China returns

Stevo57 said:

I've just started my journey returning a Giandel 24v 3000w inverter I bought in August and is now dead. Not even two months old and it has failed on a 100a input limited system. Their "support" kept sending me emails telling me that it wasn't turned on and to press the power button. Duh! I think I had that figured out. Finally got an address in Florida. Bought it on Amazon but past the return date. Will let people know how this turns out. So far, I can only say it is a piece of junk. Be careful. I know Will likes the brand. Be careful.

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Are you sure that you are not the one at fault??

Actually Rachel told me about your return I think. She returns everything actually, even when she shouldn't. She sent me some returned cells and the customer ripped her off because they over charged the cells.

Specifically how did it fail? And what cells did you have?

Ruixu kicks ass as a distributor and they keep getting ripped off by accepting bad returns. I would not be as nice as they are. I can talk to Rachel directly. Tell me exactly how the battery is failing and I'll see what I can do

It's always good to hear from the other side of the equation. We only hear the grizzles from the customer but having seen some of the things customers claim are wrong from the selling side myself you have to wonder how on earth they even managed to order the thing in the first place.

Don't laugh but one example was that the customer wrote terrible abusive email to the support email address saying they'd been ripped off and that it was so bad that even the power cord wouldn't plug into their wall socket. They'd left the plastic shipping guard over the prongs on the plug.

As I said, I wanted to make sure folks knew that Giandel was being very courteous and responsive so far. Too many suppliers get reamed by unreasonable customers. My initial post was too severe. This is a two way street. Was it my fault the unit failed? I don't see how given that neither my battery nor inverter loads were above the specified capacities of the inverter. But, let's see what Giandel says once they can put it on their bench and test it. System is a 24v 160Ah prismatic based 8s battery with a Daly 100a separate port BMS. Almost identical to the 24v set up Will has on his video. Inverter is fed from the BMS directly so you would not expect the current to be over 100 amps except at surge. The inverter is rated 6000w surge. I would have blown the fuse if it went above that.

If gets very technical very fast but you don't actually need to see high current on the DC input for things to blow up. The control circuitry inside the inverter would normally take care of this, but just the rate of change of current flow through the transistors can actually cause them to fail. Don't sweat it, it could just have been a weak component let go.

Thank you for your reply. It begs the question: What does one do to prevent a "rate of change" current flow (load demand) that could potentially damage the inverter? I've designed my system for 2400w max, which is 80% of the inverter's rated continuous capacity (3000w) and well below its 6000w surge capacity. I don't anticipate any downstream loads approaching 2400w continuous. All wiring is also overrated to eliminate wires as a potential weak link. BMS is a Daly 8s 100amp separate port. I've intentionally tried to design a system that at max output would operate at about 80% of all component ratings. And, based on anticipated demands, would rarely if ever see the max load. Any thoughts on my question above are welcome and would likely help others.

There's nothing really that you should have to do, it was really just me illustrating that there are things that can go wrong that you can't see happening from the outside. Take a look at this youtube clip on the DavidPoz channel where he accidentally blows up his inverter with a high current high inductance load. The inverter should have gracefully handled it, but the control circuitry couldn't cope with the load and as a result FETs went bang.

b.james said:

No mate not so. Know for a fact. Put a not satisfied comment up on a 48 egg chicken incubator and it was gone a week later . Nothing else changed .
Check out returns . "local returns" 10 days etc etc . Its not made to be a working refund system , rather one that looks the part BUT you just miss out on.

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Thank you for the specific example.

Yes there will be some vendors on Aliexpress that try to game the system. I have one vendor where the item did not get to me in 9 weeks and they want me to mark the item as received so they can give me a refund. Er, no, in a few days I will ask Aliexpress to step in so I get my refund for sure. Never mark an item as received if you have not received it and always file a dispute before your time runs out.

And yes, the language barrier can be insurmountable sometimes. This is why I keep a list of vendors I prefer, as I know they have some English speakers there.

I also have a Stylus style to mark vendors in red if they take too long to ship (10 days from order to ship is too long) or if they have language problems or other problems. I just add vendors to this file as I find them.

I had a bad PWM controller that went into overvoltage the seller wanted me to destroy him and send pictures of it and then buy a more expensive one from him, I turned on the help of AlExpress a few days later completely refunded my money

Stevo57 said:

I haven't yet received my repaired or replacement inverter, but the folks at Giandel have been very courteous and responsive. I want people to know. Next step is to get the inverter back and continue with my project. I will provide an update.

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I received what appears to be a brand new unit from Giandel. No questions asked, very courteous dealings, good communication. The new unit is working as it should. As far as my experience indicates, no one should have any reservations about doing business with Giandel. I don't know what the cause of the failure was, but these things happen. So, good news and what seems to be a very honest and responsive supplier.