Proactive replacement of Powerwall 2

[ohmman]

I received a call today from Tesla telling me that they were proactively replacing my two Powerwall 2 units. Apparently mine are affected by some kind of cooling issue. It is being handled something like a factory recall. Replacement is scheduled for a couple of weeks from now.

I found that interesting, to say the least.

 

[miimura]

I have heard of quite a few of these proactive replacements for people that had them installed before late Summer 2018.

 

[zanary]

Mine were replaced because of the same thing back in early 2018 (maybe January). I had mine originally installed back in Sept of 2017.

They come in power down everything, remote the two Powerwall, and place new one back in, and power things up. Verify that everything looks good from the gateway perspective, and they off they go.

 

[ohmman]

I have heard of quite a few of these proactive replacements for people that had them installed before late Summer 2018.

The units were performing well. I’m guessing this is a safety issue more than anything else, though I suppose mismanaged cooling would also result in more rapid battery degradation.

No complaints about fresh packs, though...

 

[Az_Rael]

Interesting. Wonder how many units are affected or how they are determining they need replacement? Installed our 2 Powerwalls in March 2018.

 

[zanary]

Interesting. Wonder how many units are affected or how they are determining they need replacement? Installed our 2 Powerwalls in March 2018.

There was a bad pump according to the engineers that came onsite to place mine. There was a really bad batch that was used in the assembly process.

With version 1.23 and higher, they now perform preventative maintenance on the thermal control system, and I think the sensors report issue back to them which they can diagnose remotely to determine if it's the pump and then schedule the replacement.

 

[Shygar]

Hmm, mine was installed Sept 2017. No replacement as of now.

 

[eml2]

My two PW2 were also installed in Sep 2017. One of them was replaced in Feb 2018. The other one was replaced in Nov 2018. Both times I had to call Tesla to let them know the coolant pump/fan were not working properly. After they checked the logs, they issued the replacement in about 4-6 weeks.

 

[trmmcd]

My two PW2 were also installed in Sep 2017. One of them was replaced in Feb 2018. The other one was replaced in Nov 2018. Both times I had to call Tesla to let them know the coolant pump/fan were not working properly. After they checked the logs, they issued the replacement in about 4-6 weeks.

Out of curiosity - how did you know there was an issue. It seems odd that some are replaced pro-actively whereas you had to call each time.

 

[miimura]

The more recent firmware runs periodic diagnostics (running the pumps at a higher than normal speed) so that they can detect the problem. Before, you would just notice reduced system performance due to thermal limiting caused by inadequate cooling.

 

[Shygar]

The more recent firmware runs periodic diagnostics (running the pumps at a higher than normal speed) so that they can detect the problem. Before, you would just notice reduced system performance due to thermal limiting caused by inadequate cooling.

I wonder if that's why I see it stop storing randomly even though there is storage. As long as it's working I'll hold out until it stops.

Guessing you can't buy back your bad ones at a cheap price?

 

[miimura]

I wonder if that's why I see it stop storing randomly even though there is storage. As long as it's working I'll hold out until it stops.

Guessing you can't buy back your bad ones at a cheap price?

It's not like they're throwing them away... They should be rebuilding them with new cooling system parts and cycling them back to other customers that have the same issue. Only the first replacements should have been completely new units.

 

[eml2]

Out of curiosity - how did you know there was an issue. It seems odd that some are replaced pro-actively whereas you had to call each time.

For the first PW2 incident (Nov 2017), I noticed the fan was at high speed a lot of times compared to the other one. The other incident (Nov 2018) I noticed the top part of PW (inverter) was a lot warmer than the other one.

Here is the thermal image:

Powerwall 2 - Issues with cooling

It's not like they're throwing them away... They should be rebuilding them with new cooling system parts and cycling them back to other customers that have the same issue. Only the first replacements should have been completely new units.

The first replacement I got (Feb 2018) was a new one. The second replacement (Nov 2018) was a re-manufactured one. It has a REMAN on the nameplate.

 

[JHellow]

When the pumps malfunction a unit will not output at 5kw for more than a few minutes, and then it throttles down to about 1kw of output. Had both of my Feb. 2018 installs replaced in early December. The replacements are remanufactured units.