Ranking Solar Battery Brands in 2026: GoodWe, Sigenergy, Sungrow and More

Most people choose a solar battery the same way they choose a ute. They see the badge, hear a mate mention it, and assume the biggest name must be the safest choice. But there are more battery brands in Australia than ever. And the wrong comparison can cost you

tens of thousands. A battery can look great on spec sheet and still be the wrong fit for your home, your usage, and the support you need 5 years from now. I’m Jason.

I’m Cam. We’re the owners of Source Energy Group, who’ve designed and installed countless solar and battery systems for Australian homeowners. In this episode, we’re going to rank 10 solar battery brands so you can work out which brands are worth considering and

which ones we’d be cautious about. We’re just going to be uh ranking a couple of batteries. We’ll start off with uh you Luke. Um like your experience with batteries and obviously uh your support experience like do they have an Australian office? Um what

mounting capacity and all that sort of thing? You’re right. Yeah, mate. GoodWe would have to be in the number one. Obviously we use that day in day out. That’s the thing. Like the fact you can have 50 kW in a stack in the

space of literally one up and down is perfect. Let alone the full home You can Yeah. Second to none I guess you could say compared to other brands out there in the market at the moment.

Australian support is definitely up there like ever have any dramas like pretty onto it and they can update from a distance. They don’t have to, you know, send out.

Great app. The app on it is pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. The S-Plus app’s just Yeah. As I said, second to none. Well, mounting wise as well, you three stacks high, you can still do wall

That’s true. Yes. Anything higher than three stacks, but they’re parallel in up to six stacks as well. Full stacks. Yep. Yeah. No, they’re definitely

definitely up there. Um, Sigenergy would have to be second, I reckon. Um, they’re pretty well on par with GoodWe as far as I’m concerned. So, is there any reason you wouldn’t put it up there with Sigenergy? Other than that, we’re very GoodWe, but

um Yeah, cuz they didn’t give us a hat. they didn’t give us a hat. Well, yeah. I don’t know. I’ve heard some dramas with them. They had the dramas at the start that they um

AC drama. Yeah. They weren’t. Yeah. There was a lot of things that they hadn’t pioneered or they were pioneering and they hadn’t preferred. Sigenergy. Sorry.

We did one up north Queensland there and like can’t knock the product. It was actually quite good, but it was pretty fiddly. I think that wall mounting and putting it apart, pulling it

a lot more extra pieces, moving pieces to get it to get push. Oh, it was like Yeah. proper Lego set when you put the Death Star together and you end up with five extra pieces and you don’t know why. Yep.

Similar look, but I think that’s what I found with the GoodWe, GoodWe, straightforward. straightforward.

And then, you know, inverter on top, cover on top, cover on sides. Oh, and what I’ll let you two answer this. What’s the biggest difference between a Sigenergy and a and a GoodWe for off-grid support? Like off-grid backup

Yeah. You going to shoot? Yeah. We don’t need a gateway. Like at the end of the day, you don’t need to go and mount another box on a wall separate to the whole system to get it to work.

That’s the point of an all-in-one, Yeah, Yeah, don’t really call it an all-in-one if you got to add an additional component for it to be off-grid. I think

I have heard along the grapevine they might be coming out with one. Um, bang for buck too. Like I suppose pricewise Sigenergy is pretty hard to get around GoodWe.

I think their prices have come down a They’ve come bought them down. Trying to compete with the GoodWe I think I’ve noticed cuz I did a price check not long ago and what is

that the one you sent me? I think so. Yeah. Way off Mark. No, not way. Where did I get my source from?

Um, so obviously they’ve got definitely got Australian support, Australian office and all that. And similar setup other than the um in the mounting side of things, it’s pretty much the same other than a few extra parts and obviously your box on

top of that. Yeah, I can’t knock them. A lot of installers seem to love them. A lot of a lot of customers seem to love them, but and this is all just purely our version of it like what think and believe. Yeah,

we’re putting them on. Exactly. Right. I’ve done out of that list, I’ve done eight of them, you know, like once you do a few different brands,

you get to, you know, what your favorite You know, they’re not they’re not light. They’re 80 kilos a module. We, you know, as an installer, you want simplicity. You want convenience. You want a nice smooth installation process.

GoodWe And look, GoodWe Sigenergy. Y easy to miss. I’d rather lift an 80 kilo battery than have to mount 20 different components on a wall. You know what I mean? It makes it so much simplified. You get that part done at the start of the day and then the

rest of the day is just, you know, get it get the rest of it done. So straightforward day-to-day type of stuff we’ve always been used to.

