Xantrex announces inverter recall — Xantrex, Sunpower and GE brands — UPDATED

We have writ­ten before that solar power is not a Do-It-Yourself project because the volt­ages and cur­rents asso­ci­ated with solar power sys­tems can be dan­ger­ous if not han­dled prop­erly.  Indeed, the cen­tral point of most solar power sys­tems — the inverter — typ­i­cally han­dles thou­sands of Watts of power, the lit­eral prod­uct of hun­dreds of volts and ten to forty amps in a typ­i­cal res­i­den­tial instal­la­tion.  (Note: that is way more than enough to cause seri­ous bod­ily harm or death if you cross it!)

Unfor­tu­nately, we have learned about a fairly exten­sive prod­uct recall regard­ing Xantrex invert­ers that have been mar­keted under the Xantrex, Sun­power and Gen­eral Elec­tric brands.  (Run on Sun has never installed or spec­i­fied Xantrex inverters.)

[UPDATE — We under­stand that there is a fairly sim­ple repair that a qual­i­fied tech­ni­cian can han­dle. If cus­tomers need assis­tance, they can con­tact us at Run on Sun (626–793-6025)  to sched­ule a repair.]

We under­stand from the attached Recall Notice that this is a vol­un­tary recall on the part of the man­u­fac­turer and that it cov­ers Xantrex GT series grid-tie invert­ers that were man­u­fac­tured between Sep­tem­ber 2005 and August 2010.  (The image at the left is typ­i­cal of the recalled invert­ers.) 
Accord­ing to the recall notice:

A com­po­nent of the inverter can degrade, caus­ing out gassing within the wiring com­part­ment of the inverter.  Should arc­ing occur, gasses could build and force the com­part­ment cover to be blown off. If the cover is blown off with suf­fi­cient force it can injure the user or per­son [sic], or cause dam­age to prop­erty in close prox­im­ity to the inverter.

Here are the affected part num­bers from the recall notice:

864-0002 864-0117 864-0128 864-0139 864-1006 864-1011 864-0107 864-0118 864-0130 864-0140 864-1006-02 864-1012 864-0108 864-0119 864-0131 864-1001 864-1007 864-1013 864-0111 864-0124 864-0132 864-1001-02 864-1008 864-1014 864-0112 864-0125 864-0133 864-1002 864-1009 864-1015 864-0114 864-0126 864-0135 864-1004 864-1009-02 864-1016864-0116 864-0127 864-0136 864-1005 864-1010 864-1018864-1019 864-1021 864-1022 864-1032 864-1032-02X-864-0002 X-864-0117 X-864-0128 X-864-0139 X-864-1007 X-864-0107 X-864-0118 X-864-0130 X-864-0140 X-864-1008 X-864-0108 X-864-0119 X-864-0131 X-864-1001 X-864-1009 X-864-0111 X-864-0124 X-864-0132 X-864-1002 X-864-1010 X-864-0112 X-864-0125 X-864-0133 X-864-1004 X-864-1011 X-864-0114 X-864-0126 X-864-0135 X-864-1005 X-864-1012 X-864-0116 X-864-0127 X-864-0136 X-864-1006 X-864-1013 X-864-1014 X-864-1015 X-864-1016 X-864-1018 X-864-1019X-864-1021 X-864-1022 X-864-1032

If you believe that you might have one of the affected invert­ers, you should con­tact the com­pany that installed your solar power sys­tem.  If they are no longer in busi­ness, you should con­tact Xantrex at 800–714-7176, M-F 8:30 a.m. — 5:00 p.m.