We’ve been waiting more than a month to hear if our inverter will be repaired after a BMS board failure. It seems Giv want our installer to accept responsibility if the fault is due to an error in the installation. I have no technical knowledge but the system worked fine for nearly three years.
Has anyone else had this issue, and did Giv agree to repair it under guarantee, please?
So Giv can identify me, the inverter c/n is CE2146G440.
Thanks in advance.
Chris S Unacceptable to involve installer after 3 years of fault-free operation and I wouldn't expect any installer to agree to it.
Chris S I had a BMS board failure on one of my inverters, the so called ‘click of death’ where the battery clicks repeatedly when powered on but cannot synchronise with the inverter, and the battery then turns itself off.
If the battery breakers are turned off the battery will power on and stay on OK.
Its not an uncommon issue, others here have had it.
The inverter was replaced under warranty by GivEnergy, took about 2-3 days for them to agree the warranty repair/replacement (turns out replacement is really all they do), then another couple of weeks for an engineer to arrive at my home.
To my knowledge there was never any questions about the original installation, GivEnergy require photos of the original install as part of the commissioning process and there was no discussion about whether these showed something wrong or not. It was just a straight warranty replacement and GivEnergy didn’t even talk to my installer as far as I know.
I’d highlight their warranty terms and conditions on the public website, no doubt phrases like ‘trouble free warranty replacement’ and that they need to honour their warranty.
Thanks very much to both. Givenergy have responded already by email. They have asked for me to send the video again of me restarting the battery with the isolator off, switching on the isolator and the “click of death”.
Maybe I misunderstood what they wanted, but by sending it again I hope they will clarify.
Chris S 🤞
Sounds very similar to what I had to do. Video showing the battery turning on OK with isolator off, trying to turn on, clicking then turning off with isolator on.
I did have trouble sending them the video if I remember correctly due to the file size. Think I copied it to Google drive and just made it open access in the end and sent them the link.
Once they got it, it was. couple of days in ‘management approval’ and then passed to the person who schedules engineer visits
Thanks for the tip. I’ve asked them to respond this time. Wait and see at the moment.
Well Giv did finally come and replace a board, and the system has worked fine for 3 weeks. However the engineer said my warranty would be void from now on because the installation didn’t allow enough space around the inverter. He also said this wasn’t why it failed!!
Haven’t heard anything since to confirm the end of my warranty.
Thanks again for advice given me here.
Chris S how much space was around the inverter?
The installation enginer has to send photos to GivEnergy to prove that they have installed everything in compliance to the installation instructions. Mine installed mine with insufficient gaps as well, there was a large cupboard above the inverters that I have subsequently taken down to give more clearance, but the GivEnergy engineer that came to replace my inverter when it failed didn’t say anything similar to me.
Chris S Suggest you ask the original installer why it was not installed correctly and ask them to rectify things, such that you get a full GivEnergy warranty. If not ask GivEnergy why their approved installers are not installing things correctly
SteveCook I’d agree with following up with the original installer and get them to rectify at their own cost, but personally I wouldn’t highlight the issue any further with GivEnergy. A throwaway comment by an onsite engineer might not have got back to base (and no evidence it has), but highlighting the install issue any further could have undesired consequences wrt warranty
SteveCook this is exactly what I did after Givenergy said it was incorrectly installed
I'm currently experiencing the 'click of death' on my main battery, and have been waiting over a month while GE drag their feet and ignore my emails and phone calls.
I'm on hold again as I type this. Based on previous experience, I will be for over an hour until they eventually answer or, more likely, I just give up. Then I'll probably fire off another email which they'll ignore.
What did you guys do to get them to come out and fix it?! I'm at my wits end here.
benstat my issues were last year so probably not the same situation now. If possible always go to your installer first - they took your money
send a solicitor letter by email (tracked) and recorded delivery
SteveCook Don't need a solicitor - just send them a "letter before action".
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/small-claims/making-a-small-claim/
Thanks for your replies.
I persevered on the phone, and finally managed to get through after a long wait.
It turned out GE were waiting for something from the installer, and the installer thought they had sent everything GE wanted, so the whole thing just sat in limbo until I intervened.
GE have now confirmed they have everything they need. Now I just have to wait for them to contact me and arrange a date...
benstat My experience of having a warranty replacement was that it took about a couple of weeks for the engineer to visit. The person at GivEnergy that does the bookings tries to arrange them so they are at least a sensible distance apart in the country, and they book them a week at a time so it took a couple of weeks for my engineer to come