Jeremy, I would love to have an opportunity to talk with Fortress about their support process. I am just in the tail end of installing 2 Sol-Ark/Fortress off grid systems (one 15k with 2 eVaults and two 15ks with 5 eVaults). I've been very impressed with both pieces of equipment so far. However, I sent an email to Fortress expressing my distinct disappointment with the support I was getting. Particularly after they basically blew off my problems as being inverter issues, since they couldn't see how anything on their end could be causing the problems we were experiencing.
I continued to make noise about my problems. Finally, it turned out there was some incompatibly between a firmware update Sol-Ark did recently and the eVault's communication protocol. After that was determined, I have been impressed with the support response I have been given by Fortress, consistently getting relatively quick return calls and follow up calls. They have dedicated lots of resources toward getting a new firmware rolled out in a very timely fashion and so far it has proven to be stable and functional. I will have more to say about this once we install the Fortress update on the larger system, as we are waiting to make sure it continues to work on the smaller system (we have only had this "beta" firmware on the system for 2 days now). I wish there were more online resources for programming and troubleshooting smaller issues. The wait time between contacting Fortress's support system and getting a live response is still problematic, especially for off grid systems, especially in more remote locations, since waiting for hours on site for a response to even simple issues is not sustainable. My sense is Fortress is working to improve the situation, but I'm the mean time... To be fair, I've found this to be pretty much common place with most manufacturers' support systems these days. I need to remember to build in more time on my installs, particularly when dealing with new (and/or new to me) equipment, as my learning curve speed is greatly improved when I can talk to a live, knowledgeable tech. Howie
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