qik]

I have a 2016 SE11400A inverter that died on Dec 5, 2022 showing “Night Mode”. My installer is not Tesla, but it has left my 3 PW’s and MY high and dry. My installer finally filed an RMA with Solar Edge on 1/6/23, received a refurbished inverter on 1/20 and installed it on 1/24. It immediately went to Night Mode from the start which did not surprise him as he is dealing with multiple inverter failures and then failures of the refurbished replacements. The replacement inverter is also reading 32000 volts which is impossible And Solar Edge can see that. Both he and I have been talking to Solar Edge every few days. Today he had to come over to speak to Tech support onsite for the third time while he again took inverter apart to trouble shoot with them before they would put in another RMA. That RMA ETA is 14 weeks! Totally unacceptable but there is apparently no recourse even under warranty. He is dealing with many other commercial customers with large multi million dollar PV systems with several inverters that have wholesale failed and have been out in some cases over a year. Supposedly, brand new inverters will not be available until 2024. In Massachusetts we have SRECs which pay for our Solar loans on our PV arrays and the Connected Solutions Program for peak distribution periods which helps pay for the HEAT Loan on Tesla batteries. Without Solar generation we have no way to pay these loans, we have no net metering credits, our powerwalls are not available for backup and we are now charging our Model Y 100% off of the grid. We are retired seniors on fixed incomes and this is definitely not part of the budget.

When my SE7600US inverter went out and I was being told 10-15 weeks for a replacement I took to replying to every tweet that @SolarEdgePV sent out. Always politely shaming them with things like "I would rather see you release a warranty report" or "Glad to see you are releasing new products, but why aren't you servicing your existing customers for warranty replacements." then followed by "My SE#### inverter went out on mm/dd and I'm being told that it is 10-15 weeks for replacement when your warranty page claims shipments in 48 hours". Took a couple of week and around 10 reply tweets, but eventually someone reached out to me. I never actually got anything definitive from them, but Tesla did get a replacement in 4 weeks and then it was another 2 weeks for Tesla to show up to do the replacement.

 

[Yermell]

When my SE7600US inverter went out and I was being told 10-15 weeks for a replacement I took to replying to every tweet that @SolarEdgePV sent out. Always politely shaming them with things like "I would rather see you release a warranty report" or "Glad to see you are releasing new products, but why aren't you servicing your existing customers for warranty replacements." then followed by "My SE#### inverter went out on mm/dd and I'm being told that it is 10-15 weeks for replacement when your warranty page claims shipments in 48 hours". Took a couple of week and around 10 reply tweets, but eventually someone reached out to me. I never actually got anything definitive from them, but Tesla did get a replacement in 4 weeks and then it was another 2 weeks for Tesla to show up to do the replacement.

Thank you I will try that. It is at least trying something proactive.

 

[h2ofun]

I just got the 18Xb7 error on one of my inverters. Guess time to call SE tomorrow and my installer. Oh well.

 

[h2ofun]

Solaredge looked at by one inverter, and yep, they are sending a new one out.

 

[Redhill_qik]

Solaredge looked at by one inverter, and yep, they are sending a new one out.

And how long did they say it would take?

Edit: My guesses are we can't give you a date or 10-14 weeks.

 

[h2ofun]

And how long did they say it would take?

Edit: My guesses are we can't give you a date or 10-14 weeks.

Was told 3 to 5 days before calling back on status. Last time it was pretty quick. Shall see.

I just left the installer a note a replacement unit is coming and will let them know when it is at my house to come install.
Having this stuff is not zero cost, stress, etc.

 

[h2ofun]

Boy, am I not having any luck. My second inverter just died today, with the same failure. Am waiting for a call back to get a second RMA.
So, I now have zero solar, for the best time of the year for production. Oh well, folks who think this stuff is install and do not worry about have no idea.