Mastervolt Combimaster - are they throwaways?

[shimari]

It usually takes them a week+ to respond to an email.

The support team is great. Management just won't hire enough of them. It's sad.

[Alistair242]

I think there is a breaker underneath the unit near where the power cables come in. Have you checked that? There is also the electronic switch normally on the mastervolt easyview panel. If you have one of these to monitor battery levels/charging etc then check the combimaster is on here.

[Namoian]

We have had two Mastervolt Combimasters fail. The first one lasted over ten years while the second only one year. The symptoms were no light on the units, and nothing could be done to revive them.

In both cases, I was not on the boat, which was left plugged into shore power to keep the batteries topped up.

I note that, unlike some other units, the Mastervolt does not protect from high shore power voltage. My suspicion is that there were some spikes in voltage (i.e. above 132v AC), and this fried the electronics.

We now leave the boat on solar when leaving it in a marina outside of Canada or the US where shore power is suspect.

[Leee]

If I were you, I'd start switching over to a more reliable product like Victron. I have had three Mastervolt 12/100-3 chargermasters fail over ten years (one still under warranty) and have a new Chargemaster plus on board that the dealer didn't know would not work with the existing Easyview on so had to replace that as well. The mass combi, the shunt, the USB interface and the Isolation transformer still work after ten years though. When one could contact a tech in Holland, service was great but now service is awful, the expertise of the sales/service staff at local dealers inadequate and their products do not seem to last ast long. Any local techs I've run into between Greece Italy and the UK don't know enough to trouble shoot a product; they just know how to replace it. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that they are designed to fail shortly after the warranty runs out. Everything new coming aboard is Victron. By the way , it seems that the latest iteration of the Chargemaster is incapable of providing a balancing charge.

[Shaneesprit]

Originally Posted by DougM

I have a 3 year old Mastervolt combimaster. Installed by boat manufacturer, standalone (no czone or masterbus). It worked fine up and was lightly used, plugging in a vacuum cleaner or chargers for power tools and phones. It seems to be dead. No indicator lights on when switched on or off. I took the panel off, connection to batteries was fine and there is plenty of voltage. I can also get shore power onto its 120V inputs. But the thing is just dead, no 120V output and no indicator lights despite position of main switch and pressing overload breaker.

First question: anyone here ever had such a problem? Any suggestions on what to try? I've read the manual thoroughly and there doesn't seem to be much else to try.

Second Question: how does one get help? Their website and manual say contact local dealer. I'm in Nova Scotia, and the only dealer is Radio Holland USA who don't answer any of their numbers, and pressing the number for 'service' gets me disconnected. I called West Marine, they gave me a number for Navico who recently bought Mastervolt. I called the number a couple of times and it says 'all technicians are busy - call later'.


I'm getting a bad feeling about this. I have faint hope this is something easily resolved. But if it needs repair, i wonder if repair cost, shipping, and lead time will make it impractical. They seem great at making these things available for sale, but without service, they are way expensive for a throwaway item.

From memory MasterVolt is from Holland - maybe look up phone numbers there - I went to the factory once as it was closer than returning to country of purchase - Really helpful people.

[Leee]

No point even trying to call the numbers in Holland any longer. No answer. Ever.

[Student_Driver]

Is Mastervolt no longer operating? What is the context here?

[shimari]

They are operating. Brunswick acquired them in 2021 and then Navico in 2022.

Much like when Garmin (or any large company) acquires a company, the customer service is usually merged and many let go. Service takes a huge hit in the ability to help customers. That's what's going on here.

[DougM]

Originally Posted by Alistair242

I think there is a breaker underneath the unit near where the power cables come in. Have you checked that? There is also the electronic switch normally on the mastervolt easyview panel. If you have one of these to monitor battery levels/charging etc then check the combimaster is on here.

tried the breaker, no joy. dont have a easyview panel, this is standalone.

