replacing inverter

[mysticdreamer]

hello looking for advice for a new inverter/charger. I have an old heart 2500w inverter that has quit working.30 yrs of service can't complain. Looking to upgrade to 3000w whats the best.it will have 2 8d battery's to maintain thanks in advance for your thoughts

 

[DavidM]

The quality 3,000 watt inverter/chargers from folks like Magnum, Mastervolt and Victron usually have a 130-150 watt charger which is really too big for two 8Ds.


Do you really need 3,000 watts? If you do then you probably need more batteries as well.



David

 

[mysticdreamer]

Thank you David just looking to bump the watts up a little as I have more electronics now than when the boat was built. Looking at a xantrex

 

[hmason]

I’m sure you will find many opinions about Xantrex. Some have had bad experiences. Xantrex was acquired by Schneider Electric and I have a unit from them that is now 7-years old. It’s a 2,500 watt model and I have had zero problems.

 

[Rossland]

Two 8D AGM batteries will only accept about 112A max. But it will do no harm to have an inverter/charger that is bigger than that, and you will be able to make use of the extra charging capacity if you ever decide to add extra batteries.
Make sure that any inverter/charger you buy can be reconfigured for lithium-ion. Even if you are not considering that battery type today, the time is quickly approaching when lithium will be the way to go, and you won't want to throw out a perfectly good charger/inverter just because you are changing batteries.

I have an older Magnum, and it is working good, but doesn't have some of the features that some others have. If I was buying a new inverter/charger today, I would probably go with Victron Multiplus. https://www.victronenergy.com

 

[Maerin]

I'll 2nd that there's some incongruity in matching a 3KW inverter to 2- 8D's. That's ~800 AH, pretty light for that capacity inverter. Having more electronics on board doesn't wash for needing more inverter capacity, since electronics are typically not power hogs. High resistance loads like microwaves, toasters would make more sense. I have a Magnum 2812 with a 1150 AH bank, we cruise full time, no shortage of capacity. Look beyond the inverter alone to the big picture of how the system functions. The inverter is one piece of that system. Avoid tunnel vision.

 

[DDW]

Two 8D AGM batteries will only accept about 112A max.

Depends on the 8Ds. Two Lifeline AGM 8D batteries would accept around 250A for awhile. And they would be plenty to run 3000 watts, as long as your usage is low duty cycle intermittent, which is all any high power inverter on a boat is good for anyway.

I'd agree with Victron, or Mastervolt. The US/Canadian companies are a decade or two off the technology curve.

 

[twistedtree]

If the charge rate is too high it's really not a big deal because you can turn it down on pretty much all inverters.


To me the bigger down side to overly large inverters is the standby power draw. We leave our inverters on all the time, and enjoy AC refrigeration, and other conveniences from continuous AC power. 95% of the time the power load is very low, but the inverter is still consuming a fixed amount of power to run itself, and that is totally wasted other than providing convenience. The bigger the inverter, the higher to standby loss.


So I would suggest sizing for you largest simultaneous load, or perhaps a touch larger. And I agree with others that a bunch of computers and a TV will NOT be the largest loads.

 

[O C Diver]

To me, I would rather buy the largest model that you find on most boats. As already mentioned, you can adjust the maximum charge rate to match your battery bank. Output is controlled by how many devices are used at the same time. Going with the larger size also means that you can easily increase use and charging should you increase the battery bank size. The other consideration is that the larger capacity can be used underway as you can utilize both the bank capacity and the alternator capacity. So as an example, if you want to cook a Turkey in the electric oven, you might not have the battery capacity to run the oven through the inverter, but the added amperage of the alternator allows it to happen. When the oven reaches set temperature, when it cycles on and off, the alternator is recharging / maintaining the batteries.

I've had great results with my Magnum Energy 2812 pure sine wave and highly recommend it.

Ted

 

[ranger58sb]

I'll 2nd that there's some incongruity in matching a 3KW inverter to 2- 8D's. That's ~800 AH, pretty light for that capacity inverter.

??

I think most 8Ds are rated at around 245 Ah, two in parallel would total ~490 Ah.

??

-Chris

 

[Larry M]

Take a look at Outback Power. US made and supported plus they are field serviceable and comes with a 5 year warranty.

http://www.outbackpower.com/downloa...m_series/m_series_mobile_marine_specsheet.pdf

 

[Seevee]

I'll second the Magnum Energy MS2812. Great unit, very popular and just works, love mine.

Also, unless one is really sharp on the install, a good ABYC electrical would be a good choice for the install.

 

[tiltrider1]

We used to install Trace SW2512 inverter/chargers. They were and still are very impressive units. Xantrex aquired trace and replaced the Trace line with cheaper less capable equipment. We now use the Magnum line. When looking at inverters and inverter chargers you want a pure sign wave product. Modified sine wave products will sneak up and disappoint you at some point.

 

[DDW]

Magnum 2812 idle power draw = 30 watts or 2.5A
Mastervolt 12/2500 idle power draw = 9 watts or 0.75A