If a salesperson put a quote in front of you with “25-year warranty” printed on it, ask which one. There are two warranties on that page, and they don’t survive the same things.
Christina Jimenez found that out in Fort Worth. She bought panels four years ago. One went dead last February, ten more quit in April, and she did exactly what the contract told her to do: call the installer. Fourteen emails and dozens of phone calls later, nobody had picked up. She got her answer on Reddit. TriSmart had closed.
Her $67,000 loan from Goodleap did not close. That bill still shows up every month.
Her mother in Odessa is in the same spot with a company called Lumio, which went bankrupt in 2024. No letter, no phone call, nothing. She now pays $300 a year for a service plan so somebody will come out when a panel quits. Jimenez got quoted $700 just to have someone look at hers, with no promise of an actual repair.
This isn’t two unlucky families. Roughly 100 solar businesses have shut down in the last few years, CBS News Texas reported in July, including names that sold to a lot of people: Freedom Forever, Sunnova, Solar Mosaic, Lumio. Neal Prevost, a lawyer who works these cases, described what came out in a deposition: “One of the lenders told me in a deposition that 40% of all of their installers have gone out of business.” Nearly 6 million American homes have panels on them, per the Solar Energy Industries Association.
Here’s the split nobody walks you through at the kitchen table.
The manufacturer warranty covers the hardware. Panels usually run 25 to 30 years, inverters 10 to 25, batteries 10 to 15. That contract is with the company that built the equipment, so your installer going under doesn’t void it. You claim directly with the manufacturer.
The workmanship warranty covers the labor, the roof penetrations, and the wiring. Your installer wrote that one himself. In a Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 it converts into an unsecured claim, which is the back of the line. It pays out slowly, partially, or not at all.
Same quote. Same “25 years.” Completely different odds.
Do this before you sign anything. Ask for the equipment data sheets on the panels, the inverter, and the battery, then confirm the warranty terms with the manufacturer rather than the salesperson. Next, ask in writing who actually backs the workmanship warranty. If the answer is “we do,” you’re betting a decade of labor coverage on a company in an industry where about 100 firms have folded. If the answer is an independent warranty provider, get the certificate or policy number on paper. Run the whole quote through our solar savings calculator before you decide, and read what else hides in a quote in our solar guides.
If your installer is already gone, pull three documents: the installation contract, the equipment data sheets, and the loan or lease paperwork. Call the manufacturer and ask for its list of certified installers near you, because uncertified work can void the coverage you still have.
And keep paying the loan. Prevost says some customers do get contracts canceled in arbitration, but settlements are private, so treat that as a lawyer’s estimate and not a plan.
The panels usually still work. It’s the phone number that stops working.
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