KLNE solar inverters reviews

Beijing Kinglong New Energy Technology Co. Ltd. (also simply known as KLNE) was a Chinese PV manufacturer headquartered in the Zhongguancun Hi-Tech Park in China. 

Company Info

KLNE was founded in 2008 and its main warehousing and manufacturing facilities were located in Changzhou. The company also set up several subsidiaries - in Germany, Italy and Australia. Its Australian office was established in Melbourne in 2011. Their time here didn't last long, with the Australian subsidiary deregistered in 2013. 

While inverters were KLNE's bread and butter in the early years, the company pivoted to energy storage - dropping inverters entirely - before it also disappeared entirely. Its website went offline sometime after 2022.

KLNE Inverters In Australia

KLNE supplied grid-connect photovoltaic inverters to Australian customers. The two main product lines were Solartec and Sunteams, which offered efficiencies of up to 97.5%. The Sunteams inverters were tranformerless, single Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) units available in capacities of 1.5kW to 12kW. 

The original Solartec series, also transformerless, ranged from 1.5kW to 5kW and had one MPPT. However, these was superseded by the SolarTec D that had two MPPTs and was available in capacities of 2.5kW to 15kW.

There was nothing particularly exciting about KLNE inverters, even for their time. These were budget products and in this instance, what you paid for is what you got. There are multiple reports of the devices failing in Australia long before their warranty ended, and some problems with pursuing claims.

Warranty Details

The warranty noted for Kinglong's inverters was either 5 or 7 years, so if any of these products are still installed in Australia, they are likely not covered. We say "likely" because Kinglong New Energy Technology offered an extended warranty for an additional fee.

Forget about repairing a KLNE device that is outside warranty - it's simply not worth it. Consider a new inverter from another brand.