[DougM]

Originally Posted by Namoian

We have had two Mastervolt Combimasters fail. The first one lasted over ten years while the second only one year. The symptoms were no light on the units, and nothing could be done to revive them.

In both cases, I was not on the boat, which was left plugged into shore power to keep the batteries topped up.

I note that, unlike some other units, the Mastervolt does not protect from high shore power voltage. My suspicion is that there were some spikes in voltage (i.e. above 132v AC), and this fried the electronics.

We now leave the boat on solar when leaving it in a marina outside of Canada or the US where shore power is suspect.

interesting. Mine was rarely plugged into shore power (lots of solar charging), and wasnt plugged in for months before it died so it couldnt have been that. But the fact that yours had same symptoms and was unrevivable doesn't bode well.

[DougM]

Originally Posted by Leee

No point even trying to call the numbers in Holland any longer. No answer. Ever.

i've spent hours on the phone, sent multiple emails. probably time to give up ???

[Bowdrie]

No matter the make/model, there has always been a strong case that can be made for having chargers and inverters as separate discrete devices.

[s/v Jedi]

Doug, this doesn’t help you now, but if you’re gonna make any changes, this may help you prevent this in the future;

Your situation with a dead invert/charger is one of the reasons for having the bypass breaker in my diagrams. It allows you to have AC power even in that case, without rewiring things (which has caused me major headaches in the past).

Also, a setup where you have two units, gives you obvious redundancy even if inly at half capacity. But I don’t recommend units smaller than the popular 3000W models so that puts one at 6000W which only makes sense for electric galleys, lfp batteries, solar arrays etc.

Note that the rotary switches in the distribution panel can also be done with a slider only allowing one of two breakers to be on.

These diagrams support 120/240V but are easily adapted to 120V only.

[DougM]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Doug, this doesn’t help you now, but if you’re gonna make any changes, this may help you prevent this in the future;

Your situation with a dead invert/charger is one of the reasons for having the bypass breaker in my diagrams. It allows you to have AC power even in that case, without rewiring things (which has caused me major headaches in the past).

Also, a setup where you have two units, gives you obvious redundancy even if inly at half capacity. But I don’t recommend units smaller than the popular 3000W models so that puts one at 6000W which only makes sense for electric galleys, lfp batteries, solar arrays etc.

Note that the rotary switches in the distribution panel can also be done with a slider only allowing one of two breakers to be on.

These diagrams support 120/240V but are easily adapted to 120V only.

Great idea, very nice system. I love the redundancy.

[Bill-G]

I know this is an old thread but I'm posting to share what I've learned about this issue in hopes it can assist someone else who reads this.
Mastervolt Combi units will NOT boot up if an error code has been stored in the memory. There are many potential sources of these errors and a computer connection is required to access the specific error coed. So, what to do?
Remove ALL sources of power to the unit and let stand for about 5 minutes.
Disconnect AC power, Batteries (remove the external fuse that you should have in the red + cables. Remove all communication cables, if present. Let the unit sit to discharge all the capacitors inside.
Make sure the switch is in the "charge only" position and that any remote switch is also off.
Measure the battery voltage - if not above 11 volts, then connect something other than the Mastervolt unit to charge the batteries.
Reinstall the external main battery fuse so you have power at the Mastervolt input.
Reestablish AC power input to the unit. The unit should boot up with the AC input and Charger lights on. Now turn on the units power switch and it should pass AC to the output terminals.

Mastervolt's logic is this (I believe):
Do not allow charger output UNLESS a valid battery load is present.
- Safety related. Ensures as much as possible that charger output will safely reach a battery and not just cables dangling somewhere (remember this is a high current charger.
Below 10 volts? Better not chance that a six volt battery is connected by mistake - make the user charge the batteries somehow else so that something near 12 volts is seen.

Note: This also means you can't pass shore power to the output without reasonably charged batteries - shortsighted in my opinion - but such is the design intent.
Hope this helps someone avoid the tail chasing I endured!

Bill