Yep. So Sig’s pretty good. Uh what else we got? I’d go Sungrow third. Sungrow third. Obviously it’s got this whole home

I’d put Enphase up there. Now I’ve never installed one. Never done it before. Their price is ridiculous. Yep. But from my feedback I’ve had,

have you done Enphase on the roof? Like actual solar Enphase? Tedious. Tedious. Tedious.

Tedious. Performance-wise, I’ve heard good Yes, it can be. Can be. Depends on the setup it’s in and where it’s installed. We used to do a heap of Enphase up north

It comes down to your installer or the people selling you the job, I And that’s technical support at the end. Um, Enphase does have good technical support. pop Enphase up there next to Sungrow I reckon to be honest.

Yeah. Yep. I agree. That’s the GoodWe Sig S tier. Start heading down to Sungrow and Enphase. Yes. So I got I got Btier, Sungrow Enphase Biggest thing with the Enphase side of things. Um it comes down to bang for buck I suppose is why I’m pretty

happy with the rating we’ve done here. Bang for buck would be because you don’t always need an Enphase or a micro inverter system on the roof. Um come down to the battery side of things. Uh we did that Enphase battery up north Queensland and dramas just non-stop

dramas. Y and the support side of things if it wasn’t for like AC solar phenomenal. Um but yeah the customer they haven’t seen what they get comes down again to I suppose who sells it to you and whether it’s right for your home.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. I got a few other brands here. What do we got left? We got we’ll start at the top. Alpha. Alpha. Um Alpha.

No comment. I haven’t done any. So, I haven’t done any, so I can’t really comment on them to be honest. done a couple. Yeah, I personally haven’t installed them, but I’ve um Yeah, I’ve dealt with the aftermath of them.

look, I found their tech support wasn’t too bad, but there seem to be so many different types of batteries. Like, I think I’ve installed four or five different types of alpha batteries. Like,

the DC coupled space. I just had one reliable 100%. 100%. Look at the GoodWe just like, “All right, cool. This is what we got. What inverter you got? Bang. Everything on top, done.

This is what we’re perfecting. Um, yeah. So, the dramas I’m talking about with Alpha would be the AC coupled space. And we just never saw an end to it for any of the customers with the AC coupled side of them. But I have heard good things about the DC coupled side.

When we’re dealing with the AC coupled ones, the tech support wasn’t there. Um, so on a customer’s behalf, I suppose they’re going to be looking for what’s actually going to help them.

Yeah. Um, sorry, Alpha, but I’ll probably go down maybe an F tier there. You made the board, though. I wouldn’t say it’s anywhere in the middle, but I, you know, it’s not up

No. No. No. I couldn’t do that. Um, can I throw out a favorite one here that I like? Like, not a favorite that I like, but one I can’t wait to talk about.

What? What? Fox. All right, go on. So, no board. No board.

Wouldn’t hit the board for me. Um, pure reason is like well avid follower of crap solar and solar installers Australia on Facebook and we’ve seen some doozies.

They’re all over it. Um, and the horror stories you hear from them. Um, that’s also down to an installer’s perspective as well. Like Yeah,

Yeah, most times the product’s one thing, but it comes down to who you get to install it. Like you can sell something one day, but it depends on who you get to come in and actually put it on that wall.

And we’ve seen some obviously we’ve ripped a few off. Yeah, that’s Oh, you did one recent? Yeah, I had to rip one off and redo because it was only installed like a year ago by someone and

good design with the stacker module. Like that’s probably the biggest that’s my favorite type. I’m sure it is for you too as well% like anything where you can just put a base down and just go pop.

Yeah, happy days. And it’s good for the consumer or the client at the end of the day because well, we’re not ripping half their wall apart to get batteries put on there. You’re literally stacking it nice and neatly in the corner next to their golf

clubs as far as they’re concerned. Yeah. Like there’s no I feel like they came Oh, so the additional extras are a problem for them as well. So there’s a lot of lot of wiring cabling that’s just exposed on nearly everyone you see on the horror

stories, but there is an extra component you can buy for the Fox batteries. And it’s just the shroud for the side, but they don’t sell it with it. But see if it should come standard.

Oh, you should. Yeah. With the PCU. Exactly. All battery DC cables need to be have mechanical protection on%. So if we know that then just give us if they’re going to try and sell it in the Australian market, bring it up to that standard

big time. Yeah, definitely. And on top of that, the another downside for them to me would be that you got your Sungrow 3.2s. Um, and you got your GoodWe 3.2s. You got uh Solax 3.2s. Um, but Fox ESS just running out with the 3.2s and that’s their running home brand now. M

feel like that market’s already capitalized on and the rest have already stepped up and they’ve sort of stayed there stagnant. stagnant.

there’s probably another reason but do they make the board? I’d rather Fox ESS over swing the hammer. I’d rather Fox ESS over Deye or not. Deye stackables are good.

