Battery has failed, again. Can't get hold of GivEnergy.

Writing this mainly to vent..

6 months ago (1.5 years after installation) I got the click of death. It happened when I switched the house over to run only from the battery during a power cut. It's the first time I'd ever tried this, so was pretty disappointed when instead of restoring power to the house, it killed the inverter. Contacted the installer and GivEnergy (wasn't sure who was best to contact, so tried both), and both were helpful. GivEnergy asked for a video and replaced the inverter.

Everything was fine. I figured I'd probably just never switch the house over to battery only again, as it wasn't worth the risk.

About 6 months later, on the 2nd of January 2025 I did a random check of the GivEnergy app to find the battery was at 0% and not charging from solar. Seems it had stopped working on the 26th of December. I checked the battery, and discovered the click of death again.

I called GivEnergy but it said the phone line is closed and to contact them through the site, so I did that. On the 7th of January, having had nothing back, I email them a video of the click of death (which is what they asked for last time), and asked if anyone received my original query. I also called again for good measure. Phone line was still closed.

Today (10th January) the GivEnergy phone line is still closed. I think the message perhaps actually means it is closed permanently? They still haven't responded to my queries.

I contacted my installer a few days ago, who were helpful and asked me to email them the video, which I did. I'm expecting a call back from them today (I've been away for a couple of days). Hopefully they can do something, but it was GivEnergy who dealt with it last time.

I got the battery 9 months before they switched to a 12 year warranty, so I'm only on a 5 year warranty. Their website is clear that that is just tough luck on my part. The inverter has died twice in the two years since it's been installed, so my expectation now is it will almost certainly be dead shortly after my warranty ends, and before it's earned back the installation cost.

Currently very disappointed with the battery dying again, and GivEnergy having become unresponsive, and having only a 5 year warranty, and my decision to go with GivEnergy.

Batteries had 10 year warranty before 12 year warranty was introduced? Not that it's much use if GE are not responding.

https://givenergy.co.uk/installer-faq-the-new-givenergy-rma-process/#:~:text=How%20do%20I%20initiate%20an,form%20on%20the%20installer's%20behalf.

Sadly that is a downside of hybrids… lose one part and it’s all dead.

SteveCook
Thanks Steve - interesting. Im also very frustrated by the lack of response from Givenergy. So will now ask the Consumer Association to note their support model - which appears to be deaf. Meanwhile will hope my excellent installer can fix what appears to be a dead battery - assuming of course they can get an RMA from Givenergy

If you purchased from GivEnergy then it sounds like you'll be struggling. If you paid a different company for the battery and install I would suggest contacting them. Given the age you should be well within the Consumer Rights period to demand a fix/replacement and, since you paid them, that is who your contract was with.

@anthonypar According to my documentation, the battery has a 10 year warranty but the inverter only has a 5 year warranty, and it is the inverter which looks to have failed for the second time. It appears from the page on their website that the new 12 year warranty covers both the battery and inverter.

On the plus side, my installer claims they have managed to get hold of GivEnergy and apparently something should be happening on the GivEnergy side to sort it out (although I still haven't heard from GivEnergy).

My installer says I'm definitely an outlier with the inverter failing twice in two years, so hopefully the next one will last a lot longer 🤞

bunny Good and valid point. Thats where I am headed !

Seems I have same issue, I noticed last week I had no charge to the system assumed due to poor weather. But since we've had plenty of charge of the cells, I;ve tried turning the battery back on but it clicks quickly and turns off. The wholse system is 2yrs old.

I've emailed and used Givenergy online form multiple times, nobody responds, really annoyed.

I called GivEnergy again today. Customer phone line still closed, so I pressed "1" to say I was an installer then "4" for "some other reason". I got through to a human, who was actually helpful.

He found my ticket in the system and said they will follow up with the field team and I should be contacted at some point. He couldn't say how long it would take to be contacted. But that's something at least... I now know that they are aware of my issue.

I asked about the customer phone line and he confirmed it is permanently closed, and they are entirely ticket based support now.

I suggested that if they are entirely ticket based then they should have some kind of automated reply (or even better, human replies!) when a customer contacts them through their website or by email, and he agreed and said they changed support systems in December and are working through a backlog.

Guess they need to modify the Polar ESS v Giv table then and remove end user telephone support as a plus point to going for Giv.

Final update here: GivEnergy came out today and replaced the inverter. About mine dying twice in two years, the engineer said that there was a problematic battery base board in the original inverters which would short, and now there is a new version of the board. He assumed the inverter he installed would have the new board. 🤞