Hey there fellow PV user folks. Our UTILITY company just mailed notice that our SunPower inverters may be on recall. Long story short, SOME SunPower inverters were made by a parent company, and come to find out, OUR inverters were made by SMA ... so we we're safe, and not actually on the recall list. (maybe THAT's why our contractor and/or the manufacturer never sent us notice) The bad boy inverterss in question were actually manufactured by XANTREX . . . . which makes inverters for several of the main inverter companies (GE, SunPower, etc.). You may want to check to see if your inverter is at risk . . . even if you THINK your inverter is made by the name on your inverter label. Here's a link where you can check . . . just in case: http://runonsun.com/~runons5/blogs/media/blogs/a/Recall%20Notice%20-%20one%20page.pdf .
Xantrex is now a part of Schneider Electric. Xantrex has been having some QC/QA issues in a number of product lines of late. I know when they started off shoring a lot of production on a number of things a few years ago the complaints were many. Here is the latest: Solar Industry: Content / New & Noteworthy / Schneider Recalls Xantrex Solar Inverters Due To Injury Hazard
Inverter doors blowing off is not a good thing, glad they are getting recalled. Just one injury could result in hundreds of people hearing about it and deciding not to go solar. Just a small circuit board replacement, at least they don't have to remove the inverter.
I spent a lot of time (like months) researching various solar array configurations for our home several years back and even then Xantrex wasn't getting the greatest reviews due to quality. If it were me, I wouldn't have gotten a Xantrex in the first place, but if I had, I would want a completely different brand of replacement. On a related note, there are MANY and a seemingly increasing number of electronic/electromechanical issues across various different machines and electronic items that I have dealt with over the last decade or so that all seem to end up firmly in mainland China's lap upon discovery.
