It's your house... What would you prefer?

 

Competitor's Solution

Our Solution

Of course we all know the answer... Neatness counts! Decades of experience and an attitude of treating your house as if it were our own allow us to give you a clean and attractive installation at no additional cost.

It’s one more reason to ask your prospective installer for referrals and look at a completed installation before you purchase. Remember, if what you can see doesn’t look good, think about the quality of the materials and installation that you can’t see.

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We Start With A Quality Install... And Stand Behind Our Product

One of our largest competitors in New Jersey installed this solar pool heating system using plastic wire ties to cut costs. After a few years in the sun, the wire ties became brittle and broke. The homeowner was so fed up with his original contractor, he called in Solar Living™ to repair his system correctly. The homeowner later confided that the 'other guy' was cheaper, now he knows why!

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If It's "Cheap", There's A Reason

We ran into this ground rack for a solar pool heating system installed by a competitor here in New Jersey. The owner of this rack gave up trying to get his original contractor to come and fix it, and finally called us. You can see a complete lack of bracing between the rafters, and chicken wire and roofing fabric used to support the panels. This doesn't stand up to a New Jersey winter, and the panels collapsed under a snow load. Compare this to how we build our ground racks.

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The Homeowner Special - Why You Should Leave It To The Pros

The solar domestic hot water system at this home was installed by Solar Living™ in 1983. It operated with only a few minor repairs for 23 years, when the current owner called to have the system dismantled. As it turns out, someone along the way decided to build some additional solar collectors out of plywood, garden hose, and plastic sheeting.

Not only did this damage the existing solar system (through faulty connection of the garden hose plumbing), the roof suffered as well due to improper securing of the homeowner-made "collectors."

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Beware Of Snake Oil Products

We gave a prospective customer a proposal for an adequately sized pool system for their large 800 square foot pool. A pool supplier told them they could do more with less and "build a fence out of the collectors." The customer chose the pool supplier's system since it was cheaper, smaller, and claimed the same performance.

Aside from the obvious installation quality, this system is horribly undersized (only about 10% of what is actually needed), and the vertical collectors cannot fully capture the high sun angles in the summer months.

The customer ultimately had this fence post system ripped out, and had Solar Living™ install a properly sized, high quality Solar Industries Solar Pool Heating System. There are many ways to heat pool water, but only a few that work reliably for decades!

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Inexperienced Contractor Equals Written Off System

We encountered this unfortunate customer near Paterson, NJ, after they called us to have their system repaired.

The original installer (and one of our competitors) took the cheap way out, using big box store plastic hardware rather than the high quality stainless steel mounting hardware supplied by the manufacturer. The plastic clamps get brittle in the sun and lose their strength. The customer had no way of knowing this happened.. until the next windy day.

Not only were the solar panels ruined, the roof and nearby chimney cap suffered damage as the collectors flopped around during the storm.

This system has been reinstalled by Solar Living™, utilizing the proper hardware. It can now survive hurricane force winds with ease!

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Most Roofers Cannot Work Around Solar Panels.

The most common question we are asked is "What happens when I need a new roof?" The simple answer is to call Solar Living™. We can properly drain and shut down your system and remove the panels from the roof prior to the reroof. Once the roofers have finished their work, we then reinstall the panels, properly seal all the mountings, and warranty the work that we do.

Beware of roofers that say they can "Work Around It." The truth is, they can't. The pictures below are typical of what we see when roofers "do it all." In this case, the roofer installed new shingles over the exisitng brackets. This allowed wind to get under the shingles, and actually ripped them off the roof. Less expensive up front, but more money for the roofer down the line.

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Another Poor Quality Ground Rack.

10/1/15 - Yet another poor quality rack that was installed by our largest competitor here in NJ. While it is true that solar pool panels do not weigh very much, a ground rack to support them must be robust enough to handle the weight of snow every winter. The panels cannot be relied on to do this, they will instead buckle under the weight.

Once this happens, the system will never drain properly, and you run the risk of irreparably freezing the panels.

This homeowner had no choice but to call in Solar Living™ to rebuild the ground rack the correct way:

Our ground racks are built to last and we can provide hundreds of references from happy customers here in NJ with ground mounted systems. Can our competitor do the same?

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Our Competitors Are At It Again - The Rackless Rack?

5/5/21 - Now our competitors are attempting to save their customers money by installing a "rackless" ground rack. We are often asked "can't the collectors just be put on the ground?" The short answer is "No" and here is a good example of why.

Solar Living™ was called in to replace this "ground mounted system" and we genuinely don't like to see this. Instead of spending a little bit more for an installation that will last a lifetime, this pool owner will have to completely replace their system.

Compare this to our sturdy ground racks that provide a safe and sound structure for your panels, peace of mind for you, and decades of warm swimming for your family. Call us today to see how we can help you!