Solic 200 like Blackpool Lights - Help Needed

[canalsiderenovation]

Just now, Radian said:

Good grief. You say it worked for 12 months, does that mean it's only just out of warranty? Given that you wouldn't know it had failed until it saw some solar I'd argue that it failed before the warranty was up if it was close!

 

 

I think it must be older on reflection, I can't remember the exact date but I think it must be around February 2021 as I have emails to them clarifying the fitting so more like almost 2 years. Either way the warranty should be 10 years. I have the emails re fitting and discussions and I can remember phone calls with them too as they even spoke to our electrician.

 

Either way they want us to pay to send the unit back, wait 4 weeks for them to test it and pay £100! Of pay for a new unit without a sensor. Their bloody unit has failed which they admitted and they now only want to replace bits of it and for us to pay for it. I'm already pi$$ed that we will have to pay someone to come and take off the old one and fit another! Is this company for real???

[canalsiderenovation]

I've just sent a scathing email back but they aren't budging! 

[canalsiderenovation]

I'm absolutely reluctant to give Solic any more money and having now left scathing reviews I'm wondering if there is an alternative that is easy to fit. We don't want any posh wifi thingy ones but if Solic is the only option I have no choice.....

[MikeGrahamT21]

Warranty subject to Ts and Cs, have you had a read of them?

 

See if it says in there that this is normal practice. I’ve had to pay before for this type thing and then get a refund later

[canalsiderenovation]

46 minutes ago, MikeGrahamT21 said:

Warranty subject to Ts and Cs, have you had a read of them?

 

See if it says in there that this is normal practice. I’ve had to pay before for this type thing and then get a refund later

 

The issue seems to be the fact they have no record of me registering the warranty which was a card. I absolutely know I did this as I have now unearthed my box of paperwork for the ASHP, manuals etc (I save everything!) and I have written 'posted Solic guarantee and the date 3 Feb 2021. Solic have no record of it and without that won't honour it so looks like I have to pay out. Either way if I end up having to buy a replacement I'll be sending off the card and confirming by email they have received my warranty registration this time around. I'm just keen to get the damn thing replaced ASAP.

 

As another point, does anyone know if we get batteries in the future if there is some way of making sure once we have enough hot water the solar can recharge batteries? Is there some way of making sure the Solic stops heating the water and the batteries can be charged?

[MikeGrahamT21]

26 minutes ago, canalsiderenovation said:

 

The issue seems to be the fact they have no record of me registering the warranty which was a card. I absolutely know I did this as I have now unearthed my box of paperwork for the ASHP, manuals etc (I save everything!) and I have written 'posted Solic guarantee and the date 3 Feb 2021. Solic have no record of it and without that won't honour it so looks like I have to pay out. Either way if I end up having to buy a replacement I'll be sending off the card and confirming by email they have received my warranty registration this time around. I'm just keen to get the damn thing replaced ASAP.

 

As another point, does anyone know if we get batteries in the future if there is some way of making sure once we have enough hot water the solar can recharge batteries? Is there some way of making sure the Solic stops heating the water and the batteries can be charged?

proof of postage?

 

in terms of batteries they essentially just grab any spare energy which is grid bound, so the immersion will go first til it his temperature or end of schedule, and then the batteries will mop up anything thereafter, battery will always be the last thing to take energy and only if nothing else can be done with it

[canalsiderenovation]

53 minutes ago, MikeGrahamT21 said:

proof of postage?

 

Unfortunately not, I stuck it in the postbox at the end of the road! Should have followed it up. Lesson learned. 

[SteamyTea]

Don't suppose it is covered by the consumer goods acts as it needs an electrician to install it.

 

I would be wary of getting another one from them.

Parents had a VW K70 in the 1970s. Was a dreadful car. Put me off getting a VW till 2006. Got a Golf. 

Was a dreadful car.

[Radian]

5 hours ago, canalsiderenovation said:

I'm already pi$$ed that we will have to pay someone to come and take off the old one and fit another! Is this company for real???

 

In the case where the device is powered from your dedicated immersion circuit (which it should be), you'll have an MCB and double pole isolating switch which you can throw and safely mess about removing and replacing the unit. If you want to of course.

