Has anyone tried these mounts?
I have looked at these extensively for my mother's W style concrete roof. The allure of not having to pull tiles is strong.
I have been in contact with Integrarack about them, asking some questions and getting more detailed pictures.
They are made from 2 mm carbon steel, painted. Most other tile hooks are stainless.
When installed on the tile, the bracket is slanted by the tile slant. So the tang is not quite vertical and that rolls your rails slightly. The angle is about 3 degrees or so, but enough to not "be right". Integrarack says they are working on a newer model which will be slant corrected, but don't expect to see that in less than 6 months.
The 2 mm tang does lift the tile somewhat so the tile to tile joint is slightly opened.
The system depends on two basic requirements, the tile be fastened to the roof well, and using adhesive to bond to your up and down slope neighbors. Some tile roofs use battens and no tile anchoring, which seems like this would not hold very well. For my mother's roof, the tile are screwed down at the upslope end, so very well fastened. Nailed tiles will fall in between (though all the nailed ones I see on YouTube look loose to me).
The strongest use is when the L foot bracket is halfway. This splits the load evenly between the tile under the bracket and the tile upslope. If the L foot is to either extreme, almost all the load goes into one tile.
The sliding position of the L foot can be useful. I was trying to combine the Integrarack mount with the Sunmodo Nanorack no rail system like this:
You needed the ability to slide the L foot to exactly hit where the Sunmodo clamp was, and this could do that. For my 3 x 10 array, this would require 80 mounts.
I was never quite sure about the regulatory/code compliance of this thing. You have to combine it with a rail or other mount, and you are unlikely to find testing/docs for the combination.
I was a little worried about the clamp screws breaking the tile. They just have the screw point put a point load on them. If you put a little too much torque, or the tile has a weak spot, you get a crack. With wind over time, maybe that wears out the point contact and gets loose or creates a crack over time.
I tried to order a few from Solar Power Distributors. They seem to be the only place that implies they have them. When I asked about stock status, I got this answer from them:
"We do have those products in stock, though we are a little backed up on orders right now and lead times are 1-2 weeks."
I don't know how to square "in stock" with "2 weeks".
Current Connected also lists them, but says "pre order".
I couldn't get any of them to evaluate in my hands.
There is a testing report where they pulled on them, and it will fail at some load:
They claim they pulled 710 lbs from 4 mounts, so 175 lbs each mount. You can bet this sample was very carefully prepared, so a typical install by average workers might not do as well.
I also grew concerned the bracket doesn't fir in W style tile. It is shown above in S style, and W style has a deeper valley with sharper sides and it wasn't clear the end shape was compatible.
I'm still drawn to the idea, but with my mother's house being in a hurricane area and the questions I had about it, I have abandoned the concept and gone back to old fashioned tile hooks. Specifically, looking at Ironridge All Tile Hook with XR-100 rails, hooks every 6 ft. These are bolts to the rafters, so they are not coming up and each hook can withstand a 1000 lbs of pull, so like 6 times what the Integrarack can do at best. I do have to remove a tile and then grind it a bit to reset it, and while that's a bit of labor, the final result is strong and good.
I also looked at replacement flashing tile mounts like Quickmount and Ironridge's Knockout Tile. Having bought samples of these, I thought they were ugly, not all that easy to do, not well sealed, and expensive. So I am back to the old fashioned tile hooks.
Mike C.
solarpowerdistributors.com
