Alpha-ESS review

Alpha-ESS - Battery Reviews

4.6

Based on 53 ratings

Finn's Alpha-ESS Batteries Review & Verdict

Finn Peacock has been a Chartered Electrical Engineer since 1998, and is ex-CSIRO

Alpha ESS make some of the cheapest battery systems approved for grid connection in Australia. If price is your only criteria when buying a battery system, then they are an option. But in my opinion, a low, low price should never be your only criteria when buying a home battery.

Feedback on Alpha ESS batteries from customers generally falls into two camps: 1) The battery is installed and working and they are happy with how little it cost. 2) They have had problems and are rather frustrated.

If I was looking for a cheaper battery, I'd personally choose to pay a bit more and get a Sungrow.

Alpha-ESS Batteries: Pros & Cons

  • The low price point.
  • A nice looking battery. Everything is behind a unified façade which comes away easily to make for neat installation and easier servicing.
  • The cover arrangement lets you remove a whole brick from the wall and so feasibly run cables in a wall cavity.
  • Models available for DC coupled solar, with blackout protection and "black start" if you run the battery flat overnight.
  • Popularity means they're likely supported by (Virtual Power Plants) VPPs or power-sharing software.
  • Warranty support is proven and acknowledged to be embarrassingly lacklustre.
  • Some AlphaESS models have dismal surge capacity during a blackout.
  • Some models don't offer blackout protection.
  • "Some models" means there's a lot of different options to be confused with.
  • Technical support is poor in our experience.
  • Proper monitoring requires two consumption meters in many cases.
  • Review ratings are in the low four-stars (but trending better).
  • At the bottom end of the market in terms of price, they are more likely to be sold by shonks who don't offer decent after-sales support. Choose your installer wisely!

About Alpha-ESS

Energy storage manufacturer Alpha ESS was established in 2012. A Chinese company, it has offices in Australia, the UK, Germany and Italy.

In Australia, the main Alpha-ESS product line is the Storion SMILE5. This is an all-in-one unit, meaning the system includes batteries, a battery management system (BMS) and an inverter.

The battery modules used in the Storion SMILE5 are lithium iron phosphate chemistry; widely considered the safest type of lithium ion battery technology.  As far as we're aware, Alpha-ESS still sources battery modules from another Chinese company, EVE, which has been in the battery business since 2001. 

The Storion SMILE5 range is available in various capacities and AC/DC/Hybrid coupling options are available. As for power output, the SMILE5 series offers 5kW. This unit does have blackout protection capabilities.

Alpha ESS Warranty

In the past, Alpha ESS SMILE battery systems had a 10 year warranty on their batteries, but the rest of the system -- including all the electronics required to operate the batteries -- only had a 5 year warranty.

The good news news is, Alpha ESS has improved their warranty. Their SMILE battery systems installed from the 1st of November 2024 now have a warranty that covers the entire unit for 10 years or until 3,120kWh of stored energy is discharged for each kWh of battery storage the unit has. If the battery system is fully cycled once per day then the warranty will last 8.5 years. 

The warranty promises the batteries will retain a minimum of 70% of their original capacity while under warranty.

As for how strong the warranty backing is, we're aware of a situation where an Australian customer battled for months with Alpha ESS over a Storion OF5 warranty claim; which resulted in the owner sending a letter of complaint to the ACCC and Office of Fair Trading. 

If you're an Alpha-ESS battery owner, we'd really appreciate you adding your review by clicking the button towards the top of this page.

Alpha-ESS has 5 solar batteries in our database

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Battery Type 
Usable Storage 
Power 
All-In-One unit 
Off-grid capable 
Product Name
Approx Price
Battery Type
Usable Storage Capacity
Power
All-In-One unit
Off-grid capable
Alpha-ESS SMILE-B3-PLUS
$4,000
Lithium-ion (Lithium Iron Phosphate)
4.79 kWh
3 kW
Yes
No
+ More details
Alpha-ESS SMILE5 10.1 kWh
$7,458
Lithium-ion (Lithium Iron Phosphate)
9.07 kWh
5 kW
Yes
Yes (back-up built in)
+ More details
Alpha-ESS SMILE5 13.3 kWh
$9,372
Lithium-ion (Lithium Iron Phosphate)
13.3 kWh
5 kW
Yes
Yes (back-up built in)
+ More details
Alpha-ESS G3 10.1 kWh
$8,500
Lithium-ion (Lithium Iron Phosphate)
9.6 kWh
5 kW
Yes
Yes (back-up built in), Can communicate with Generator
+ More details
Alpha-ESS T10
$10,692
Lithium-ion (Lithium Iron Phosphate)
7.8 kWh
10 kW
Yes
Yes (back-up built in)
+ More details

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Alpha-ESS Reviews (53)

Show Most Relevant reviews from All time

  • 5 star 41
  • 4 star 9
  • 3 star 1
  • 2 star 0
  • 1 star 2

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With this system from SolaRun we have LiFo batteries that are unlikely to ever burn, vs Tesla's LiOn and this gives me peace of mind. And the battery backup kicks in so smoothly that a blackout goes unnoticed. I have enough solar panels on the roof and three phase which makes the SolaRun system the ideal matchup. No electric bills.

Installed By

Solar Run

Installed By

Invincible Energy

Installed By

Brightworks Solar Pty Ltd
We should have added the battery when we did the solar panel installation last year.