But the other day that you’re just mounting all over the wall like I just Oh yeah. I’d probably take them off the board before Fox

personally. personally. Yeah, Yeah, different experiences. I’ve installed a couple of Deye products or the stacker.

We’re inclusive people. We’ll knock them on the board. We’ll put them last. But sorry, sorry, Fox cuz I have actually heard from our wholesalers as well. Um, Fox is a very good product in their mind. Um, however, it does come down to installer like you said.

Yep. Um, and it’s good. It’s a good budget product if that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. On that, let’s hit DA next because we got two opposing experiences here on Deye and I’m one of the opposing. However,

yes, I have seen yours as well and bloody neat, bloody good job, but completely different uh version of it. Yeah, who buying it through. Obviously,

there’s companies out there that Yeah. They’re happy to either put the big ones on the wall or just do the stackables and be Yeah. keep everyone So, which uh so the ones we did were the um individual unit ones I sort of saw the bad experience with, but yeah. End

up Tetris all over the wall and Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. quite a pain in the ass to get set up and get working properly. Um yeah, it’s too many moving parts. It’s literally Tetris on the wall. If customer doesn’t have enough wall space for it, it just

looks like And been back to Benny that were that like just destroyed a whole wall of a customer’s garage. So and still didn’t work for that pool bugger either. Like we didn’t do that.

Air conduct bloody dip rock on that Oh, more air conduct than battery. Yeah. You know, and I guess that’s why, you know, that separates the GoodWe and they’ve gone up that list is because when it falls into that mounting capacity range,

you want something that looks good. Like the customer wants something that looks nice, but you also want something that’s convenient that goes in minimal amount of space and is easy to work with.

You know, like even the off-grid capability as well. So, you know, from the consumer’s point, like they do want something that looks really nice. And is going to give them what they want

100%. 100%. GoodWe SIG do that with their output in their backup capabilities, single and three-phase. three-phase.

I think the days are up there with the stackables, aren’t they? They are like days. Obviously, we have different opinions on days, but we’ve inst. inst.

I’ve done a day stackable project on my dad’s house. Yep. And I’ve done a day stackable project on another made house. And dad was pretty simple. Just 5 kW inverter stack on top of four modules, four 5 kW modules.

Um easy AC plug style system in the back. Everything just comes in the back of the inverter. So it looks clean and tidy. And with the other the bigger one that I did, it was a 20 kW solar job where I had two 20 kW stacks, one 15 kW three-phase inverter above it. And the

stacks just went on easy. They have like a it’s called a PDU system that sits on top just to cap the batteries off. And then both systems come with leads that come out of it

straight into the bottom of the inverter. inverter. Easy. Easy.

What’s the backup? Well, off top your head if you remember, but backup capability. They partial home back up, full home backup. It was full home backup. Like it can allow up to 63 amp like force charge per phase.

phase. That’s good. But this system, it was on a shed that was 70 m away from a uh for the main switchboard on the property pole. And then I had to run big enough cables back to then send power, which was in

another submain, into the house. Yeah. Right. So I current limited a little bit cuz he didn’t need it, but he can have up to 63 amps. So it was, you know, bit of design. It was a good one, but

like I think in their off capability was still 25 amps per phase. Which is, you know, look, yeah, it’s great to have that, that,

but look, he’s got that big system. It’s a hybrid system. It’s around the around the standard for a three-phase setup. It’s around the standard for the 10 kW in the industry. And it was a recommendation from a I only put them on because it was a

recommendation from a guy that I know has dealt with batteries for a long time. And he’s like, “Great system.” I was like, “All right, I trust you.”

And yeah, it’s performance-wise. Like I’ve they’ve had the system, both of like dad and my mate have had their system for a couple of months now and haven’t skipped a beat.

Yep. So we’ll go mid tier for them. So maybe C. So yeah, you I’d probably go B, but Yeah. Yeah, personal experiences I guess% guess% or we got let’s go we’ll go SolarEdge I

haven’t had anything to do with these but they do most definitely have Australian support I’m not actually quite sure on the backup side of things for them

no need to be honest I haven’t really done never done it you I think you’ll find a lot of people haven’t to be honest like there’s a few obviously out there but you’ll find that

a lot of people these days are steering towards the top three that we’ve spoken about today so far because of this reason one the influx in the market two the support and three, just how capable and the capacity you can get out of the mounting of it where it sits.

So, we’ll bop them on the board, but we don’t know anything about them, so we’ll hit them with an F. Um, and we’ve got Tesla’s probably

Tesla. Tesla. It’s got that name. Yes. Yes.

