Good evening being new to solar power i humbly ask if anybody has had any experience with this type of a fivestar inverter 5kw thanx for any comment or advice
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I believe it’s a rebranded Voltronic unit. It is a very common inverter in SA due to it’s budget price. I consider it the “best house in a bad neighbourhood”, that is to say, from a lot of really poor Chinese options, this one is actually kinda okay.
If you work it hard, expect a lifetime of between 2 and 5 years.
If you intend wiring it into your distribution board at home, make sure local regulations allow for it. How compliant these things are with the IEC- and SANS regulations (for UPSes) is somewhat vague too.
The Fivestar brand is a China Mall knockoff of the Voltronic inverters. Rather look at the Kodak King 5kW inverter with a 3 year warranty @ similar price, but has decent backup support too… IF installed correctly according to regulations.
Thx guys for all.the advice sofar definately not thinking of the fivestar anymore is kodak one of the better inverters then if possibleis there 1 or 2 other makes to consider as u all know can do this only once not 2 times
Kodak/Five Star/Axpert/Growatt, none of them are “better” inverters. They will do the job until they don’t anymore. It really depends on your budget and what you need to run during loadshedding.
My two cents: If you plan to upgrade the lithium batteries in the future, I would not look at those. Rather consider Sunsynk, Goodwe inverters which are capable of synchronising with the grid and run your non-essentials as well while the grid is available. If your budget stretches further, consider Victron. There’s also MLT but I don’t know where they fit in regarding price, and SMA (which is more expensive). Not sure about other brands that are readily available in SA.
They are indeed, mostly the same inverter. The Axpert is a real Voltronic and your first pick (again, if you absolutely MUST do this)… oh hang on… yes… there is MUST too… another Voltronic knock-off! Anyway, I digress. Mostly the same inverter, but if this really is the only option on the table, Axpert, then Growatt, then Kodak, then… well then a flashlight, some candles, a gas lamp maybe… just sitting in the dark and contemplating your life for a bit… and then the Five Star.
To be clear, my “best house in a bad neighbourhood” comment is restricted to the Voltronic unit itself. Not the clones. I would not touch the clones.
Thx guys u gpt me convinced thinking of goin the sunsynk way looks to fit the budget any replies on this choice
The Kodak and Growatt seems to have comms, so why would you avoid them with Lithium batteries?
Well for one, they can’t backfeed so your return will be lower. But I’ve also heard bad things about a charging bug that ends up hurting the batteries long term. @plonkster is this still true for the Voltronics units?
And comms, well, I had a Growatt. It definitely didn’t communicate even though I was told it would. However, it is not unlikely that it has been fixed by now.
It seems that the newer models have gone their own direction and also sorted some of the issues out. But yeah I hear you… same old issues replicated by each copy… fun and games.
I think the charger bug, which was all over YouTube, was for the external MPPT they shipped. Not for the MPPT board in the inverter. Voltronic also has many newer models now which are becoming popular, so it is becoming hard to judge newer models by what we know of the older ones.
I think the 5-star is a copy of the old 5kVA Axpert though, which is why I would place it dead last.
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Hi there again looking at the sunsynk is it possible if anybody knows that there can be the real deal and fake ones general price seems to be in the 20ks but there appears to be other sunsynk on the market looks excactly the same but at half the price this is worrying me any replies woyld be highly appreciated
If it is too good to be true, it isn’t true. Buy from reputable suppliers/installer.
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Totally agree i am also considering a luxpower which according to a very big reputable supplier local which is also countrywide has proven itself i am just awaiting feedback on the warranty periods lithium batteries looks like my next issue i can choise between hubble and southafrican litium and then some kind off greenrich litium pack any comments plz
I’m not sure a Luxpower inverter synchronises with the grid - it might, but if it doesn’t, it is a different type of inverter all together than the Sunsynk.
When it comes to batteries, I used the study that was done in Australia to choose my batteries a few years back. That study is, as far as I know, the best long term study we have on different batteries. And from the study it was clear that all lithium batteries, chemistry and/or BMS, aren’t created equal.
Over the holidays we rented a place that had a MUST inverter for backup. We had a dehumidifier running much of the time, and that thing would shake HARD whenever the power went off or came back. My theory is that this is an inverter that doesn’t synchronise with the grid at all, but I don’t know for sure. I know the voltronic inverters do synchronise for a softer change-over.
Let me add just a bit of an explanation. You can synchronise the inverter frequency with the grid without tying with the grid. When the grid fails, and you have that 20ms changeover, your inverter sine wave takes over more or less where the grid failed. If they are not synchronised, you get this huge vector shift, which induction motors really don’t like.
I don’t know where Luxpower sits on the spectrum, but I’d say that if you’re going to cheap out, at least get one that has a smoother changeover 
Yeah, I meant “tie with the grid” (practically meaning that it would feed back to non-essentials), not just synchronise the inverter’s sine wave output with it.
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Yeah, your comment reminded me that there is another step in the middle, another thing that can be cheaped out on
Hi guys ended upbuing the sunsynk 5kw inverter hope i did do a good buy at least 5 year warranty against 2 yearon luxpower thx 2 all that gave advice my journey has started 
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Not my preferred brand, but a significantly better option than what you started with. Enjoy your purchase!