Xantrex thy name is unreliable

'nuff said.

They sure have a great marketing plan as many OEM's use their equipment. That's the only praise I can give the company. I made it a point to never buy anything with the Xantrex name on it many years ago and that has worked well for me.

Ron

Xantrex had some great products in the late 1990's.

Sounds like it has been downhill.

If you have the $$$$$ Mastervolt seems to be the new leader.

Simple stuff ,Outback is also good.

Victron seem to very hard to beat in quality and reliability.
Appear to be supplied equipment on many new vessels world wide.
They have a good following in Aus especially after a lot of failures with Mastervolt & Xantrex

Xantrex. Our "Mystery Meter". Our boat came with a Xantrex Link 1000 and a Freedom 30 Inverter/Charger.
It all seems to work okay, except:

The Link 1000 display shows a constant .6 to 1.0 amp draw even when the batteries are all switched off, shore power is connected (AC "in") and the batteries are fully charged and in float mode at around 13.80 - 14.10 +/- volts. Over several days the LED "fuel gauge" light bar marches downwards (4 lights then 3 then 2 then 1 then blinking 1), the readout for amp hours consumed increases and the readout for amp hours remaining decreases. Again, even though the display shows that the batteries are charged.

We have had a couple of marine electricians trying to figure out what is going on. No luck. They confirm that absolutely everything is on the correct side of the shunt and all Link connection wires are where they should be.

If the charger is keeping the batteries fully charged and nothing else is "on", then why does the Link display show juice is still being consumed and that the batteries are running lower and lower when they are not?

Does the Freedom 30/Xantrex Link use .6 to 1.0 to operate?

Really confusing

Old Stone wrote:
How many days will you lose?

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*Carl, sorry to be late in answering your question.* Half day.* We paid for overnite shipment of a new inverter.* I would not have ordered the replacement, but for the fact that I did not want to change the wiring.* Time was important.* We left St. Augustine at 1335 hrs. yesterday, stopped in Fernandina Beach at FL Petroleum for 270 gal of diesel at $3.95/gal.* Then it was on to Jekyll Island, GA by 1830hrs.* Hilton Head tonight. Standby for breaking news!

Moonstruck wrote:Old Stone wrote:
How many days will you lose?

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*Carl, sorry to be late in answering your question.* Half day.* We paid for overnite shipment of a new inverter.* I would not have ordered the replacement, but for the fact that I did not want to change the wiring.* Time was important.* We left St. Augustine at 1335 hrs. yesterday, stopped in Fernandina Beach at FL Petroleum for 270 gal of diesel at $3.95/gal.* Then it was on to Jekyll Island, GA by 1830hrs.* Hilton Head tonight. Standby for breaking news!

*under warranty or on your dime?* I hope that otherwise the trip is good!

Pineapple Girl wrote:
*under warranty or on your dime?* I hope that otherwise the trip is good!

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*My dime.** 2 years old.*The rest of the trip is spectacular.* However there are some later developments that I will go into later.*

Don:

Glad to see that you are still "right side up." Cruising in that "raggedy old Sabre" must be a real pucker factor at times. I envy you.

SeaHorse II wrote:
Don:

Glad to see that you are still "right side up." Cruising in that "raggedy old Sabre" must be a real pucker factor at times. I envy you.

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*Walt, we came through the Georgia section of the ICW yesterday arriving Hilton Head Island, SC about 1530hrs.* I know of no other waterway like it.* 100 miles with mostly nothing but marsh grass on either side of you.* It twists and turns like a serpent.* It will look like you are meeting a boat, but around the next bend you are passing it.* The green head or yellow flies were out in force.* They can take a hunk of flesh when they bite.* We passed about 30-40 open cockpit boats with the occupants swatting th** e flies.* They*tried to get in Moonstruck, but we were closed in air conditioned comfort.

