Inverters R Us — Attraction in Reno

Review of Victron Skylla-IP65 Chargers (2x 12/70A units)

I purchased two Skylla-IP65 chargers to support a 640Ah LiFePO₄ battery bank, and unfortunately the experience has been disappointing.

Positives: Solid physical build and weather-resistant design. Capable of high charging current in theory.

Failures / Issues:

LiFePO₄ support is poorly executed. The dedicated mode locks charging voltage at 14.2V, which is too low for many LiFePO₄ banks. It cannot be increased from the front panel, and requires external hardware just to unlock basic configurability. Charging performance is unreliable. Current tapers and drops off far too early, meaning the batteries never receive a full bulk charge. More than 24 hours for my bank, and that is at 2 x 70 = 140 amps. No easy manual control. A simple “force bulk” option is missing, leaving you stuck waiting for the unit to do what it wants. Documentation is vague. Critical limitations of the modes are not clearly explained, forcing trial-and-error.

Customer Service Experience: About two weeks after receiving the units, I called to explain that these chargers could not be configured correctly for a larger LiFePO₄ bank. Perhaps they might work for a smaller system, but not mine. The person I spoke with was rude—he talked over me repeatedly, then told me I could return them only with a 15% restocking fee. On a $1,600+ purchase, that meant over $240 lost simply because their product doesn’t do what it claims. This was a big purchase for me already. When I objected, he brushed me off and said their technical service would call me. No one did for a month and a half. When I finally reached a tech (more than a month later), he admitted these chargers cannot be properly configured for my bank without buying additional Victron hardware (a Cerbo GX). In other words, the solution to a problem with their product is to spend even more money.

Overall: Between the technical shortcomings and the dismissive, slow support, I cannot recommend these chargers. For the price and Victron’s reputation, I expected far better. Instead, I’ve been left with frustration, poor performance, and the sense that Victron is more interested in selling add-ons than making their products work...

Have been given months of the run around. Lack of technicians (3) makes it extremely difficult to receive help or to get a call or speak with someone.

Ran into multiplus ii issue (5/30), once I got ahold of tech support they suggested a fuse change & to call back (early June). I changed fuse, nothing happened & attempted to call, took weeks to hear back after leaving voicemail. Repeat the process with a second fuse and now it’s early July.

Deyvi then emails me after I’ve left a hasty voicemail and I respond, never hear anything further (7/9). I called daily or every other day for weeks attempting to get ahold of someone, leaving a voicemail, pleading for help. They continued to not return a call.

I called (8/4) a sales rep, the only way to speak with someone, he said he’d escalate & did not hear anything. Inverter issue got worse today (8/11), I called leaving a scathing voicemail.

I called the sales rep, Chance, he was kind & understanding & said supervisor would call me. I then receive a call from Technician, Nick, who can literally only tell me to restart it or update the firmware.

He then transferred me to Deyvi, who repeated my options & continued to joke about me not having power & how that was not his issue.

He transferred me to supervisor (name w M) and he told me I had to follow the warranty process, which is 4-6 weeks at a minimum, OR buy a new one ($1100) and maybe they’ll reimburse me or maybe I’ll be stuck with 2 inverters. He then said that he had a client in front of him that he was waiting on him and he no longer had the time to speak with me and hung up.

Customer service at inverters r us is not the top priority. They’ll say it’s out of their hands, hands are tied, or “that’s a victron issue, not inverters r us”. When realistically, the issue always was the customer service.

The technicians are “under water” receiving hundreds of calls a day without a chance to ever get back to folks. Was told this by 3 people there...

I purchased a few victron items from Inverters R Us. Installed and running great, but that is not why I am writing this review. The main reason I am writing this review is because soon after installing and running my new victron set up, a firmware update happened to my Multiplus 2 x120 which lost all of my LiFePO4 settings and reverted my multiplus to settings that stopped my batteries from charging how they were. I went to change settings back but the new firmware update rendered my victronconnect software out of date and unable to connect. I tried everything I could Google search to fix the issue. Not being the kind of person who just picks up the phone and call a tech line, I spent the last 24 hours exhausting every single ounce of resources trying to figure out and fix the issue myself. Well, I finally picked up the phone and called Inverters R Us, and all I can say is, THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE IS ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL!!! The picked the phone up immediately. The gentleman I talked to, forgive me I forgot to ask his name, knew exactly what my issue was and how to fix it. In less than a 5 minute phone call he told me what program to download and how to get into the settings to get my batteries charging again. He was extremely kind, courteous and professional!! The absolute BEST customer service!! Thank you very much Inverters R Us and gentleman...