GCL solar batteries reviews

GCL is a huge Chinese company that has been around for decades. It has its fingers in all sorts of pies - it's a major solar panel and cell manufacturer, and more than dabbles in the home energy storage space. 

Contact Details

Address: 9th Floor, Building A, 68 Fujingtian Road Suzhou Industrial Park, Jiangsu, China.
Telephone: +86 0512 685 37399
Email: [email protected]
Website

Company Info

GCL Group was founded in 1990 and it entered the PV industry in 2006. Among its many and varied activities, GCL is a major producer of polysilicon, silicon wafers, solar cells and panels. GCL has also been producing lithium-ion based energy storage systems since 2016, so it's had a few years to tinker with the technology. 

GCL Batteries In Australia

Back in 2016, GCL launched the EKwBe, which was available in two capacities - a 2.5 kilowatt-hour system and a larger 5.6 kilowatt-hour unit. These were offered at an attractive pricing point, but didn't offer much capacity. Although quite dated, SQ's Ronald published a review of GCL's EKwBe (and the company) here.

The EKwBe is no longer produced. 

Another battery available in Australia and is still listed on the Clean Energy Council's approved batteries list as at February 2025, is the "Honror" range, which features:

• Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) technology
• Modular design - 5 to 20kWh capacity in 5kWh increments
• Indoor or outdoor installation (IP55)
• Expandable to 60kWh (3 Honror ES RY-5/10/15/20-S1 series connected in parallel)
• Advanced battery management system (BMS)

Honror battery modules measure 573 x 347 x 189 mm and weigh around 50kg. The control box and the base's dimensions are 573 x 200 x 189 mm; weighing 15kg. The working temperature range is: charging -10 ~50°C and discharging -20 ~ 50°C

Compatible inverters include selected models from Solis, Deye, GoodWe, Luxpower, AISWEI and Afore.

While CEC-approved for use here and it appears GCL is still manufacturing these systems, we haven't spotted any Australian companies offering Honror in early 2025. By the way, the model name "Honror" may have been a misspelling of "Honor" as there are references to the latter in some GCL documentation. English is hard!

Warranty Information 

The EKwBe came with a 7 year warranty. The Honror range is accompanied by a 10 year warranty, but the warranty documentation states "a period of 5 / 10 years" without further explanation.

The Australian distributor noted in 2022 warranty documentation appears to be no longer active (at least their website isn't), so if you have a warranty problem the best bet is to contact your installer, or GCL themselves if that party can't be contacted.

We haven't heard much about GCL home batteries since they became available here - so if you have one installed, let us know what you think by submitting a rating and review. While not included on our comparison table partly due to a lack of popularity in Australia, you can compare home batteries from other brands here.