Xantrex Chargers

[Sailormannn]

SInce I've had lots of feedback on issues with Xantrex chargers, might be worth putting a poll up and see how many folks are actually having problems.

[zeehag]

i LOVE the one i have in my ericson, but is a pre-china one from a few years ago--now they are made in china and have issues----min eis a charger/invertor 1000 wt

[daddle]

The whole charging and inverting issue depressed me. Burnouts, weight and expense. So I evicted them all from the boat. Only solar and a small alternator engine charge the 12v batteries now. One tiny cheap inverter is used to charge the laptop and trim my hair. Tore out the shorepower too. Saves much weight, maintenance, and any possibility of having an attractive yet unsuitable woman move aboard with her microwave oven, coffeemaker and high-maintenance tools.

[zeehag]

daddle --you are fun to read!!!!!

[billyehh]

The original Freedom 2000 got soaked and was toast when I bought the boat. I replaced it with a rebuilt 1500 and it has been fine for 4 years. I'm not sure about the charger since I haven't been in a marina in over 2 years. Charging is done 90% by solar and 10% by altenator. I use the invertor all the time and it works great controlled by a Link 2000

[DeepFrz]

Unless you are very specific on the Charger you are going to get meaningless results. Xantrex has been around for a long time and made very good products, but that quality seems to have slipped. You might get more info if you posted on a RV site and requested a poll on the specific unit you are interested in.
IMO of course.

[motion30]

Really do you have to ask?

[marshmat]

The Xantrex equipment I've used has been mostly professional-grade benchtop gear. Very versatile, very reliable. (Hard to tell the difference between the 0-12 and 0-120 VDC supplies, though, when they're stacked in a rack.... yes, we did cook a few things.)

There does seem to be some gear out there now that has the Xantrex brand but appears to be made under contract by someone else. My Xpower inverter says "designed in Canada, made in China" but doesn't specify who actually built it or where. Chinese QC is excellent if you pay for it, nonexistent if you don't, and if you're not actually involved with the contract there's no way to tell.

[redcobra]

Had a TrueCharge2 40 A that failed just out of warranty. Was told (by Xantrex), it could not be repaired because it was just a circuit board. The offered to sell me a new unit "at cost" which when I researched it I found their "at cost" was more than I could buy a new unit for from Abes's Of Maine .
Reinstalled my old Yellow 20A Xantrex (not built in china).
Won't buy any of their products again.

[Jim Cate]

Had a True-Charge 10, failed out of warranty. Called to ask about authorized repairers, was told that they regarded such small units as unrepairable. Told them to get stuffed, bought a Pro Mariner. Will not do business willingly with Xantrex again.

Cheers,

Jim

[adrac]

considering the new Xantrex gen III 40 amp charger only overheats putting out less than 5 amps on float mode and the only reason I knew mine was screwed up was because of the remote panel I installed in the cabin. It can be concluded that people who own this pos dont even know the fan is faulty because the charger still works and no faults are present for about 20-30 minutes after entering float mode drawing less than 5 amps continuously. ie any vessel whose DC accessories draw-over 5 amps the chargers fan works like its supposed to in float mode.....

[Kapena]

I liked the old xantrex inverters and chargers, also the Link 2000. The inverter failed after 15 years, one voltage regulator failed after 12 years and the link finally died.
The new xantrex regulators have been replaced 3 times and the programming mode doesn't work but I'm tired of replacing it. It's a piece of junk. The Link 2000 is no longer supported, but xantrex had a few available and I bought one. It was replaced on warranty within 30 days. The replacement crashes periodically and needs to be reset. It's a piece of junk.
The new inverter/charger failed on day 4. I returned it and got my money back, replaced it at half the cost with an AIms unit and never intend to buy another xantrex product. Just my experience.