A side note:* These flies along with gnats and no-see-ms were developed in the*South during that recent unpleasantness known as the Civil War.* They were developed to run Yankees back north.* They are still on the job.* You should have seen the Canadian and northern state registered boats scurrying back north.* Yea, we never give up*!

Probably old news and or rumor ----

As best I understand Xantrex was sold about a decade ago. The old group agreed to a 5 year stand back but have now entered the business with a new line called Magnum(?) and is made in PNW. *The rub against Victron is parts come from east coast to PNW, otherwise good reports. My Xantrex has thus far performed flawlessly, but I said same about my Raymarine radar just before it went kaput last summer.

Sometimes*inverter/charging systems rise and fall on*peripheral things* such as install bits and pieces, on engine alternators and shore power and genset integrity.

Sunchaser,

That not the story I have heard for many years. About a decade ago Xantrex was formed by buying Freedom, Prosine and Trace, all makers of fairly decent charging and inverter equipment and giving good support. Xantrex then tore these companies apart, keeping the pieces that made the most money for them. Some Trace engineers left and formed Outback to make a much better inverter and later some more engineers left Xantrex after they tried to get the management to improve the product. They formed Magnum, which in my opinion is the best inverter around AND they give great service. I have owned an Outback inverter and had no problems with the equipment or the service. I now own a Magnum and am very happy with it. For the new boat I choose Magnum over Outback because of the ease of turning off the charger if I choose. A simple button press for the Magnum versus a menu change for the Outback.

Ron

windmist wrote:
Sunchaser,

That not the story I have heard for many years. About a decade ago Xantrex was formed by buying Freedom, Prosine and Trace, all makers of fairly decent charging and inverter equipment and giving good support. Xantrex then tore these companies apart, keeping the pieces that made the most money for them. Some Trace engineers left and formed Outback to make a much better inverter and later some more engineers left Xantrex after they tried to get the management to improve the product. They formed Magnum, which in my opinion is the best inverter around AND they give great service. I have owned an Outback inverter and had no problems with the equipment or the service. I now own a Magnum and am very happy with it. For the new boat I choose Magnum over Outback because of the ease of turning off the charger if I choose. A simple button press for the Magnum versus a menu change for the Outback.

Ron

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*I'm a little hazy on the past as well, but I recall that Xantrex was a smallish company based in a Vancouver, B.C. suburb that had just come out with it's first sine-wave inverter (They already had a successful line of 12VDC chargers).* I bought one of the very first of their high-frequency inverter/chargers in 1998, a ProSine 2500.

They then purchased Heart Technologies (which included the Freedom line), and Trace.* After some time, they started consolidating and*closed the manufacturing sites in Arlington and Kent, WA., along with*consolidating*their product lines.* As you point out,*a number of local engineers*from Heart and Trace ended up starting their own companies.

The ProSine2500 ended up overheating in the summer of 2004 (due to high ambient temps), and instead of taking it to Arlington, WA to have them check it over, I elected to take advantage of an upgrade program and was able to*trade it almost straight across for a Prosine3000, which continues to operate very well today.

In those days before 2005, Xantrex had a significant local presence, along with excellent products and good service.

So, the bottom line is Magnum makes a good inverter ??

sunchaser wrote:
So, the bottom line is Magnum makes a good inverter ??

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Well, if you're asking me, I don't know what to tell you as I have not investigated Magnum or Outback or any others.

Just lamenting*the fact that Xantrex had all the right reasons to purchase their gear years ago, there are fewer good reasons today.

The "best" inverter will be chosen by your actual needs.

A cheapo $200 1500W is just fine for a microwave , coffee pot , hair dryer or other uncaring load.

A true sine wave (big buck) unit is needed for large AC motor loads , Water maker , air cond , scuba compressor.

While a cheap house fridge will run 10-20% shorter on Sine wave , usually an extra battery is cheaper than a good quality inverter.

Spending $2000 and up when a $150- $200 unit will work fine may not be the best use of boat bucks.

i thought he said xanax I like that stuff