Best inverter charger?

[smac999]

Originally Posted by CarlF

Victron

While the Magnum is a good unit, the Victron has similiar features but also has a great feature called "PowerAssist". Last time I looked, Magnum didn't have anything similiar (perhaps that's changed?).
.

yes, the magnum hybrids.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by colemj

It is likely that the generator's dirty power and charger's non-unity power factor will knock 15% off the max charge current.

Although your 3.5 has a different head, so it may be better in this regards.

Mark

It might, hopefully will find out this weekend. I'm going to temp install with 2 ga wire and get exact lengths, then order 4/0 with terminal ends already installed. So I may have to wait a few weeks to find out. Be an interesting test as I don't have an O scope and wouldn't know what I was looking at if i did


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[a64pilot]

Magnum 2812 inverter / charger, 2800W inverter, 125 amp three stage charger.


It's mostly installed, it charges at 126 amps on shorepower and 124 on generator, I think shorepower is a little more than 120V and generator is 120V is the slight difference, but no drop at all from generator.
Fans only seem to run when inverter power is high and or charging at very high, like more than 100 amps, but normal house loads, TV etc., never turn on a fan. Fans turn on at load and temp, so if you hit it hard with a load, fans come on instantly, and go off soon after the load is off. They are computer fans, so even running hard, they are pretty quiet.
I really like that you can tell it your AC input power limit and it will turn down the charger to not exceed that limit. It pulls about 20 amps at max charge rate, my other 60 amp charger another 10 or so, and if I turn on the water heater or something else, it immediately turns down charging to maintain 30 amps as I told it 30 was max. It allows a custom battery charge setting so I set it to match my other charger exactly, they play well together.

Switchover from external AC to inverter is 16 milliseconds, so you can turn off the generator or shorepower and the switchover is so fast the TV, lights or whatever don't even flicker and nothing resets. Turn external AC back on and it waits I think 30 sec. to ensure power is stable before switching to external power and beginning charging.

Only down side is the thing is huge and heavy, but I guess at this power level it has to be.

Oh, and you have to have DC power applied to it for it to function at all, remove DC completely and AC power will not pass through it.


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[model 10]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Magnum 2812 inverter / charger, 2800W inverter, 125 amp three stage charger.
It's mostly installed, .
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That sounds bomber. However I would have a #2 system ready to go. maybe a small 500 watt pure sign wave inverter and a solid state charger, 15 amps maybe. The big fancy stuff does quit.

[colemj]

You really shouldn't have high draw items like the water heater running through the inverter's circuit/transfer switch. A break in shore power will have the inverter supplying that power and can run down your batteries pretty quickly.

Even at that power level, it doesn't have to be huge and heavy. Smaller, lighter high-frequency inverter/chargers also exist. There are tradeoffs between those and line-frequency ones like yours. Having owned both types, I prefer the line-frequency ones, but others may have requirements that make high-frequency a better choice.

Mark

[smac999]

Originally Posted by colemj

You really shouldn't have high draw items like the water heater running through the inverter's circuit/transfer switch. A break in shore power will have the inverter supplying that power and can run down your batteries pretty quickly.


Mark

one issue we have here is people with space heaters plugged into outlets all winter while off the boat and then lose shore power with the inverter left in ON mode. battery dead in hours. you can't move outlets off the inverter. but inverters should always be left in off mode. which is why you need an inverter with separate charger and inverter switches. some don't.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by colemj

You really shouldn't have high draw items like the water heater running through the inverter's circuit/transfer switch. A break in shore power will have the inverter supplying that power and can run down your batteries pretty quickly.

Mark, you're right. And after almost 20 years, it is still an issue to get many folks to understand that a boat water heater need not be left on for more than 20-30 minutes to heat six gallons of water and then turned off until needed again. Holdovers from house stuff lingers....

[a64pilot]

I now have two chargers, three counting the alternator.
I'd never run the inverter to heat water, that is pretty dumb I think as heating water takes an ENORMOUS amount of power. I just did it after the install to see how the inverter handled big loads, how loud the fans were etc., and to just play with the thing.
When I leave the boat, all AC power, except the battery charger is off, and maybe an AC unit depending on weather, just habit. Even with shorepower, I don't leave the water heater on, I guess I don't trust the thing and we shower at the Marina shower when we have shorepower so have very little need for hot water.
Inverter and charger are independent on this thing so you can turn either or both off, I had thought I would turn the whole thing off and run my other charger when I'm away from the boat, no point in having both powered up.

I have a 660 Ah bank, the inverter making 2800 W, pulls over 300 amps, so it would go through my bank in one hour, assuming the bank could handle that high a discharge rate. It won't kill the bank though, it has an adjustable low battery cut off point. I'd be leery of leaving a space heater un attended though, I almost burned down a house with one of those things, if the carpet hadn't been apparently fire proof, I would have. I only use an oil filled space heater after that.


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[a64pilot]

Update on the Magnum.
It works as advertised, one of the better things about it is the remote, it's one of those things that is so easy to use, there is no need for a manual. Well laid out and self explanatory.
You need the remote, without it, you can't change battery types or almost anything, the remote is to be considered essential, unlike the Sterling charger, you cannot program anything on the Magnum without the remote, matter of fact I do not think it should be called remote. It is a control panel.
Transition from generator / shore power to inverter is seemless, not even a flicker.
Inverter has as part of it's set-up menu where you set the max amps the AC input can provide, with the theory that the inverter will turn down the charger to keep from exceeding the max amps specified. Now this works very well, except a large spike load like the start up amps a large airconditioner requires is so high and of such a short duration that the charger can't function quick enough, so if I'm drawing almost 30 amps total from my 30 amp shorepower and the AC compressors kicks in, it won't start, doesn't blow any breakers, just won't start. There is an easy work around, just turn the charger power down with the remote to 50% or so if your going to be running the AC, or during bulk charging, don't use the AC.
Water heater or other large loads like maybe a toaster etc. work fine, they don't apparently have a huge initial amp draw an AC compressor does.

During bulk charging the fans in the charger run at full RPM, but truly they are not loud at all, and that is on shore power, generator running of course you would never hear them, however there is significant heat output from the thing when charging at 125 amps, this thing does need to be out in the open and not in an enclosed space and if it is, then it needs to be ventilated. It is too much heat for me to have mounted behind my Settee, that would not have worked well.
But it is one of the better things I have done, works better than I had hoped, now to see if I have the elecrical capacity to take full advantage of the thing