Growatt inverter review - Updated August 2024

 

Growatt inverters and batteries are one of the cheapest on the Australian market.
But does that low price make them a bargain or a potential nightmare?

How cheap is cheap?
One of the absolute best 5kWh batteries on the market is iStore. You can have 3 in a stack (15kWh)
It sells for $4,000, or $800 per kWh of usable battery storage.
Growatt have just released their 5kWh APX battery, selling for $2,850.
10% of that is 'reserved' so it works out at $633 per kWh of usable power.
20% cheaper.

You can also connect up to six of these 4.5kWh usable batteries in a stack.
Like iStore these new Growatt batteries include a battery optimiser in each module.
Like iStore they are parallel not series connected.
Both of these features will allow for better cell balancing and much longer and more efficient life.
than a standard series connected battery stack.
The specs are great, the price is too.

So the question is, would you pay 20% less for a Growatt?... and the answer comes down to quality.
Nobody knows how well-designed and made these Growatt batteries are because they are brand new.
Previous Growatt batteries have been reasonably good, not excellent, but average in terms of reliability.

Growatt's pragmatic approach to failure.
No other solar company I've dealt with takes such a pragmatic approach to inverter failure.
All we do is provide voltage pictures proving that the DC and AC supply is good, and they send out a new one.
The Wi-Fi dongle is swapped to the new inverter and it picks up where the old one left off.
"Bin the dud" say Growatt.
Everyone else demands the failed product is returned for reasons that elude me because I'm sure they aren't inspected.

Growatt inverter range
We started selling Growatt in 2011.
In fact we imported them directly from China as no-one was wholesaling them here back then.
They offered a cheap warranty upgrade from 5 years to 10 years which we snapped up for almost every sale.
Just as well as all of the Growatt 1st GEN 5kW models had failed inside those ten years.
Surprisingly the little 2kW and 3kW models hardly ever failed, and are still going gangbusters to this day.

I'm not saying Growatt's 5kW inverters are still rubbish. They obviously re-designed them over the years.

Growatt's most popular product these days for us, is indeed the 5kW single phase model.
If someone's old 5kW inverter..any brand, has failed out of warranty the Growatt is often the choice for replacement.
It sells for $1,000 + install, making it more attractive than say an iStore or Sungrow at about $1,500 + install.

Would I recommend a larger, 3 phase Growatt inverter?
A 10kW model for instance?
Not at the moment. Their 10kW hybrid, and everyone buys hybrids these days, isn't up to snuff.
2 x MPPTs, no parallel strings, isn't good enough for most people's roof areas.
There is however a new model coming Q4 2024 or Q1 2025 that has 3 x MPPTs.
Growatt, like many others including Huawei, have waited for Australia to scrap the 600V string voltage rule.
Their existing 10kW model relied on that rule change, and so far, it hasn't happened.
If it does, and some say 2024 is the year of change, then their 2 x MPPT 10kW model has legs.

Growatt are Australia's most popular brand.
In fact the World's most popular residential brand is Growatt.
Beloved by the high volume TV/Social media advertising, often India located, solar companies.
It's cheap, it looks nice (it does), and it's reliable enough.
To me, it's a sad fact that these mass marketers with cheap contracted installers dominate Australian solar.
Most people do zero research.

Growatt support is actually pretty good, if you know how.
It's a little known fact that two Growatt engineers are working in an office in Canning Vale...permanently.
Now, Canning Vale is a Perth, WA suburb, so I'm only talking about Growatt support here in Perth.
So if we have a Growatt issue we don't already know how to fix, we call them.
It's better than waiting in a long queue for the main support centre to answer over East.

Growatt's warranty service doesn't even require any phone calls.

Online portal, submit voltage pics, description of fault and serial number and a new one is on it's way over,
within 2-3 days. In fact, the wholesaler we buy Growatt from, also in Canning Vale where those engineers are,
often does warranty swaps from their own stock, so same day replacements are possible.

Am I talking about things going wrong too much?
Yes. Most of the time, the majority by far, nothing goes wrong.

Would I recommend you buy Growatt?
No. I'm not going to stick my neck out and go quite that far.
There are only three, maybe four, inverter and battery brands I would actually recommend.

However, to show how fair I am, Fronius is not one of them.
Fronius are one of the most respected and loved inverter brands.
European made, brilliant support, but not my choice.
We quote sell and install plenty of Fronius, but I never actively recommend them.
If you want to know why, feel free to ask me or read my review on Fronius.

Growatt accessories.
All the Growatt inverters come with a WIFI dongle and setup to their free Shinephone app is pretty simple.
They also have a $50 bluetooth transmitter receiver box called Shinelink.
The transmitter replaces the WIFI dongle and is factory-paired to the receiver that plugs into your router/modem.
No handing over your WIFI credentials to a third party, change your router/provider at will. I like this.

Growatt have a consumption meter aka 'smart meter' option for most of their inverters.
Single with 1x CT or three phase with 3x CTs.
You'll need one of these if you have to export limit your output or have a battery.
If you want to see imports/exports/self-consumption in your Growatt reporting then you'll need one for that.
There's also a wireless smart meter on the way that will solve a lot of problems on properties with multiple switchboards.

There's an optional generator input available for the SPH hybrid. That's will please some off-gridders.

Growatt have a single phase EV charger and a three phase EV Charger.
Both of these are regular AC chargers.
Here's a link to Growatt's web page on them.
And here's a Youtube video....
They cost about $900 for the 7kW single phase models and $1,200 for the 22kW three phase models.
As with all smart EV chargers they can be set to only charge with available surplus solar panel power.

Brochures
Growatt Inverters:
Growatt MIC 1.5kW to 3.3kW single phase inverters
Growatt MIN-X 5kW/6kW/10kW single phase inverters
Growatt MIN-XH single phase hybrid inverter datasheet.
Growatt MOD-X 3kW to 9kW 3 phase inverter datasheet.
Growatt MOD-X 10kW to 15kW 3 phase inverter datasheet.
Growatt MOD-XH 5kW to 10kW hybrid three phase inverter datasheet.
Growatt 1 phase MIN-XA XA battery only inverter.
Growatt 3 phase MOD-XA XA battery only 3kW to 10kW inverters.

Growatt Batteries:
Growatt SPH hybrid inverter.
Growatt ARK-XH battery solutions.
Growatt ALP battery datasheet.
Growatt APX battery datasheet (provisional).

This review was written by Andrew MacKeith, Solar4Ever service manager since 2011.