AC leak...sometimes

[gscriba]

Hello All,
I have a Xantrex FSW 3012 that seems to be working just fine. Inverts and charges great; but for the most part, the charger is disengaged via control panel. We are plugged into a 30 amp shore pedestal, but also have a decent solar array to support our electrical habit so I need to recharge the house bank once every couple weeks. About a week ago, a marina employee was working on our pedestal and while working on said pedestal, I manually switched on the charger to refill our LFP house bank. The worker noted that at the point I turned on the charger, there was a 500 mA difference between the hot and neutral and 250 mA on the ground; all at the pedestal. When I turned the charger off, there was no discrepancy between the hot and neutral; 0 mA on the ground. Interestingly, there was no shore side GFCI break. I do not have an ELCI installed, but have been looking at the SmartPlug ELCI and breaker combo.
So...questions are can this be a wiring issue on the boat as opposed to an internal Xantrex component failure? Or does the fact that the discrepancy only occurs during battery charging narrow the fault to the Xantrex unit itself? I would be happy to pull the unit if there was someone in the San Fran Bay area who could bench test the unit for me. Until then, I'd like to problem solve and leave the charger off.

[smac999]

Possible something wrong with the netreal to ground bond relay inside the inverter. It should only be closed when inverting. If it’s closed it will cause ground current back to dock. Maybe it’s closing while charging.

Very common for inverters to be wired incorrectly on boats with a common shore and inverter output neutral bus. This will cause mismatch currents and ground curents. But only cause issues the first 30 secs after plugging in. Because the neutral ground relay stays closed for 30 secs. Then the weird currents will go away once it opens. . So this is Not constant problem This happens with a working relay but wrong wiring.

Both the above will blow elci breakers. Fix your issue before getting an elci. Or you will never have shore power on.

[gscriba]

smac999, I've been reading a bunch of your posts. Thanks for what you have previously contributed and for this response.
I'm looking into getting the Xantrex FSW 3012 bench tested. Supposedly there is a place up near Sacramento that is a Xantrex service center so I'm reaching out to them to see if I can get the thing tested. If the Xantrex passes bench, I know I've got a boat problem and will get a marine electrician on the boat. In the mean time, I will look yet again at how the neutral is wired.
Thanks again.