Maintenance & Troubleshooting

We Care Solar’s approach to sustainability helps ensure maintenance and repair of the Solar Suitcases is minimal and that resources are in place to conduct repairs and maintenance when needed.

Maintenance

When properly installed, used, and serviced, and with one battery replacement, the Solar Suitcases can provide light for 10+ years. The main maintenance needs are:

Main Battery – The main batteries, which are lithium ferrous phosphate (LFP), will need to be replaced after approximately five years. See Video #17 Replacing the Main Battery.
Solar Panel – Solar panels are built to last for 10 years or more and are unlikely to need repair, although they may need to be cleaned periodically. See Video #15 Cleaning the Solar Panel.
Appliances – Appliances (headlamps, fetal Doppler, thermometer, rechargeable battery charger) all have a limited life span. We supply some replacements in the spare parts kit (detailed below), and some may also be purchased locally.

*If you have a V2 Solar Suitcase (earlier model), you can download our V2 Maintenance Guide from the Solar Suitcase Version 2 page.

Troubleshooting

If you are having trouble with your Solar Suitcase, the following resources may help:

Refer to the Troubleshooting Guide in your User Manual.
Checkhttps://wecaresolar.org/solar-suitcase/user-manual/ out our Instructional Videos. This includes videos on troubleshooting, basic repair, and how to use the appliances.
Call the number on the Solar Suitcase sticker. This should connect you to a local technician who may be able to help.
Fill out an Incident Report, which will alert our technicians to your problem. We Care Solar provides free remote technical support for all of our Solar Suitcases.

Spare Parts

Spare parts are available to be shipped with the Solar Suitcases. For Version 3 Solar Suitcases*, we typically ship one spare parts kit with every 50 Solar Suitcases.

The spare parts kit includes 1 complete Solar Suitcase (including lights, appliances, and solar panel), 4 LED lights, 1 homerun cable, 2 internal battery cables, 2 headlamps, 4 infrared thermometers with rechargeable AAA batteries, 4 fetal Dopplers with rechargeable AA batteries, 4 AA/AAA rechargeable battery chargers, and 1 16GB SD card (for collecting log data from the Solar Suitcase). The extra Solar Suitcase can be easily swapped out for a non-functioning one at the health facility, so that the non-functioning one can be brought back for examination and repair.

*If you have a Version 2 Solar Suitcase, visit the Solar Suitcase Version 2 page for information on what is included in your spare parts kit.

Warranty

We Care Solar provides a warranty for two years on the base system. The base system includes: chassis, charge controller, lights, main LFP battery, and solar panels. All warranty claims are dependent on proper installation and usage. No appliances – battery charger, headlamp, charging cords, thermometer, and fetal Doppler – are covered under warranty.