Buyers hear the catch with big battery backups: 'Ship the thing back'

A shopper considering a home battery got a warning from other owners: The hardest part may not be choosing the system, but dealing with it if something goes wrong.

Here's what to know

After estimating the battery could cover about "12ish hours" for their household, the shopper turned to Reddit for firsthand reports. As Reddit users weighed the system's pros and cons, the original poster asked for "unexpected problems, things you wish you knew ahead of time." They added, "This is a big purchase for us and I really don't want to mess it up."

One owner's account was blunt: "My F5000LFP had a broken inverter." They said working through the problem with support by email "took over 2 weeks to diagnose," and that "you have to darn near ship the thing back." 

A second commenter also reported inverter trouble, saying the unit "couldn't charge from an open frame generator and/or an inverter generator." Their overall assessment was more mixed, though, adding that the company covered the shipping label, arranged a FedEx pickup from the house, and left them saying, "Customer service wasnt bad at all … for the price and warranty its pretty good."

More background

Some commenters suggested the long wait for service may reflect how new and in-demand the model is. One person called the system "brand new" and said it had "a 30 day lead time to ship for even new orders placed." The same commenter pointed to "a 5 year warranty," while warning that buyers may still need patience when repairs or replacements are involved.

Other owners in the discussion described a much smoother experience. One commenter said they had owned one with "absolutely zero issues," running it alongside an extra battery and "2,000 watts of solar." They said it powers "my entire home without a hiccup. Including my HVAC," and costs "a fraction" of what comparable EcoFlow and Anker systems do.

What can be done?

A practical question is how much troubleshooting and waiting a buyer is willing to accept if something goes wrong. In one Redditor's view, buyers who "NEED a live person on the weekend" may be better off paying more for a larger brand with more hands-on support.

At the same time, some owners said support was at least actively engaging with problems. The original poster said the company was "pushing me a firmware update" to address the PV charging issue, while another commenter described support as "responsive & it seems like they are genuinely trying to fix the problem" with cloud connectivity.

For buyers comparing battery backups with traditional generators, price, capacity, and warranty matter, along with the hassle of servicing a large unit.

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