Wayne's Solar, Inc.

I recently purchased a home that had an extensive solar package (solar pool system and house solar heater) that was installed by Wayne’s Solar in 2008.  The complexity of these systems is daunting compared to what I was used to up North before moving to Florida.  The manuals were not enough – when I suspected a leak in the pool system, Wayne’s Solar was in my neighborhood and promptly came to the home and within a couple of minutes repaired the leak at an extremely reasonable cost. The tech, while here gave me a quick orientation on the pool system and water heater followed up by a call with Aaron at their main office who walked me through every item in the system, how it worked, when installed, warranty information, and what kind of performance settings I should have based on the season.  I went from confused and daunting to informed and confident.  This customer service was very valuable to me and I know now I have a very good system that will save me on utility bills for years to come and how to keep the system tuned.  These guys are truly passionate about solar and know their products right down to the serial numbers – that is the main takeaway for this review.  Highly recommended. 

Preface: I contacted Wayne’s Solar to uninstall and reinstall my solar hot water and pool solar panels in order to reroof my house. I had a previous good experience with General Manager, Aaron Kent and employees that came to my house to replace a solar pool panel under warranty in 2015. The original installer of my solar pool and hot water had gone out of business. Unfortunately, my second experience with Wayne’s solar has been a nightmare.

4/14 Two Wayne’s Solar employees take off solar pool and water panels. They manhandled the panels in a way that I thought could have damaged them; dropping the solar panels and piping to the ground and letting the solar hot water panels drag across the roof in a way that carved a gauge in the shingles. They did not clean the shingle material off the hardware and left 27 hurricane strap anchors with 2 inch screws in my roof. I contacted Nick Dalton at Wayne’s and he said they were not reusable parts so they were not removed. My roofer told me the anchors and screws had to be removed so I did it myself. I also cleaned the shingle debris and dried roofing cement off all of the hardware.

4/22 I spoke with Aaron Kent and expressed my concerns about the mishandling of my solar panel removal and the debris left on the hardware. He told me that his crew would have cleaned all of the hardware and that the panels can take a lot of abuse. He told me he would send out one of his best crews to reinstall my panels and to call anytime.

4/26 Three Wayne’s Solar employees come to reinstall my solar panels. In the process, they damaged a bottom row of shingles while hoisting the hot water panels to the roof. They were also very rough trying to remove the old coupling on the hot water panel. I told them not to put the solar pool on as I wanted to have the damaged shingles repaired. And they were repaired at no cost to me by my roofer. I also noticed there was a leak where the two solar panels are joined by a coupling that is soldered. I called Wayne’s to talk to Aaron, but he was in a meeting. Mike answered the phone and told me he would interrupt his meeting. Mike came back on and told me that the crew would return to fix the leak and they did. I asked Mike to have Aaron call me, but he did not

4/28 Two Wayne’s solar employees return to install my pool solar.  Shortly after they leave I noticed leaks in the pool solar and they returned to fix them. Later that day I notice more leaks in the pool solar and notify Wayne’s.

4/29 Two Wayne’s employees come out and replaced the vacuum breaker where water as leaking. Later that day I notice the hot water is leaking again. I contacted Ricky at Wayne’s and scheduled them to come back on May 9th as I was going to be out of town for a week. I also asked Ricky to have Aaron call me but he did not.

5/9 Andy, who is the head technician and a VP at Wayne’s solar come to repair the hot water panels. He said he was going to braze them together for a stronger bond. I noticed him smoking while on my roof and laying a lit cigarette on my new $13,000 roof. I was about to say something, but he picked it up before I did. Also, the solar pool panel that Andy was standing on while trying brazing the hot water panels together developed a leak and he had to plug the hole (he probably burned a hole in it with his torch). Within several hour of Andy leaving, the coupling he just brazed started to leak. I called the office to report this and Ricky, who answered the phone, burst into laughter when I told him about the leak. Ricky said he was going to put Aaron on the phone and as I waited I was disconnected. In the meantime, Andy left a message saying he could not get back to me until 5/12. 5/11 I went up on my roof to look at the work that was done to connect the panels and notice holes burned in several of my shingles. This, I figured, was caused by the heat from the brazing. I also noticed a grommet on the panel had been severely damaged by the heat from the brazing I contacted the manufacturer of my solar panels and spoke with a technician named Tim. Tim could not believe what he was hearing and told me that the silicone grommet could be filled with silicone and that if Wayne’ Solar could not stop the leak, to call him back and he would contact The distributor, The Leveredge, to help find my another contractor to resolve this issue. Based on what I told Tim, he felt that the copper piping should be replaced at the headers of each panel the soldered together. I also contacted my roofer to see if he thought the damaged shingles needed to be replaced and am waiting to hear back from him. At this juncture, I am considering having another solar company complete the job.

Installation went well.