We have shipped both ends of the spectrum. A $180 5 kW inverter that promises 95 percent efficiency and a $700 unit from a Tier 1 brand. The price gap is real. The performance gap is bigger.
In the first year, the cheap inverter works fine. In the second year, capacitors start to drift. In the third year, the LCD display flickers and the output voltage sags under load. By year four, the unit is dead. The buyer replaces it. Total cost: $180 plus $180 plus $80 in service calls, or $440 over four years with a year of downtime.
The Tier 1 inverter costs $700. It runs for 8 to 10 years with one firmware update in year three. Total cost: $700 over 10 years, no downtime. Per year, the cheap inverter cost $110 with downtime; the Tier 1 inverter cost $70 with none.
Warranty matters but is not the whole story. A 2-year warranty on the cheap inverter means the factory replaces it once if it fails in year one or two. A 5-year warranty on the Tier 1 unit means the factory covers years one through five, and the typical failure mode (capacitors) shows up in years three to five. Read the warranty terms: "replacement" vs "repair" matters, and "shipping costs included" matters.
The hidden cost is your reputation. A buyer whose inverter fails in month 14 does not call the factory. They call you. And they tell their network. We have lost buyers because we shipped cheap inverters in 2022. We stopped. The price gap on the front end is not worth the relationship damage on the back end.