Which Brand of Inverter?

[Hard Rock Candy]

When I bought my boat in 98, it had a heart Inverter. It was a 2000 watt with a built in charger. It easily handled all my power stuff. I used 4 trojan golf cart batteries. I ran a bunch of power tools. Belt sander, orbital sander, drill motor, router, small skill saw, sewing machine, blender for drinks, Mixer for making cakes, I didn't even try to run anything with a heating element in it. I went months at a time without starting my engine. I had two 80 watt solar panels to keep the batteries up and never had a dead battery, except once in ten years. Mac

[CAELESTIS]

Outback is now made in India. I have the American made one. I would look elsewhere.


Magnum would be my choice today.

[smac999]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

2. A charger-inverter with power boost, through which all your AC power goes on its way to your AC system..

I installed a magnum hybrid (their power boost version) on a boat and determined the power boost feature was useless on a boat. it would only work if the whole boat ran though the inverter. but nobody wires a boat like that.

IE your HWT and 2nd battery charger are running and drawing 20a direct from a shore bus. and you draw another 15a to an outlet through the inverter/charger. the boost is not going to kick in because it only sees 15a being used. but you just blew the 30a shore breaker.

[smac999]

Originally Posted by CAELESTIS

Outback is now made in India. I have the American made one. I would look elsewhere.


Magnum would be my choice today.

the outback displays are the most confusing thing I've seen on a boat.

the magnums are awesome. have put in a lot.

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by jbinbi

My boat has a battery charger, but no inverter. I have 330 Ah in my house bank. I want to be able to use AC outlets when not tied to shore power, was thinking a 1000 or 1800 pure sine inverter would be appropriate.

About 5 years ago I had a Xantrax inverter, I know they specialize in Marine and RV, don't know if their reputation has held.

I was hoping those more knowledgeable than me on the forum could give me their experience on this brand or others for what I want to do. Thanks.

Evaluate Magnum Energy inverter /chargers. We went with a 2800 watt that has a 125a charger built-in.

That may be too large for your current house bank, but would set you up for future expansion.

Emarine.com often has factory rebuilt units at a substantial savings. (40-60% off...) their monitor is first rate as well.

Enjoy the process.

Cheers!

Bill


-Bill
SV Denali Rose

[redsky49]

Originally Posted by wrwakefield

Evaluate Magnum Energy inverter /chargers. We went with a 2800 watt that has a 125a charger built-in.

That may be too large for your current house bank, but would set you up for future expansion.

Emarine.com often has factory rebuilt units at a substantial savings. (40-60% off...) their monitor is first rate as well.

Enjoy the process.

Cheers!

Bill


-Bill
SV Denali Rose

Do you mean emarineinc.com?

[Saltyhog]

Magnum Energy was bought buy Sensata. See https://www.marketvis.io/stock/st/fi...osuretextblock

The old Magnum web site is down. New one at DC to AC Power Inverters | Pure Sine & Modified Sine Inverters | Dimensions

I don't know if that is a bad thing or a good thing. It may mean nothing. I do know that in the past one of the great things about Magnum Energy, besides their well engineered and high quality products, was their customer service. They would do whatever they could to help you *not* have to ship an entire inverter/charger back for repair if you were in some remote port. I don't know if this is/was common, but I've heard accounts from two different sources. A knowledgeable technician on the phone to help me diagnose a problem to the component or board level would be worth a lot to me if I were someplace far off. That level of customer service is exceedingly rare today.

Sensata makes good products and I have no idea how or if they may change policies at Magnum. I just figured I'd share the facts of the purchase.

[Dulcesuenos]

I hear the combo charger inverter units have alot of failures. I like keeping them separate. We have a xantrex. Prowatt sw2000. And like it alot.

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by redsky49

Do you mean emarineinc.com?

That is likely it.

Sorry for guessing incorrectly. I responded while flying with no internet band never had a chance to vet the URL...

Thanks for finding it.

Cheers!


-Bill
SV Denali Rose

[wayne.b]

Originally Posted by jbinbi

My boat has a battery charger, but no inverter. I have 330 Ah in my house bank. I want to be able to use AC outlets when not tied to shore power, was thinking a 1000 or 1800 pure sine inverter would be appropriate.

About 5 years ago I had a Xantrax inverter, I know they specialize in Marine and RV, don't know if their reputation has held.

I was hoping those more knowledgeable than me on the forum could give me their experience on this brand or others for what I want to do. Thanks.

