Planned Obsolescence, Money over Quality and preparedness

[bolus]

Having my solar system, installed and turned on a mere 6 months ago, fail this week got me thinking about how much of my stuff I have set away for emergencies will fail me when I need it.

I had considered going off the grid and just relying on solar but I wanted Tesla to work the bugs out of their version 1 battery system before I had it installed. Now having my inverter, the brains of the system, up and die we are looking at 2-3 weeks to get a replacement shipped to the installer and then another 2-3 weeks to set up an appointment to get it installed.

If I was off the grid I would not be able to hook back up to municipal power for several weeks either. I'd be running on a loud generator which only has a 3 year warranty. If power was out because of a hurricane or other disaster I'd be in worse shape.

I just had one of the Chinesium flashlights from Costco fail after a month. I tore it a part and it has a PCB board powering it that undoubtedly was the problem. It was only a month old as well. Even flashlights now built so you have to replace it in a month.

In this day and age, huge companies are buying up smaller ones with great reputations only to run their brand into the ground after leaching as much money out of them as they can. Use the warranty time on your products to estimate when they might fail. Because the company is sure determining the warranty that way.

• Spend a little more and get the stuff with lifetime warranties (if you can still find them)
• Have an oil lantern or candles to back up your flashlights
• Have an ax to back up your chainsaw
• And if you have your survival manual on your kindle, get a paper copy.

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[Kruel J]

Cheap electronics are not the way to go. The Costco flashlights that so many here brag about IMO are a terrible thing to put away for "emergencies". I only own Streamlight's, Surefire's and Fenix brand lights.

As to your inverter, 6 months to failure is unacceptable. What brand was it? I had a small solar system set up for a while. It was based on a 12 volt DC system so not like a regular house set up. But I ran my inverter all the time and it was pretty much constantly under a load and worked fine for over 3 years until I took the system down and sold it.

 

[edzz]

Lifetime warranties are good only as long as the company that offers them is in business or decide to honer them. Look at some of the company's that have been altering their warranties, LL Bean, Craftsman, etc. or have gone out of business completely.

 

[bolus]

Cheap electronics are not the way to go. The Costco flashlights that so many here brag about IMO are a terrible thing to put away for "emergencies". I only own Streamlight's, Surefire's and Fenix brand lights.

As to your inverter, 6 months to failure is unacceptable. What brand was it? I had a small solar system set up for a while. It was based on a 12 volt DC system so not like a regular house set up. But I ran my inverter all the time and it was pretty much constantly under a load and worked fine for over 3 years until I took the system down and sold it.

It's an SMA. SMA America
German company but of course they recently bought a Chinese company, undoubtedly to reduce cost and sell at the same prices in the global race to the bottom

 

[Kruel J]

I've heard of them. They are replacing it under warranty yes?

 

[Lilhigbee]

Lifetime warranties are frequently a scam. They needn't have anything to do with the quality of the product or its lifespan. They are a marketing tool dreamed up by the bean counters.
The thinking goes like this; We have product X to sell. Over its commercial life 25%* of them will fail. Of that 25% perhaps 25% of those will actually be returned. That is a return rate of 6.25%. Raise the price 10%, mark it a with a lifetime warranty and pocket an extra 3.75% profit. And if you are selling it through a storefront, when the customer brings it back to get a replacement you get another chance to sell him something else.
When you take something back for warranty do they actually care what happened to it?? No, they throw it in the trash. If quality was a concern they would be all over it to figure out why it failed.
I worked in an auto parts store and the shocks we sold were lifetime warranty. The shock company rep stops by one day and admonishes us for not replacing enough shocks under warranty. He said we were losing traffic because the customers weren't bringing them back!! They don't give a fig about quality, it is just marketing.

* Numbers for illustration purposes only!!

 

[308]

bolus, do you have NG or Propane available?

The reason I ask is to mention I have a Honda super quiet gen converted to run on propane and hooked to a transfer switch. The propane conversion was great fun to install and works very well, and I can still run it on gasoline if need be. This could be a good backup to the solar.

 

[bolus]

Lifetime warranties are frequently a scam. They needn't have anything to do with the quality of the product or its lifespan. They are a marketing tool dreamed up by the bean counters.
The thinking goes like this; We have product X to sell. Over its commercial life 25%* of them will fail. Of that 25% perhaps 25% of those will actually be returned. That is a return rate of 6.25%. Raise the price 10%, mark it a with a lifetime warranty and pocket an extra 3.75% profit. And if you are selling it through a storefront, when the customer brings it back to get a replacement you get another chance to sell him something else.
When you take something back for warranty do they actually care what happened to it?? No, they throw it in the trash. If quality was a concern they would be all over it to figure out why it failed.
I worked in an auto parts store and the shocks we sold were lifetime warranty. The shock company rep stops by one day and admonishes us for not replacing enough shocks under warranty. He said we were losing traffic because the customers weren't bringing them back!! They don't give a fig about quality, it is just marketing.

