Fried SW4024s

Re: Fried SW4024s

unless you find somebody who had some of these circuit boards stockpiled xantrex is the place to deal with them. do know that these inverters have been discontinued so unless you'd like to upgrade the customer's inverter with a new one you may have to wait for the boards.
sg,
would you know of anyone besides xantrex that may be able to help him with this?

Re: Fried SW4024s

arkieoscar wrote: »

That throw away mentality will keep us all in debt forever. Make it cheaper, make it obsolete, throw it away when the next toy comes along.
They have been working just as new until this lightning incident. They have been through hundreds of previous lightning storms. I hate throwing away good, repairable, expensive technology. Maybe I'm just too old.

8 years is hardly a throw-a-way mentality. The components used in the SW line was sourced in 1994 time frame when the SW first started shipping ( Trace ), even as Xantrex was producing units in the last year or two it was becoming near impossible to source some parts ( I know this for sure ), be the micro-processors, FET's or other semiconductors hadn't been made in years

What makes complex power electronics works is the parts inside and none of them are made by the manufacture of the inverters. The company's that make the parts, keep improving and that what keeps them in business, no one wants a 10mhz processor when a 1ghz one is 1/10th the cost and 100 times faster. This is especially true in the power electronics, the FETS from 1994 time frame are very poor compared to what can be sourced today.

I can understand the feeling that things could be repaired forever, but its the parts availability that is the issue and a manufacture is not going to stock pile a few million in parts that may never be used.

May I suggest you look at the electronics like battery's and other consumables in an RE system. If it produces energy for 8 years, Take the total kWh produced and divide by the purchased cost, your cost per kWh will be pennies.

Its a very bad investment to expend monies to repair the SW units, other parts are already beyond there expected service life and if you do the kWh / cost it is a much better investment to go with the current shipping products, regardless of who the manufacture is than to get say one more year out of the SW's but at an expense of 1/4 the cost of replacing the inverters

Re: Fried SW4024s

You haven't obviously actually tried out your example, try getting an electronic part for a 8 year old car, once the manufacture stock is gone, its all the secondary market and the sky is the limit for prices.

Few years ago I went to get a AC control module for a Chrysler car, the dealer wanted 900.00 for a 8 year old car part ... I found one in a junk yard for 10 bucks ... just using this as a real world example, not some expectation.

Keep in mind, the production scale is about 100 to 1000 times different for RE products to something like an car, with such a small market, its not profitable for anyone to stock parts or repair units.

I hope you find the new XW's preform well in you application!

Re: Fried SW4024s

When X announced the pre launch on the new XW system it was stated that they would supply parts for the SW for 5 years after it no longer shipped complete units. , I guess this was added to stop existing SW sales dropping through the floor . So we need to be asking this on X Forum I guess. :grr

Re: Fried SW4024s

West,

Well, most Lightning damage is NOT from a direct hit on a part of the system, but a near hit, or perhaps 1/2 mile or so away -- depends on many things. This was not mentioned in the post.

In a direct hit, one is often lucky to have anything left after the quite-possible fire. And might feel quite lucky to be still living.
For close and more distant hits , suppression helps, and often just a few components are fried. Wind turbines on towers, and perhaps roof-mounted panels increase the likelyhood of direct hits.

With lightning, one never knows. We do our best and so on.

But back to the subject of the orig post, it was the availability of X boards to swap, I do not recall any mention of the cost of the boards, or the number needed to repair the SW inverter, altho until boards are avail, you are correct, one does not know what will really be required.

Not to be too nit picking, just that 5-year part avail after last production seems to me to be inadequate. To me autos are not very camparable to RE systems. YMMV Vic

EDIT: I'm done ... all the best GL. Will say that if anyone knows about Lightning, if must be SG. FL has about the largest # of hits in the USA IIRC. Off to the mountains. Vic

Re: Fried SW4024s

Things should change, with the 10 year warranty's on gear, and the larger installed base, that should improve supply and repair. It always sucks to be part of someone else's learning curve. I wonder if at any point, the schematics will become available for repair shops, or if they will be classified as "trade secrets" and Mfg repairs only. I can fix a bad light socket or outlet at home, so there is no UL probation against homeowners changing their own lightbulbs without hiring a union person to do it. Or stove parts, or boiler ignitors. Granted, the right parts need to be replaced to restore the unit to new, "qualified" condition, and to protect the lineman from "Islands". But with usable schematics & parts lists, that should be able to be accomplished.

But for Xantrex to think they can prevent UL de-listing, by locking owners into only their repair shop, with only their parts, on the Xantrex timetable, is going to waste a lot of folks time, and won't make any friends. This goes for any RE gear mfg, If my house is "down" for more than 72 hours, and it's not a national emergency, I'm going to be steamed. (and my ice cream melty).


Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act