Michael's Sofar Batteries Review & Verdict
Michael Bloch covers the latest developments in home electrification for SolarQuotes.
We're not fans of Sofar solar gear, including their batteries. We think there are better options available offering superior support, better apps, and more (good) installers willing to work with them.
Sofar Batteries: Pros & Cons
- It's a low cost battery.
- Better solutions available.
About Sofar
Founded in 2013, China's Sofar Solar is a subsidiary of Sofar Group. The company has had a presence in Australia since 2016.
Australian Contact Details
Address: Suite 1903, 109 Pitt Street, Sydney 2000
Telephone: 1300 176 327
Email: [email protected]
Website
Company Info
Headquartered in Shenzhen, China, Sofar originally started out manufacturing inverters and later moved into energy storage. The firm offers energy management solutions for residential, commercial & industrial, and utility-scale applications.
Sofar PowerAll
In 2022, Sofar Solar launched its all-in-one residential energy storage system solution called PowerAll, which is almost, but not quite, the same as the name of a well-known home battery system from America.
It's an all-in-one battery system, which means it has a built-in hybrid inverter that solar panels can be connected to. It's compatible with high-voltage panels and has 2 Maximum Power Point Trackers (MPPTs). The PowerAll is also modular, with each battery module having 4.75kWh of usable capacity when new. From 1 to 6 modules can be placed in a stack, allowing from 4.75 to 28.5kWh of storage. If you need more than that, which is unlikely for a household, extra stacks can be connected in parallel.
Because a single battery module can only supply around 2.5kW of power, the PowerAll is normally installed with two or more modules. With two battery modules and a 5kW built-in hybrid inverter, it can supply 5kW of continuous battery power.
The PowerAll can be installed outside, but shouldn't be placed in direct sunlight. Its operating temperature is from -10° to 50°, which is a suitable range for Australia. But note that, like every lithium battery I know, it will derate and reduce its maximum power output as it approaches its maximum operating temperature.
It can provide backup power, and Sofar says its switchover time when the grid fails is under 10 milliseconds.
Sofar BTS E5~E20-DS5
Another Sofar battery is the BTS E5~E20-DS5. Rather than being an all-in-one system with a built hybrid inverter, it's a DC-coupled battery, and this means it requires a separate Sofar hybrid inverter.
It uses the same battery modules as the PowerAll with 4.75kWh of usable storage. Up to four modules can be stacked, giving 4.75-19kWh of storage. Additional stacks can be connected in parallel if you want more than that.
The BTS battery has been designed for use with Sofar ME/HYD 5K~20KTL-3PH three-phase inverters, and can output 2.5kW to 10kW depending on the number of battery modules.
Like the PowerAll, it's suitable for outdoor installation and, as it uses the same battery modules, it has the same operating temperature -10°C to +50°C.
Warranty Details
The PowerAll and BTS battery systems have warranty that lasts for 10 years or until a battery module has supplied 13,100kWh of stored energy. This means its warranty could potentially end well short of 10 years. If its full usable capacity when new of 4.75kWh was discharged everyday, the battery warranty would last for 7.6 years. But most home batteries are used at a lower capacity factor than that.
The warranty promises the PowerAll and BTS will both retain a minimum of 70% of their original capacity while it's under warranty.
Note that in addition to Sofar warranty terms, you are also protected by Australian Consumer Guarantees that always apply regardless of what the warranty says.
If you're using a Sofar Solar home battery, what are your thoughts? Leave a review and rating. Thinking solar batteries? Read our comprehensive home battery guide.
Images from customers
Sofar has 5 solar batteries in our database
Filter by:
Sofar Reviews (12)
Show Most Relevant reviews from All time
- 5 star 6
- 4 star 5
- 3 star 0
- 2 star 0
- 1 star 1
View Timeline
09 December 2025
Installed By
27 September 2025
Inverter is a 5kW module with Solarman monitoring.
Backup is 5Kw continuous with a much higher peak.
Installed By
21 November 2025
Installed By
23 September 2025
Installed By
13 May 2025
Michael did a very good installation for us, the installation was nit and tidy, he even helped us to remove all rubbish from the garage after he had done the installation. So far the system runs well and is only a bit noisy in the garage when the inverter is running, most of the time you won't notice that.
05 September 2025
28 September 2025
This configuration is for a 5kW inverter and just over 15 kW of battery storage with 14kW usable.
Blackout protection is good as long as you don't try to backup a load of more than 5kW.
Only time will tell how long the batteries last.
05 October 2025
So far the system has been faultless as it should be, so far too early to offer a rating.
Having the 25kwh battery is great and it has not gone under than 50% overnight. Needless to say it will be worked much harder when the weather is less benign.
Ive not needed the black out back up function yet.
The Solarman smart app was a bit hard to get going on my iphone but got that sorted after some mucking around. Works well on my desk top, ipad and iphone. The app is very good with all the info you need.
The Sofar units are slimline mounted on the ground but fixed to the wall. Very good where space is limited.
Pricing was competitive.
At this point my purchased power from the grid for October is on average 0.01 kwh/ day.
My installer did a great job. Very diligent and hard working.
19 October 2025
11 November 2025
So far, the system is working as expected with no problems.
13 November 2025
The team was awesome the whole way through. Super friendly, kept me updated at every stage, and always answered my questions without any hassle. They even got me hooked up with the VPP. Couldn’t be happier.
25 January 2026
Self use - great, set and forget but you won't make any money, may lose some days if you have too large a bettery due to negative FIT. On rainy days and no sun for long period this best choice.
Time-of-use : Suppose you have an electric car, this option was recommended if you want to use grid directly for charging car because you want to preserve battery storage for later when sun is down but be cautious, I set at 10kwh charging in app and it did exactly that but also drawn power from grid of what my car and home needed, so now I had double the power being drawn , not expected so to happen, now to set charging to 1wh.
Timing - Another option to be used with great caution, one of those days when whole proce went to $23kwh or about thatIi used this option to sell to grid but small amount 2.5kwh as price was forecast to go even higher later but given that day was got someone at home started aircondioner and it started to draw power from grid :(.. guess what happened to overall bill ? I had change discharge to 20kwh but damage was done as it was also during demand window in NSW.
Haven't used other options but don't need to... Oh BTW, the app I am using is Solerman.
SOFAR is also not ready for any VPP so you lose NSW rebates as well. SOFAR support says that they are going to be ready Feb 2026 but I doubt given their software options it will be possible to use VPP unless they do a major software changes and seems hardware is a blocker.
The guys in their support team are very helpful and responsive and is local, personally visited my home to solve a problem that wasn't their product related or related to installer but they came over and solved it while also talking to their R&D in China.
This review of battery not installer.