* Numbers for illustration purposes only!!

Its all a scam, and it is getting harder to tell if a product is quality or not or how much a scam is it. Craftsman still has some lifetime warranties. But their brand has gone to crap and they add stuff like "with proof of purchase" to their warranty fine print now. Who is going to have their receipt in 5 years?

 

[albin25]

Bought 2 of these about 25 yrs ago for a boat I owned, still got 'em, still work.
Paid $25 each back then.
Still today the quality remains un-changed...
....the price however, hasn't, now they're $140(ish)

Weems and Plath

 

[bolus]

bolus, do you have NG or Propane available?

The reason I ask is to mention I have a Honda super quiet gen converted to run on propane and hooked to a transfer switch. The propane conversion was great fun to install and works very well, and I can still run it on gasoline if need be. This could be a good backup to the solar.

I have a generator that runs gas and propane but will probably need to back it up with something else. Thanks

 

[41mag]

• Have an oil lantern or candles to back up your flashlights

• Have an ax to back up your chainsaw

• And if you have your survival manual on your kindle, get a paper copy.

agree!!!

 

[bolus]

I've heard of them. They are replacing it under warranty yes?

Yes it is getting replaced, but it would not be in the time of a emergency or disaster. I'm thinking about if a Puerto Rico hurricane hit here or similar disaster and I wont get a replacement for 6 months.

 

[H2O MAN]

always have a back up plan for your back up plan.

 

[41mag]

we lived rurally when PDX great ice storm 1978 left much of the area in -30F for over 2 weeks.

We survived due to fire wood

 

[HB of CJ]

Twenty five, (25) years ago we went KISS. No electronics in the solar homestead cabin at all. Everything was 12VCD. The wiring was huge. No charge controller. No inverter. High tech lighting back then was automotive tail light bulbs. Yep!

The 35 cell 12VDC nominal PV panels were sized to flat charge the surplus rebuilt nickel cadmium storage batteries. Medium rate 240 amp hr. cells removed from commercial back up power supplies. We did this because we had no choice.

Back then no other infrastructure was available. The handy side effect was that our power system was probably EMP proof. Also certainly CME proof. Even the old Ham set was a huge heavy old WW2 surplus tube transceiver. Today is different.

You can buy high end expensive modern stuff that is rocket science compared to what we had. The downside to this is that you generally get what you pay for. I do not know if modern stuff is EMP or CME resistant. Hope to never test that also.

Ohh ... forgot. Our "high tech" gen set was a 5 hp Briggs mounted on a reel type big lawn mover. A 60 amp Mopar alternator was overdriven to recharge the Nicads. Flip off that belt, reattach the OEM belt and we could mow grass. Cool.

EDITED EXTRA; ... Correction. High tech back then was something new called quartz halogen lighting. We tried it. To us it seemed too darn bright. Hurt to even look at it. Seems our observations were correct. The wavelength was too bright and UV.

We chunked them and went back to incandescent 12VDC cheapo automotive light bulbs. Again this was 25 years ago. A long time ago. Now there is electronical stuff that will knock your socks off. The big question is will it survive a huge EMP or small CME????

 

[Glock Jock]

Maybe a reliable solar generator? or two...

 

[KKG]

I have an inverter in my MoHo and it's still working but then it is only an '95. You might want to check in with an RV Dealer.

 

[41mag]

a buddy of mine used the slight drop in his rural creek to dam up a small pond & create falling water wheel running a 12V car ?alternator? to feed a bank of old surplus remote relay phone batteries (stood about 4' high & maybe 2' square) that ran most of his household for over 20 years.

 

[solv3nt]

Who installed the system? SMA has always been the Cadillac of inverters. As an electrical engineer, "renewable energy" is a sham and not cost effective to say the least. Even with $0.40 a kwh in Hawaii, PV will take a very long time to pay off. Unless you have to pay Helco $15k per pole to bring power to you, your money would have been better spent on a generator and transfer switch.

 

[Geardo]

I have 5 axes and 1 saw, and only 1 chainsaw. Lol.

I believe 2 is 1 applies to most critical items. Things should be redundant, and stored in seperate areas to prevent theft or disaster from depriving you of both at once!

Examples:

3x 5.56 rifles
2x 9mm
2x .22s
About 6x good flashlights
Rations, both marine and dehydrated stashed in house and vehicles.

About 6x Water treatment and filters,
Multiple stoves and fuel source.

Etc.

Sounds like having a generator, electricity hookup, and solar is a good place to be!