Turning Inverter on causes a massive loss of voltage

[SlugmasterP]

I have a Xantrex Link 2000 Inverter Controller and Dual Battery Monitor along with a Heart Interface Freedom Inverter/Charger. I have recently encountered a problem when I hit the Invert button on the charger. As soon as I hit it I hear the normal subtle buzz of the inverter and I get AC power to my plugged in electronics but the voltage of 13.5 or so suddenly begins to fall. The controller also goes from saying that it is drawing -0.1 amps to -135 amps The voltage steadily falls for about a minute until it hits 10.5 and the unit automatically shuts off the inverter and displays an Error code 3 which means a low voltage shut off. Occasionally it also gives me an Error code 2 which is an over temperature shutdown.

The funny part is that this was happening this afternoon so I decided to plug the boat into shore power and turn on the charger and drop my wife off at the house. I came back a half hour later. Turned the charger off and unplugged the boat from AC power, hit Invert and it worked fine with no voltage drop. This has happened twice now. Is this just an overheating issue? Could plugging it into shorepower and turning on the charger somehow reset something like a breaker etc? Has anyone else had this issue? Thanks for any tips.

[bobofthenorth]

The relays in those old Heart units will sometimes stick closed. The test is to whack the case - really hard. Wind up and give it a smack while it's drawing heavy. If that cures it then the solution is to replace the relays. Good luck. I found someone to do mine about 5 years ago now but he was semi-retired at the time and he's fully retired now.

[Terra Nova]

Check for loose/poor (probably ground) connection.

[David M]

Check all of your electrical connections first for looseness, corrosion and resistance.

Get a clamp ammeter and put it on the DC side. Is it actually drawing 135 amps? If so and the load on the AC side is far less than 13.5 amps, then it is time to replace the inverter. It is probably not user serviceable. Hopefully it is still under warranty.

It is roughly a 10:1 ratio of DC to AC amps. In other words a 10 amp AC load will draw 100 amps of DC...roughly.

You should not have to bang on it to make it work, it is unreliable if this is the case.

[Stu Jackson]

Inverters can draw that kind of DC load if there is a large AC load on it.

It sounds to me that the batteries may not have been charged, since when turning the charger on for a bit, the inverter worked fine after that.

How big a house bank, what was the SOC, what was the AC load on the inverter, what sized Freedom unit, and how old is it?

Also, the Link 2000 should be controlling the inverter (and the charger), you shouldn't have to use the switch on the I/C box. RTFM.

I have a Freedom 15, 1998, with a Link 2000.

[SlugmasterP]

Originally Posted by bobofthenorth

The relays in those old Heart units will sometimes stick closed. The test is to whack the case - really hard. Wind up and give it a smack while it's drawing heavy. If that cures it then the solution is to replace the relays. Good luck. I found someone to do mine about 5 years ago now but he was semi-retired at the time and he's fully retired now.

R.J.(Bob) Evans
Travels without George

I don't know if this has anything to do with the relays, but it had been clicking sometimes when I turned on the charger or inverter. Since we bought this boat in February I didn't know if this was abnormal or not but after reading some on the forums the clicking sound seems to be an abnormal thing. It would randomly start and stop when the charger and inverter were working. I read on a forum that someone said it could be the internal fan hitting something? Another forum talked about a thumping that they thought were the relays?

[Terra Nova]

Originally Posted by David M

Check all of your electrical connections first...

OP--please.

[SlugmasterP]

Originally Posted by Terra Nova

Check for loose/poor (probably ground) connection.

Ya, that's what a guy at the marina said to do first. He said start at the outlets. That's what I was going to do when I came back after dropping my wife off and when I got there it worked fine again.

[David M]

Originally Posted by Terra Nova

OP--please.

.....OP?

[Terra Nova]

Original Poster.

[SlugmasterP]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

Inverters can draw that kind of DC load if there is a large AC load on it.

It sounds to me that the batteries may not have been charged, since when turning the charger on for a bit, the inverter worked fine after that.

How big a house bank, what was the SOC, what was the AC load on the inverter, what sized Freedom unit, and how old is it?

Also, the Link 2000 should be controlling the inverter (and the charger), you shouldn't have to use the switch on the I/C box. RTFM.

I have a Freedom 15, 1998, with a Link 2000.

It's a Freedom 10 from 1995 with a Link 2000 but it's new to me. The battery bank was fully charged. It was reading 13.15 or so. The link is controlling the I/C box. The problem happens when I hit invert on the controller although I tried switching the box off and on to see if it would do anything. There is no AC load on the inverter currently when I turn it on. If it were a loose wire at one of the outlets wouldn't that outlet not work when I turned the inverter on? I tried plugging in a little light and all of the outlets that are hooked up to the Inverter had power when I hit the Invert button. It just loses power right away and then comes up with the E-02 code which means high temp. The house bank is 6 6 volt batteries, a 12 volt system.

[Terra Nova]

Originally Posted by Terra Nova

Check for loose/poor (probably ground) connection.

This.

[Ex-Calif]

You need to be checking for loose connections on the DC side (input to the inverter) not the output (AC outlets).

You either have a serious high resistance - bad DC connections. Or the house bank capacity is gone and cannot supply 100 amps for more than a few minutes.

If the inverter is working on shore power the likely suspect is the DC side supply. Check the connections at the inverter end as well as the battery/bus end. Make sure all connections back to the battery bank are clean/corrosion free and tight.

Depending on how old the supply cables are they could have internal high resistance or internal failure.

I had a battery ground cable that had accumulated water at it's lowest point and corroded from the inside out. When I cut the cable open it was a mass of green fuzzy wires.

If the cables are extremely flexible (like spaghetti) as opposed to firm they could be internally rotted.

[smac999]

get a volt meter. measuer the voltage at the inverter terminals and at the battery terminals when inverting.

if you have 10.5v at the inverter and 12.5 at the batteries then you have an issue with the main DC inverter cables or fuse or switch.

if you get 10.5 at inverter and at batteries then you have weak or uncharged batteries.

I'm leading to the later since you said it was fine after you pluged in. 30 mins is nothing. you need many hours to fully charge those batteries on shore.

130a is a big load. what do you have plugged in?

[emcmia]

Assuming you have multiple batteries in the bank connected to the inverter, one of them could have a bad cell, indicating charged but rapidly discharging under load bringing the entire bank down.