Warning: Vista 20P battery backup failure after 2 winters in a row

I service about 40 houses in the Detroit suburbs and every single one with a Vista 20P that sat in an uninsulated garage hit battery drain issues after just 2 winters. The cold kills those SLA batteries way faster than I ever expected, even with decent panels. Anybody else seeing this pattern with specific panels or is it just my area?

3 comments

3 Comments

vera_robinson3626d agoProlific Poster

Blame it on the panels themselves, not the cold. I've got 30 Vista 20Ps in my area (a mix of garages and basements in western New York) and the ones with older or thinner-gauge battery leads lose charge way faster in freezing temps than the ones with good, thick wiring from the factory. Check your panel serial numbers next time, the early 2010s models had a terrible batch of solder joints that crack in the cold, that's your real culprit not the battery chemistry.

william_harris26d ago

I mean, is having to swap a battery every couple of years really that big of a deal, @vera_robinson36? I've had a few Vista 20Ps in cold garages and never noticed anything that drastic. Seems like people are overthinking this when a simple battery replacement fixes it right up.

wade87126d ago

Three of my garage Vista 20Ps from 2012 all started acting flaky last winter. Had to swap batteries twice on one until I noticed the wire insulation was cracked right where it hit the terminal. Replaced those leads with some beefier 18-gauge wire I had laying around and theyve been fine since. @william_harris you might be getting lucky with newer units or warmer winters. The solder joint thing vera mentioned is real too I had one panel that would reset every time the garage hit 20 degrees until I reflowed the connections.