[Richard]

Roy

i has the same problem on my bus on Christmas. My problem was the low temps. My marathon is equipped with a temp sensor and when it was compensating for the low temps charge rate was too high. Marathon talked me through disabling the sensor and all is well. I am not familiar with the details of your bus but thought it might help

Good luck

[Archived]

Thanks Bill, that makes a lot of sense. This is the first “cold” weather we have been in in this Bus. We are headed to warmer weather, Arizona. I will check about disconnecting the temp sensor.

Roy

[Roy]

How old are the batteries Roy.

[Archived]

The batteries are 2 years old.

[Roy]

Most likely it is the temp but you might try to re boot the unit, kind of like when your I-phone is acting up you shut it off and restart it. On inverters you have to disconnect all power to it AC volts (unplug) and disconnect DC battery power, on some coaches the battery disconnect is not enough so you have to disconnect battery, If the screen is blank that means it off, give it a minute and power it back up. One thing that happens is people plug electric heaters in their coach for heat and most of the time the power passes though the inverter and most inverters can’t handle all those amps and it weakens the relays in the inverter. If you want to plug in a heater check for a plug that is hot when it’s not plugged in turn on inverter to invert and any plug that is not hot is not running though inverter and that is better. Easiest way is to run a extension 12 or 10 gauge cord to an outside soars, Heaters and inverters don’t mix well.

[Randall]

Thanks Art, I did use one heater. And I think it was on an inverter receptacle. I’ll try to do a re-boot when we stop today.

[Archived]

New twist. Disconnected shore power this morning. Flipped AC inverter breakers on. Returned to the front and had a double alarm. Both inverters had “Batteries Volt High”. Turned breakers off. Everything is fine. The alternator seems to be slightly charging.

Roy

[Art]

The other day I went out to the coach and it has 2 electric heaters down by floor and the 1 in bathroom was running and knob was all the way towards off but it was cold enough heater was on. those 2 heaters do not go through inverters so I Re wired and I put a house style switch with 1 receptacle on it so now I can shut heater off and also plug in my Dyson heater safety into it with out putting a strain on Inverters.

[Harry]

plug in my Dyson heater safety into it with out putting a strain on Inverters.

Art,

A heater that does not put a strain on the inverters ? How many amps does it draw ? Please tell Us more about this Dyson heater You speak of ?

[Archived]

It think it is a Dyson AM09 heater it pulls 12.5 amps, I still put it on a separate plug not through inverter. Eric is a Xantrex dealer repair and he said the small relays on circuit board on inverters and rated 30 amps but they are not that strong so he said around 110 volt panel put a dedicated plug 15 to 20 amps for heaters and coffee makers (Keurig) are not good on inverters. Also try to unplug TCS on inverter and try it.

[Harry]

I’m having trouble understanding why a resistive load like heaters that have current draw well below an inverter rating would be an issue compared to loads such as the start-up current draw of an A/C unit that many owners subject their inverters to.

Unlike the initial current draw of an A/C unit, a water pump or aux compressor resistive loads are quite easy to handle because they never slam the inverter with a huge current draw.

[DON]

On most all inverters they have pass through, everything that inverts passes through the inverter, regardless if it is inverting or not, it goes through small relays that are soldered on a circuit board, not real big and AC power goes through and things like heaters pull 12.5 or more through for long periods of time a blow dryer pulls a lot of amps but a short time, my Aqua Hot pulls around 13 amps but it has is own breaker.

[Archived]

I am well aware of how inverters are pass through devices in the presence of shore or generator power.

I don’t think this discussion is about inverted loads, but pass through loads so my question or comments reflected that situation. As soon as shore or generator power is available to the inverters it acts upon the inverter to close a circuit, typically a relay, such that certain functions and devices in a coach can have power via that shore or generator power rather than the inverter providing that power from the batteries.

We often mention strongly on this forum the importance of making sure we do not have loads on those pass through circuits when we switch to or from inverter to shore or generator power to avoid the arcing that happens under heavy loads when relays or contactors are switched. But this discussion relates to resistive loads somehow being bad, yet is silent on the real killers of electrical contacts such as A/C units or other similar type loads with a very heavy initial current draw.

A Mach 5 water pump or some aux compressors spank the circuit with heavy current draw and then settle down to a continuous current draw. If a relay or its contacts are undersized or not closing completely it is those loads that are damaging. Inductive loads such as electric motors are a real challenge for inverters.

[Dan]

Arrived in Albuquerque yesterday in 50 degree weather. Connected to shore power turned on inverter AC breakers and inverters worked properly. No errors. In a PM discussion will Gil, he pointed out the the input AC was 130v and this is enough for the inverters to shut down. Could have been the cold and/or high line voltage. I will be monitoring the inverters and incoming line voltage. I want to thank everyone for their input. I too, had do idea that I should not plug in a heater to a inverted line. Will not do that again.

Roy

[Jerry]

I’m having a similar issue where I just got all new batteries and inverters only one will go into charge mode. The other will not. Anyone help me out here?