===

I recently installed a Magnum MS2812 inverter charger to replace an 8 year old Xantrex which finally failed after years of glitchy behavior. The Magnum has so far been rock solid after a year's service. It got great reviews from a number of people I know on the trawler group, and it also gets great reviews on Amazon. You'll also want the remote panel.

http://www.amazon.com/Magnum-MS2812-.../dp/B002MWAATK

If you'd like a lower priced option with somewhat less charging power, you might want this one:

Amazon.com: AIMS Power PICOGLF20W12V120VR 2000W Pure Sine Inverter Charger: Automotive

I now have two of those. One is the heart of a computer UPS system in my home, and the other I bought as a backup unit for the boat. It's a good rugged unit that does what it says at a relatively low price. As a primary unit on your boat I'd recommend getting the remote panel.

[jbinbi]

Appreciate the inputs.

Since I already have a charger, should I be looking only at inverter models, or what would be a good reason to get a combo charger/inverter model?

Also, do all these models sense when AC shore power is coming in?

Right now AC goes into the charger, i have switch on the AC panel for AC coming in and to turn on charger.

[redsky49]

Originally Posted by Saltyhog

Magnum Energy was bought buy Sensata. See https://www.marketvis.io/stock/st/fi...osuretextblock

The old Magnum web site is down. New one at DC to AC Power Inverters | Pure Sine & Modified Sine Inverters | Dimensions

I don't know if that is a bad thing or a good thing. It may mean nothing. I do know that in the past one of the great things about Magnum Energy, besides their well engineered and high quality products, was their customer service. They would do whatever they could to help you *not* have to ship an entire inverter/charger back for repair if you were in some remote port. I don't know if this is/was common, but I've heard accounts from two different sources. A knowledgeable technician on the phone to help me diagnose a problem to the component or board level would be worth a lot to me if I were someplace far off. That level of customer service is exceedingly rare today.

Sensata makes good products and I have no idea how or if they may change policies at Magnum. I just figured I'd share the facts of the purchase.

Well, I would guess that's the kiss of death.
Shame.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by smac999

I installed a magnum hybrid (their power boost version) on a boat and determined the power boost feature was useless on a boat. it would only work if the whole boat ran though the inverter. but nobody wires a boat like that.

IE your HWT and 2nd battery charger are running and drawing 20a direct from a shore bus. and you draw another 15a to an outlet through the inverter/charger. the boost is not going to kick in because it only sees 15a being used. but you just blew the 30a shore breaker.

"Nobody wires a boat like that"?

Scratching my head here. I wired my boat like that. And so does everyone who can read the installation instructions

If you use a second battery charger, then just set the current limit for that much less than the shore power capacity minus the draw of the second battery charger. I would think that is not all that hard to figure out

[smac999]

all my installs are wired as inverter sub panels so only centain loads can be inverted. and only those flow through the inverter. HWT, chargers, electric heaters, A/C etc are all on a shore bus.


on a 240v / 50a boat you can't pass through everything anyways. unless you stacked 2 of them I guess. But I have never tried to invert 240v. or I guess you could pass through %100 of line 1.


generally my 2nd charger is a mastervolt 100/3 which will vary from 0-17a. so hard to just set the shore setting down to 13a. it would be falsely boosting all the time. as the mastervolt is not commonly actually drawing 17a.


maybe if I had my own boat I could pass through everything. but I work on boats that are probably only used a couple times a year. and owners aren't really smart enough to figure out what should and shouldn't be inverted on their own. so they are limited to what should be via sub panel

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by smac999

all my installs are wired as inverter sub panels so only centain loads can be inverted. and only those flow through the inverter. HWT, chargers, electric heaters, A/C etc are all on a shore bus.


on a 240v / 50a boat you can't pass through everything anyways. unless you stacked 2 of them I guess. But I have never tried to invert 240v. or I guess you could pass through %100 of line 1.


generally my 2nd charger is a mastervolt 100/3 which will vary from 0-17a. so hard to just set the shore setting down to 13a. when the mastervolt is not commonly actually drawing 17a.


maybe if I had my own boat I could pass through everything. but I work on boats that are probably only used a couple times a year. and owners aren't really smart enough to figure out what should and shouldn't be inverted on their own. so they are limited to what should be via sub panel

It's not hard to wire it the way it's supposed to be wired. I did it myself, although I'm no electrician, and have been happily using it for five years.

You just reroute the shore power to the inverter/charger inlet, and the AC output goes to the main AC panel bus. Simples.

The Victron which I have has a 50 amp transfer switch, and it has a relay and separate output for the calorifier and similar loads which you don't want to feed from the inverter.