Just off the top of my head, it might be worth beefing up the handle in the PV-200 a bit. Mine arrived broken before I even got it out of the box, and man, there’s not a lot there. Couple screws into some thin, un-supported plastic bosses. This is the same kind of construction that’s used on Nerf guns and children’s toys, I honestly didn’t expect to see it on a higher-grade solar panel! ~1mm plastic, and eight small screws into ~3mm plastic bosses are all that handle’s got for strength.
Time for the “wait for customer support” routine, oh boy. At least the battery itself came in good shape, and I can charge it from my Jackery panels, even if it’s only 100w.
Hi @Komitadjie , sorry for inconvenience caused.
We recommend that you contact our support team as soon as possible for further solutions. We will also feedback this issue to the product department to improve the quality of the handle, thank you very much for your cooperation.
I’ve started a contact through Amazon (where I ordered), hopefully that will work out. I’d think a through-bolted design might be superior, going from wood screws into plastic bosses, to through-threaded machine screws and a nut on the far side, something like that. Ideally, along with a bit thicker plastic used, or going to a non-styrene plastic, potentially nylon, or a heat-set composite material.
As I continue to look, I think these might have been more seriously damaged. I took them out to test them out anyway, and once in the sun, I saw that there appears to be a crack in at least one of the cells. It was very difficult to photograph, but you can see the reflection off of the crack’s sides here. For scale, it’s about 6" long.
Man, gotta say I’m super impressed. They contacted me within ~3 hours of me placing the request for service, and I’ve already got an RMA / return label for the damaged cells. They offered me a partial refund to fix the handle myself first, which I honestly would have probably taken if the cell wasn’t cracked too.
Overall, really impressed. Would rather not NEED customer service, but not sure how much better service I could ask for.
I think that the problem with the handle could be fixed by using longer screws in the original assembly. These screws would then screw into a stronger part of the handle structure.
