ACCC Publishes Sigenergy Recall Notice Over Safety Concerns

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has published a recall notice for some Sigenergy inverters due to overheating issues that melted plugs and caused a small fire, as first reported by SolarQuotes.

Why Are Sigenergy Inverters Being Recalled?

The ACCC has coordinated with Sigenergy to publish a voluntary electrical safety recall of the company’s single phase 8/10/12kW energy controllers that include quick connect AC plugs requiring ferrules and crimping.

In the recall advertisement the regulatory body warns:

“The AC plugs may overheat and become damaged, posing a risk of fire … if an overheating AC plug should lead to a fire, it could result in property damage, serious injury or death. Incidents have occurred. No property damage, injuries or death have been reported.”

Only founded in 2022, Sigenergy has quickly risen to become one of the biggest home energy brands in Australia, impressing both customers and installers with a feature-laden modular system that enjoys overwhelmingly positive reviews.

It hasn’t taken long however for Sigenergy’s systems to reveal significant issues, with an unknown number of SigenStor EC inverters overheating, leading to a spate of melted plugs and a small fire.

That fire was safely contained to the inverter, and it is important to note that fires related to home batteries are exceedingly rare.

What Should Affected Customers Do?

The ACCC has a recommended plan of action for those affected:

“1. Consumers should ensure their systems are connected to the internet so they can receive a firmware update. This allows Sigenergy to update and monitor each system proactively and temporarily reduce the AC output if the product is operating at sustained full load. This prevents the AC plug from overheating and becoming damaged. All affected products that are online have already received the firmware update.

2. Consumers will receive a free replacement product that has an updated AC plug. Consumers will be contacted by their retailer or Sigenergy Australia service partner to arrange replacements.

3. Sigenergy will also provide affected customers with an additional 2-year warranty on the product.

SolarQuotes Suspends Recommendation Of Sigenergy

Any technology can suffer problems, but the important thing is how a brand responds to issues, and we have concerns about how Sigenergy has handled this issue and what customers experiences will be like during this recall process.

To their credit Sigenergy appear to be proactive about addressing the technical issues themselves, including an offer to replace affected single-phase 8/10/12kW inverters with the an updated version which “reduces the chance of installation error and potential issues with the AC plug”.

It is in their lack of communication to the public, installers and most importantly their own customers that we feel Sigenergy has fallen short however.

There have been murmurings about these issues for some time – and issues with how the company responds to criticism for even longer – and there is evidence Sigenergy was aware enough of the problem over a month ago to be taking action to address it, without any broader communication to customers.

For weeks we’ve tried to get answers out of Sigenergy, and when they eventually responded the company demanded we hold off on covering it as they said they could not disclose anything due to regulatory requirements.

Only when we committed to publishing even without their input did they provide a late response – their first public communication on the matter, and in which they laid all blame at the feet of installers.

Even if it is found to be true that the issues only occured to due installers not following instructions – a claim disputed by multiple reputable electricians – products should be designed in a way that ensures they work when installed in real-world conditions. Sigenergy is suffering this issue while other brands don’t appear to be.

SolarQuotes’ recommended brands chart for solar batteries no longer features Sigenergy.

Customers Left In The Dark

To minimise overheating risks, Sigenergy throttled its single phase 8/10/12kW inverters – a sensible precaution, but one implemented without notifying affected customers that their systems would be running at reduced capacity. Multiple customers say their attempts to post about the issue to the company’s official Facebook page for end users were not approved.

Factoring all this in, SolarQuotes has removed Sigenergy from our recommended brands chart for now as we monitor how the company responds to this issue (including release of detail on how many incidents Sigenergy is aware of and greater transparency in general).

“We’ve taken Sigenergy off our recommended battery chart for now. The recent plug and terminal issues raise concerns we can’t ignore, especially given our exposure through the Good Installer Guarantee. We want to see the problem fully understood, fixed and proven in the field before we consider putting them back, and this could take months. Our golden rule is only to recommend products we’d be comfortable installing for our own grandma, and at the moment the situation still leaves a question mark over Sigenergy,” says SolarQuotes General Manager Trevor Glen.

Installers Not Happy

Installers are as confused about Sigenergy’s plan for the affected inverters as customers are.

It isn’t just customers left in the lurch, with installers not thrilled about being lumped with all the blame for overheating issues, and with all the headaches of rolling out replacements at a critically busy time for them and just before the federal battery rebate drops in value at the end of the year. SolarQuotes’ in-house installer Anthony Bennett says:

“Many installers are relieved something is being done but are even more anxious about the details. Offering a $500 ‘subsidy’ for warranty work appears generous at first blush but some describe it as a gift voucher from The Reject Shop – just what you want for Christmas. As the rush toward year’s end and changes in battery rebate closes in, there’s palpable anger even from Sig’s ardent supporters. Existing stock has been deemed unuseable as of November 18th, so they have to delay jobs, disappoint customers and potentially wear thousands of dollars in rebate changes. The total lack of transparancy from Sigenergy has been a disaster, and still needs improvement as nobody knows when replacement stock is arriving.”

What Are Some Sigenergy Alternatives?

There are plenty of other battery brands we recommend including Sungrow and Enphase. Check out our home battery guide for a full breakdown, and report on your own experiences with Sigenergy on their battery review page and their inverter review page.