 

However, I'm thinking about how it has failed for a moment. From your description, it sounds as if everything's fine up until the moment excess solar PV becomes available. The only way it 'knows' this is through the current clamp which detects a net export to the grid.

• The first test I can think of would be to unclamp the CT and confirm that all the lights are normal even when excess pV is available.

- If it does misbehave that'd be extraordinary and something weird is going on with your inverter.

• Next I would put the clamp back on and 'disable' the immersion by setting the thermostat lower than the HW temperature and then see what happens when excess PV is available.

 - in this case It should try turning on the immersion but with no load there, it would be interesting/informative to know if the lights go weird or behave as normal.

[canalsiderenovation]

8 minutes ago, Radian said:

However, I'm thinking about how it has failed for a moment. From your description, it sounds as if everything's fine up until the moment excess solar PV becomes available. The only way it 'knows' this is through the current clamp which detects a net export to the grid.

Indeed that is correct.

 

Unfortunately I have no idea what MCB, double pole or CT is you may as well be talking French and this is really beyond me! I think we are going to have to get someone to come out and look at it and get another unit as by all accounts Solic have indicated a failed unit.

[Radian]

2 hours ago, canalsiderenovation said:

Unfortunately I have no idea what MCB, double pole or CT is you may as well be talking French and this is really beyond me! I think we are going to have to get someone to come out and look at it and get another unit as by all accounts Solic have indicated a failed unit.

 

Great opportunity to pick up some new knowledge but I completely understand if it's not something you're interested in. For the record, MCB is miniature circuit breaker which you should have in your electrical consumer unit and CT is current transformer which is clamped onto one of the big fat wires that brings the mains into your property.

[SteamyTea]

2 hours ago, canalsiderenovation said:

Unfortunately I have no idea what MCB, double pole or CT is you may as well be talking French

French wiring is dreadful, so you should be alright.

An MCB is a Mini Circuit Breaker. A modern type of fuse. It may be in a separate box, on its own from the main fuse box, which are now called consumer units, CUs.

A Double Pole Switch is just a larger switch, it disconnects both the live wires (positive and neutral in old language).

A CT is a current clamp, or current transformer. It is usually a round thing that clamps over one of the main wires coming into the house. They often have a curly wire on them, like an old telephone.

[canalsiderenovation]

I was reluctant to get a replacement unit but in the end took the chance on the basis that it worked fine until recently even though Solic have been bu&&ers over the warranty and it's cost us £125 for a replacement unit. My wife removed the old one, wired up new and by accounts it seemed to work. My Uncle who is an electrician just came out to check she had done it all correctly and it is all fine now so it was definitely the Solic unit!

 

 

Also checked the boost button and that works too so it's now fully functional.

 

Make sure you fill in the warranty card below, post it, email it and make sure they confirm receipt otherwise it will cost you £125 for a replacement unit!

 

[JohnMo]

Had a similar issue with mine sometimes working, other time lights flashing randomly or going into heat protection mode at 8am, when next to nothing being generated by PV.

 

So just bought and installed a Cool Energy PV diverter.  It actually tells you what's going, how much energy is going to immersion at that point in time and over the day etc.  You can also set immersion boost times if you need to. It also has an internal fan to keep it cool.

 

Only downside is it has a fan and it a little noisy.

[dpmiller]

2 hours ago, JohnMo said:

Only downside is it has a fan and it a little noisy.

Any chance of an audio clip of the fan sometime please and pics of same? We've an iBoost and the tiny fan in it is a. noisy and b. only barely copes with the heat. The CE unit looks like a virtual clone of the iBoost except for the case being bigger so I wonder if they've improved the cooling

[JohnMo]

On 07/05/2023 at 18:11, dpmiller said:

Any chance of an audio clip of the fan sometime please and pics of same? We've an iBoost and the tiny fan in it is a. noisy and b. only barely copes with the heat. The CE unit looks like a virtual clone of the iBoost except for the case being bigger so I wonder if they've improved the cooling

Sorry no vid, not much sun here for the last few days, so diverter isn't having to work very hard.  Once you go over a couple kW the fan kicks in 

 

Photo attached

 

[dpmiller]

22 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

Once you go over a couple kW the fan kicks in 

that's interesting. As the iBoost's tiny fan runs during all diversion they've definitely done something. Mahoosive heatsink maybe...

