Schneider Electric Recalls Inverters

What a great marketing opportunity.

The customer is not completely miffed because they don't have to take down their inverter, and most will likely leave the PV system on until their installer comes to replace the circuit board rather than lose production for days.

The installer visits the customer within the first 5 years of system ownership, so nothing should have gone far wrong with production at this point. And, if it has, the installer fixes the issue and prevents a major headache (and a bad reputation) later on.

Hopefully the customer is home for the repair appointment and the installer has a chance to chat them up to sign up for a maintenance package and recruit referrals, maybe even leave a lawn sign.

I see this as a golden marketing opportunity, and a dodged bullet in that it could have been a much worse recall issue.

seriously? So a recall is a good thing?! No matter how hard you try these lemon inverters are not going to be made into lemonade.

The GT Series of inverters has had reliability issues for years. They have been in need of a full redesign for quite some time now. I have personally replaced a substantial amount of them. Because of the reliability issues, they developed a way of quickly and easily replacing the upper portion of the inverter. Many of us in the industry have nicknamed it the "top swap". Instead of redesigning the inverter and simply fixing the problem, they developed a "band aide". To this day, the PV industry is still recovering from the crappy unreliable Solar Hot water systems that were installed back in the 1980's. Uneducated consumers still state: yeah, I had solar back in the 80's. It broke after a few years-no thanks! It is in the best interest of EVERYONE in the solar industry to hold all manufacturers as well as installation companies to the highest of standards. Otherwise, in the end, it is ALL of us that wind up eventually dealing with the repurcusions. Back around 2004/05, there was an inverter manufacturer who accidentally used a simple, small plastic part that was burning up. We in the industry were all pretty hard on that company as a result. Eventually, that company bounced back and now makes a decent product. This situation is no different! Call me a solar purist if you want but the bottom line here is TOUGH LOVE! Fix it and don't let it happen again! All of us in the industry are now going to have to deal with this "damage control" for quite some time. This is disapointing!

Obviously, the first two anonymous commentators are realistic and know what they're talking about. Because a few customers were looking for low cost, I used Xantrex inverters on 3 systems (all the rest were Fronius). All 3 crapped out after a very short time whereas there were very few issues with the Fronius inverters. Liz, are you an ex-real estate agent?

Over here we have a recall going on for the Mastervolt Soladin 600 too. They are starting to resemble the auto insdustry :)

In my original comments I failed to acknowledge that there are a lot of good, hardworking, and intelligent people that work for Xantrex and I will assume the same is for Schneider. It should also be recognized that there were likely people working for Xantrex that wanted to fix the problem but, because of the corporate structure, this was beyond their means. In some ways it is likely that those good individuals are now receiving the unfortunate satisfaction of the "I told you so, but you wouldn't listen" scenario. It is now more important than ever that Schneider Electric's upper management now put more effort into listening to those that were ignored. I maintain my stern 100% "tough love" expectations worded in my previous comment from yesterday. It will now, more than ever, be important for those good, hardworking, and intelligent people that work for Xantrex/Schneider to step up to the plate and lead the efforts to FIX THIS PROBLEM. You are the ones with the intellectual toolbox and hands on experience-not your bosses! It's time for their wake up call and for them to appreciate and trust your instincts more. We are depending on you!
I am not an employee of either of these companies nor do I work for any of its affiliates. However, I do work for a large company and as a result, have used experience and logic to "suspect" the above scenario. I completely acknowledge that what I stated above is merely a "logical suspicion". I cannot prove this, nor is the above an accusation. However, common sense, logic, and experience suggests that the above is likely at least part of the problem. It is hoped that the new line of inverters recently released will be of much higher quality.
In summary, I cannot emphasize how important it will be for upper management to trust those at Xantrex/Schneider "you know who they are" to take the lead and fix this problem. Because the entire PV Industry is now going to have to deal with the damage control and repercussions of this, "the

continued:
"the people" expect this to be fixed promptly. We are depending on those good, hardworking, and intelligent people at Xantrex that were likely taken for grant it and possibly even ignored to fix this. Your upper management just got OVERPOWERED by "the people of the green industry"!

Five reports, out of 25,000 units ,in five years time, with no injuries or property damage ? Wow ! that sounds like a very good record. I only hope this will not cause them to bankrupt.
Thanks for the article.