Victron Inverter/Charger

[Dockhead]

I was on my boat away from shore power (since I cut ties to my marina!) for 10 days and started to feel the lack of an inverter on board. Not to mention the small size of my battery charger (35 amps * 24v Newmar). These things meant many hours of generator time. I suppose it's not the end of the world -- the Kohler 1500rpm job I have on board doesn't burn so much fuel, doesn't make much noise, and should be good to hold up to those hours. But it's inelegant, to say the least, to have to crank up the genset just to run a power tool for a few minutes or use the microwave.

So I think it may be finally time to pull the trigger on the Victron charger/inverter I've been drooling over for some time.

I had been planning to put in a Quattro 3000/70 because it has separate inputs for shore power and genset. But I have found a good deal on a MultiPlus 3000/70 at about half the price I would be paying for the Quattro. The Multiplus has nearly all the features of the Quattro -- has the power boost feature, the automatic power limiting, etc. which I need.

It looks like the only difference is you don't need a transfer switch to change over between shore power and genset.

But I don't need that in any case -- it seems to me -- because I already have a transfer switch built into the boat. I have two small rocker switches on my elec panel to turn on shore power and genset power respectively. If I turn on the genset power while the shore power is switched on the shore power is automatically switched off.

So doesn't that seem like the MultiPlus would do? Is there any other difference between the MultiPlus and the Quattro worth thinking about?

[JayH]

The dual inputs of the Quattro is interesting, especially if they can be programmed with different amp input limits. Shorepower and Generator might be a good application if you switch between them a lot, which I don't. I'd use the two inputs for Gen1/Shore & Gen2. I rarely switch between shorepower and the genset, but I often use a little Honda generator when the diesel genset would be a waste of fuel. I have to reprogram the amp input limit on my inverter/charger every time I switch between them.