Installed By

Green.com.au Residential NSW

Installed By

Green.com.au Residential VIC

Installed By

Green.com.au Residential NSW
Before the battery we were using $3:50 to $4.00 of electricity from the grid each day. Since installation we use any where from 0.55 cents to $1.10 a day depending on the weather I haven’t received my first electricity bill yet but know it’s going to be a lot less that last year

Installed By

Green.com.au Residential NSW

Installed By

Green.com.au Residential NSW
Early days yet but so far I am now 98% self sufficient and have accumulated more than $20 in credit with my electricity provider. It is also changing my power us habits - I am now mindfully thinking of what I switchon and when, I am now staggering my use of large power items such as A/C, wash machine/dryer, dishwasher etc in order to minimise going over my solar capacity and drawing from the grid.

Installed By

Smart Energy Answers Sydney Eastern Suburbs

Installed By

Adelaide SolarSafe

Installed By

Green.com.au Residential NSW

Installed By

Green.com.au Residential NSW

Installed By

Apollo Energy Solutions Pty Ltd

Installed By

Harris Electrical and Solar Pty Ltd

Installed By

Brightworks Solar Pty Ltd
Set up as a VPP rather than dealing through an electricity retailer

Installed By

Captain Green Solar NSW
Slim fit around the side of the house
No noise and no bills

Installed By

Green.com.au Residential NSW
Stopped needing to feed in from the grid.

Installed By

Green.com.au Residential NSW

Installed By

Green.com.au Residential NSW
Go the biggest battery you can up to 30kw for a 3 bedroom house

Installed By

Green.com.au Residential NSW

Installed By

Green.com.au QLD

Installed By

Best Solar and Batteries
Sleek design. Clear status. Connection to internet js great. The customer service staff are very helpful.

Installed By

Solar Run

Installed By

AR Energy Consulting SA
Excellent battery supply for the entire evening and night

Installed By

Solar Run
Awesome having a battery to power of a night time or earn money through feed in tariff

Installed By

Think Renewable

Installed By

Brightworks Solar Pty Ltd

Installed By

Brightworks Solar Pty Ltd

Installed By

Brightworks Solar Pty Ltd

Installed By

RESINC Solar
We really rate the Alpha ESS battery system and controller, particularly the modular nature of them that allows for the easy additional of further batteries.

Installed By

Smart Energy Answers NSW Regional O

Installed By

Brightworks Solar Pty Ltd
Battery is working great, so good in fact I wish I had of doubled the size of the battery.

Installed By

Smart Energy Answers Sydney Northern Beaches

Installed By

Battery Solar Solutions

Installed By

Green Solar

Installed By

Helioenergy

Installed By

Sunterra

Installed By

RESINC Solar

Installed By

Best Solar and Batteries
Works great!! Love it!!

Installed By

Green.com.au Residential NSW

Installed By

RESINC Solar

Installed By

RESINC Solar

Installed By

RESINC Solar

Installed By

Incredible Solar

Installed By

Brightworks Solar Pty Ltd
I have had an Alpha.ESS _EN_SMILE-BAT-10.3P_V00.19042019 (002) functioning since March 2020. My only complaint is I found the system with a GOODWE inverter will not charge the battery when the grid is down.
Later models with the Smile inverter 5 will do this. The Alpha ESS monitoring system is excellent and any issues I have had like understanding the blackout system have been readily provided.
I have a 2 solar panel and inverter systems a Bosch 5k Inverter and a Solax 2.2k inverter configured to the Alpha ESS system with a blackout circuit to the house. It has all functioned well to date although sadly the Bosch inverter is now dead, and it looks like it will be costly to upgrade to a Smile 5 to get the ability to use my existing 5k panel system to charges the battery and be able to maintain charging when the grid is down. I may have to just replace the Bosch inverter for a lot smaller price.

Considering I only paid $3,969 for the system with all the rebates at the time I suppose I was fortunate.

Response from Alpha ESS re charging when grid is s down follows.

Unfortunately, as your solar-only systems will stop working during power outages, they can't be modified to charge your battery or power your house during blackouts.
However, there is an option to make your solar system still work during blackouts. We can replace one of your solar-only inverters by using a Hybrid inverter and connecting your battery to the Hybrid inverter, that way the solar panels connected to the Hybrid system will still work to charge up the battery during blackouts and stop generating when the battery is 100%.
Connected via a Goodwe AC-Coupled GW5000s-BP. Used to avoid peak power rates 3-9pm in a fully electrified home, charged mostly from solar but occasionally from grid in winter on a bad day. An installation issue found after a few weeks was quickly rectified. Has run faultlessly for over 3 years since then, no issues whatsoever. My only suggested improvement would be for a software enhancement to automatically switch to grid charge if solar has not been able to fully charge by a selected time.
Battery charges fully almost everyday from the solar. Once solar is done inverter / battery then inverts at 1.5 kw no matter what the house load is. Inverter / battery inverts until battery is flat. Our AGL useage shows grid feed in of greater than 1 kw every night (until battery goes flat). We then start using power at 43c / kwh. We only get 6c / kwh for the grid feed in. Will take 25+ years to recoup the $ 12,000 investment in this inverter / battery. Does not work as expected and appears to be no solution to the problem from the installer or Alpha. Buy one of these at your own risk!!
Battery has no issues but had issues with installation.
One bank of panels wasn't turned on.
Then noticed solar was curtailed is no house load.
Used the app to contact Alpha ESS and they very quickly fixed the settings over the internet.
I have to turn the battery to charge only mode while EV is charging or battery will be drained. This is not an issue as I can easily do this on the App.
Would prefer if discharge rate could be moderated during this time but effectively 0 cost with Current retailer.
8.8 solar east/west 10.1kw battery not had anything go wrong great install team. 98% self consumption
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