Manufacturer warranty claims for solar panels are often rejected simply because the homeowner cannot provide high-resolution, top-down evidence of internal defects without paying a specialized engineer to climb the roof.
ZeroLadder was hired by a Palatine homeowner whose solar output had plummeted, but whose installer claimed the panels “looked fine” from the ground. We executed a forensic grid mission, flying a series of low-altitude passes directly over the array to capture macro-detail of the internal silicon cells. We focused on identifying “delamination” (peeling of the internal layers) and “snail trails” (micro-cracks in the cells)—defects that are physically impossible to see from a ladder but are clearly visible under 4K magnification. Our drone’s gimbal allowed us to capture these defects at specific angles to eliminate sun glare, providing the clinical documentation required by the manufacturer’s legal team.
Within two hours of the flight, the homeowner had a folder of 4K “smoking gun” evidence that proved the panels were defective. This visual proof forced the manufacturer to honor the warranty, saving the homeowner over $8,000 in replacement costs and the headache of a denied claim.