I’ve never done them. I understand like the principle of how they work, so I don’t really know what their capabilities are when it comes to backup. And

so, they do have own backup as well. And they’re a very tidy unit. They’re just a lot of work. And from an installer point of view, to be able to offer it like as a price point to a customer, I think they are quite pricey and you or you used to have to be Tesla

accredited. I’m not sure if that’s a thing anymore. I think you do still to a degree. Yes. Um, however, they are very sought after. I know their backup’s good and like we own a couple of Teslas. So, um, I think I think the support’s definitely

there for that. I think they’re quite an impressive company. So, like I’d put them probably up there with your Enphase and Sungrow to be honest. Um, so on a maybe an A or a B tier even.

Yep. Yeah. Sounds about right. Yeah. Then we got Growatt. So what do we call them? Who? So Growatt. Growatt’s Australian support.

I don’t think I’ve I’ve never put on any Growatt. I think I don’t know if it’s the right thing to say, but it’s always had a name against it.

Yep. Yep. Yeah. Maybe I’ve got lucky that the companies I’ve worked for didn’t use them. Yeah, we’ve installed fair chunk of well yeah way back in the day but installing Growatt and we did a couple up north but um back in the day

as well but other companies that we used to do work alongside of but yeah personally I wouldn’t we call them I’ll be the one to say it but

I wouldn’t sell I wouldn’t sell it to me ex partner let’s put it that way but no what can hate me if I say that so I said no what can hate me if I say that um however yeah Australian support I know bug are all about their backup but honestly just warp off the board there.

Yeah, agree. I think once you when you’re in that definitely in that cheaper range. But I think where they fit in that cheaper range uh their price correlates with their backup capability.

Yeah. Got it’s all about the tech support for me I think. um and for the customer’s experience from it. So your app and your tech support needs to be there and like firmly be there and if it’s not there it can’t really make a rank purely because

like what would your product if it doesn’t work and your installer can’t get any support over getting it to work? There’s a reason there’s a bunch of dead ones on the wall

there’s where’s the installers that installed those? And did they give up over tech support or last but not least we’ve got a sonnen. sonnen.

You want to start? So I’m handsy out of this. I’ve done nothing with them, but I remember pretty much was told I’ was done one of the first ones in Queensland or if not Australia back bloody what 8 years ago and then

they were that’s 8 years ago like I haven’t done one since I’ve come a long way since then but have they would have yeah that’s it. Um yeah I’d steer away from them personally.

after tech support or after sales support sorry with them wasn’t the best as far as I knew. Um installing wise obviously neat for the client they were sort of they were the one I did was tidy stack. Yeah.

Um, but it was only like one 5 kW battery and it was the size of a bloody stupid size. It was couldn’t keep up with it. But yeah, other than that, I’ got no comment on it. I’ve done a couple install like mounting cap mounting capacity not too bad. Like I think the

version I’ve done is a bit newer than yours. Still a big white box. It’s got four legs. So needs to have level ground. Um, good for partial backup. I think most of the ones I did had 10 kW of storage. So

yeah, yeah, not um the worst but not the greatest. Yeah. So good for emergency purposes. last bit on.

Yeah. Just um tech support what you so hard to get a hold of someone. So I don’t care if the product’s working really well. If you can’t get a hold of someone when it’s not working properly, not interested.

interested. Y sell something and run away. Give that one a lob, too, I think. Then yeah. Um, see you later, sonnen. Along with uh along with Growatt there know what

um sorry sonnen but do better. Uh well yeah that’s your phone. Yeah there answer your phone. Yeah not hard at least giving us a straight Well that’s it. That’s us ranking out our top brands but um if anybody wants to look we got we got quite a good

tier system going here and decent amount of reason why. I’ll be honest I’d probably kick Sro up a up a spot or two. I’d sit it up there with Sig underneath GoodWe. I reckon it’s quite a good mob.

Yeah, as I said, I haven’t done any. So that Yeah, that’s what we got, guys. If you if you want to hear it, that’s from the best of the best of the best. If you want to look for our suggestion on the top three brands, I suppose I’d

look at the tier system here. I’d look into whether they’ve got Australian backup, Australian support, uh if they’ve got an Australian office, your fire suppression.

Yeah. Oh, the fire suppression. That’s one thing we didn’t cover, but every one of them these days, they uh they do they do have fire suppression. So,

and at the end of the day, you don’t want to walk out you build say you build a brand new house or you got a nice house and you walk out the front or over near your switchboard and you look over and you just see you want to see something simplified, easy that looks

something tidy. Yeah. But yes, I guess one as an installer, but two as a client to be proud of. Like at the end of the day, you don’t want just all over your

What’s the point of it? What’s the point? So, paying more for ducting than you are for your batteries. Yeah, 100%.

That’s our take on the top battery brands that we got going at the moment, guys.