[Radian]

2 hours ago, dpmiller said:

Mahoosive heatsink maybe...

😉

 

Wot? Like this... (People laughed at how big a heatsink I used but it basically just runs at ambient - which is hot enough already in an airing cupboard)

 

[eugen]

Hello everyone,

 

I bought a Solic 200 device in the summer of 2020, in the spring of 2021 it started to malfunction, I contacted the company and was asked to send the device for repairs, which I refused given that I live in Romania and the costs of transport and customs they would have been exorbitant compared to the price of the device! 

 

The company offered to sell me a new product at a discounted price of £100, which I accepted  but  about 2 weeks ago and the latter started to have the same problem as the first one, it restarts continuously until the moment when only the first LED lights up in orange, both red and green LEDs work at the same time.

 

I considered that it is not normal to pay for a new one, given that the operating time is short and I investigated what the problem is, having enough knowledge of electronics to find the problem I found a fixed capacitor, C1, which is right next to the plug of the current transformer, with half the value of the normal one . This fixed capacitor has the role of lowering the mains voltage to a value necessary to power the device's control electronics, its value being too low, the supply voltage is too low and the device does not work

 

I changed this capacitor and everything returned to normal I am attaching a video with the initial behavior and a photo with the respective capacitor

[sharpener]

Congratulations @eugen for getting it going again. Do you think this was a manufacturing error or did they just try to save money by fitting an undersized capacitor, you mention the "normal" one but don't say what "normal" is or how you know?

 

These series dropper capacitors seem to be quite troublesome, I have had to replace them in a smoke alarm, a central heating programmer and the heat exchanger motor in a MVHR system. Usually I fit a replacement with a higher rated voltage and/or a better brand e.g. Wima in the hope of not having to do it again.

[eugen]

I measured the capacities of the 2 capacitors, of the 2 solic 200, the normal capacity( marked on the capacitor housing)

is 470 nf  (0,47 uf) , I got 198 nf for one and 220 nf for the second one (as I said, I have 2 solic 200)!

I don't think it's about saving money, I paid for a quality capacitor (epcos) under 1 euro .Also 310vac is ok

I think  the quality of the capacitors used is poor or they have an old production date

In any case, it is not very important, the important thing is that the problem can be solved cheaply. It is a capacitor that can be bought without problems from a local store, specialized in electronic components

[ProDave]

17 minutes ago, eugen said:

In any case, it is not very important, the important thing is that the problem can be solved cheaply. It is a capacitor that can be bought without problems from a local store, specialized in electronic components

So many of today's electronics failures boil down to poor quality capacitors that have failed.  Well done for finding the problem and posting here.

[joth]

4 minutes ago, ProDave said:

So many of today's electronics failures boil down to poor quality capacitors that have failed.  Well done for finding the problem and posting here.

So true. And it's not a new problem - 30 odd year ago my mate's Amiga 500 joystick port stopped working, the debounce capacitors had failed. I just removed them, and brought it back to life. (My first successful attempt at surface mount [de]soldering; fun times)

 

[sharpener]

1 minute ago, ProDave said:

So many of today's electronics failures boil down to poor quality capacitors that have failed.  Well done for finding the problem and posting here.

 

Not quite sure why that is. There are stringent standards for direct-on-line mains caps (X1, X2 etc) to address the massive inrush currents which can occur, but longevity is still it would appear problematic.

 

There is a regular business re-capping Topfield PVRs which I have had to pay to get done, in addition to the things mentioned above. Yet I have also got audio gear from when I was a student still functioning on original caps both electrolytics and high-voltage film type (Quad FM II tuner has valves!).

[ProDave]

12 minutes ago, sharpener said:

 

Not quite sure why that is. There are stringent standards for direct-on-line mains caps (X1, X2 etc) to address the massive inrush currents which can occur, but longevity is still it would appear problematic.

 

There is a regular business re-capping Topfield PVRs which I have had to pay to get done, in addition to the things mentioned above. Yet I have also got audio gear from when I was a student still functioning on original caps both electrolytics and high-voltage film type (Quad FM II tuner has valves!).

I must have replaces hundreds of failed capacitors.  Some makes of equipment are well known for it, and there is a steady market in capacitor kits for some common bits of equipment.