I have a home battery made by VARTA. During installation I paid extra for sensors so that I could monitor performance of my total system. I studied the graphs while I was away from home via a remote connection. The house was consuming 200 watts average overnight and the battery went from 100% to zero in 10 hours. I sent my results to the installer and asked for an explanation–no satisfactory explanation so I wrote to VARTA headquarters with screen shots of my findings. The 6Kwh system was only supplying 2KWh! Their response was surprising. They admitted that “there had been a batch of batteries that were faulty and needed to be derated” they promised to make good at their cost.
How many folks out there dont have the systems or knowledge that I do and have paid for an inferior product?
Given that I have lost 4Kwh/day for over a year–do I send the bill for this to VARTA or my installer ( the company I paid the money to)?
How do sofarsolar solar storage 10kw GRX3000H4 battery’s compare with others of equal size on the market
Welcome to the community @210363
Choice has a general buying guide.
There are a number of related topics in the community web site. Search using the magnifying glass in the upper menu bar on ‘solar battery’ or similar terms.
SolarQuotes provides a detailed overview of the competing products available to the Australian market. The same site covers a number of other aspects in some detail.
Under the heading of how not to buy a battery - do not respond to letters touting $3,980 installations.
Thanks for the warning. No point mentioning their name, as it appears that they keep ‘phoenixing’ with new business names.
Yes, the Whirlpool discussion has a number of ‘the names’ and Solar Battery Group is today’s iteration.
Actually PhilT that’s what mine cost after rebates. 10kwh would have been more appropriate and we’re lucky we have it in the laundry since the fan in it is noisy. Generally happy with it now but it was a long iterative process to get it all working as a complete system.
An early view on the Tesla Powerwall 3 that might or might not come to Australia.
A major LG battery recall is proposed to become compulsory. People with home battery storage are urged to check if they are affected, even for non-LG brand batteries, which may still contain the LG product. You can check for affected batteries online here.
The problem with certain LG solar storage batteries is not new. We had them in our home & a weekend property. We had registered for warranty but our installer for the battery installed in our home in 2019 asked us for a photo of our battery serial number & then confirmed with LG that our battery was not affected. There was also a Battery Recall notice dated 23 June 2021 on the LG website asking users to check our serial number.
We later received a direct email to us from LG Energy on 10 October 2023 asking us to switch off our battery in our country property if we had not downloaded & run diagnostic software. On contacting our installer they confirmed our serial number was affected & asked us to send them photos of our battery & identified that there was swelling of the battery case. We were instructed to turn off the battery until it was replaced which was done in October 2023 at no cost to us.
The problem seems to be that LG does not have a master list of the battery serial numbers against residential properties with owner contact details. And if the installers do not follow up with their customers or if the customer does not register for warranty on line then there will continue to be unsafe batteries in residential homes.
