Do experts recommend separate inverters and chargers?

[Kit_L]

@OldDan: that's sound thinking—there's never a reason to not have redundancy. Re. the charger, I have a big CTEC smart charger at home that I will bring aboard; in an emergency with boat charger out, I'd run the generator and use the CTEC to charge the batteries.

[RobbGrrr]

I'm a big fan of the Victron charger/inverter I've got onboard. Mostly because I have just a 30A shore connection.

The unit will modulate the charge current to the batteries down from the 100A max I've set based on what the rest of the boat is consuming. This keeps the boat from exceed my available 30A shore supply.

I think the integration is invaluable.

[bkcorwin]

One thing to be aware of with Victron, is that as far as I can tell and have experienced, there is ZERO technical support available directly from Victron. Their tech support website reads

"For technical assistance, please follow the steps below to quickly identify the issue. Feel free to contact the dealer you bought the product from, they are happy to help, trained with the highest of know-how and are responsible to assist you."

This is useless in a lot of situations. EG, you bought the product from amazon. OR also, i've found some vendors aren't able to provide much support. I had a technical question and was just directed by my vendor to go ask on the Victron Community Forum. I did and haven't heard anything from there either.

Not to say I don't like the products, my boat is heavily victron based, dual skylla chargers, dual quattros, cerbos, bmvs, phoenix inverters. So the stuff seems to work OK, but damned if I can find someone to ask a question of.

[MOJO]

Have always used inverter/charger combo and been very happy with them. The combo units seem to have a larger charger than you can find as a stand-alone unit. Also, don't skimp on the inverter, even if you think you only need it for cell phone & computer... it's nice to be able to plug in 110v power tools, fans, transfer pumps, etc.

[OldDan1943]

Originally Posted by MOJO

Have always used inverter/charger combo and been very happy with them. The combo units seem to have a larger charger than you can find as a stand-alone unit. Also, don't skimp on the inverter, even if you think you only need it for cell phone & computer... it's nice to be able to plug in 110v power tools, fans, transfer pumps, etc.

and remember, you must have the batteries to support your inverter.

[Phyrcooler]

Having had a Magnum Inverter Charger that had “issues”… I became a proponent of separating. Nothing like showing up on a Friday evening for a long holiday weekend to find an error code flashing, your house bank flat, and no way to recharge other than a very long run of the engines. No voltage was being passed through either. Thus began a long journey to sort out the unit and many stressful days on the boat. In the middle of this saga, I had my electrician install a large rotary bi-pass switch that allowed the shore power circuit to bi-pass the inverter completely. This was a smart move, because at least we had things like the A/C and microwave that the family deemed essential at the dock for all those times we showed up and the Magnum had gone into fault mode again!

Currently we’ve returned to sailing, and function just fine without an inverter. If I ever return to trawler life, my preference would be to separate. But if combined I would absolutely install a bi-pass for the AC power as well as a backup charger. If I ever add an inverter to the sailboat, it will be a small standalone pure sine wave.

[old-School]

I finally ended my electrical woes two years ago, I had a completely new system installed.
Check it out. I just know it works on a GB 42 Classic. Good luck. I spent many bucks to get to a system that works.

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by old-School

I finally ended my electrical woes two years ago, I had a completely new system installed.
Check it out. I just know it works on a GB 42 Classic. Good luck. I spent many bucks to get to a system that works.

What did you get? I don’t see an attachment.

[sunchaser]

Originally Posted by RobbGrrr

I'm a big fan of the Victron charger/inverter I've got onboard. Mostly because I have just a 30A shore connection.

The unit will modulate the charge current to the batteries down from the 100A max I've set based on what the rest of the boat is consuming. This keeps the boat from exceed my available 30A shore supply.

I think the integration is invaluable.

Modulation is not unique to Victron. If one is inverter/charger shopping insure your new unit has this feature especially for times when tied to 30 amp pedestals.