Need Inverter Recommendations

[seasidemom]

I was just told that my inverter/charger is shot. When I bought my trawler (42' Bristol, two (2) 120 hp Ford Lehman engines, 50A shore power), it had a 2007 Xantrex 3000 inverter, and since then has had one made by Magnum. I am inclined to put the current model of the Xantrex 3000 in now, mostly b/c the guy who owned the boat before me was a smart guy and did a lot of great things with the boat. I also understand that Magnum has a good reputation, and that's the extent of the clues I have about the subject.

Can you recommend one manufacturer over another, and can you give me a brief education on the subject, if that is even possible?

 

[ranger58sb]

I can't recommend one over another, no experience with most brands.

I can say 1) we had a ProMariner inverter/charger that worked fine, and 2) Xantrex has acquired a really grim on-line reputation over the last decade or so...

-Chris

 

[DavidM]

Victron, Magnum and Mastervolt are considered the top brands. Xantrex, maybe a step down.

But why did your Magnum fail. Could it have been an installation problem?

David

 

[DDW]

I'd say Victron and Mastervolt, with Magnum and Xantrex a step or two down. I've owned all of those brands.

 

[caltexflanc]

I'm a Magnum guy myself, based on 6 1/2 years of beating the hell out of one with daily usage. It was still operating perfectly when we sold the boat. US company, US made with great US support. Their system of remote, battery monitor and even auto generator start is easy and literally fool proof, as witnessed by our happy and successful ownership.

I too question why your is "shot" , which could be why the Xantrex got shot too.

 

[Scottwb96]

I would definitely NOT do a Xantrex...

I have a Magnum today. I also have the control panel, the AGS module. While I think it is a solid product and works well. I think the company itself comes up a bit short on forward thinking. Hasn't really been a lot of R&D or updates to what's available in today's market.
I spent about an hour on the phone with them and the tech was great, walked me through every menu/sub-menu to make sure I had everything setup to get the most out of it.
While on the call he let me know that pre-covid the company was exploring N2K integration but that was completely scrapped months ago with nothing on the roadmap to revisit...
If I was having to start fresh, I would 100% be looking at Victron. So many integrations, programming options, abilities to expand upon the platform, ability to update for future firmware revisions, etc...

 

[High Wire]

We installed a Magnum 2000 I/C with Remote 5 years ago and could not be happier. Initially tried using it without the Remote but that is critical to customizing settings to meet cruiser demands.

A perfect example is the Remotes' ability to limit shore power draw when limited to a heavily loaded shore power dock (or crowded boatyard receptacle). You can limit down to 5 amps which sometimes is the difference between keeping the whole dock powered up or tripping everyone off. The I/C default setting is 30 amp which can allow the charger to max out at 16 amps AC when the charger starts up.

 

[The Brockerts]

I would definitely NOT do a Victron, I've own both a Xantrex and Victron. Abused a Xantrex for 7 years no problem and functioned exactly like I want. I"ve have a Victron for 10 months, nothing but problems.

The Brockerts

 

[rslifkin]

I would definitely NOT do a Victron, I've own both a Xantrex and Victron. Abused a Xantrex for 7 years no problem and functioned exactly like I want. I"ve have a Victron for 10 months, nothing but problems.

The Brockerts

Interesting. What kind of issues? I just put in a bunch of Victron gear (including an inverter) and so far in my testing, it's all worked fine. 95% of the inverter use has been as a battery charger so far, however, as the boat hasn't been in the water since the install.

 

[tiltrider1]

Magnum, Victron, Outback, Xantrex, Mastervolt. All good choices but? You need to match your needs to the model you buy, not the manufacture. You could pick the best manufacture and still pick the wrong model and then you will be bad mouthing your unit forever.

Make sure you pick a pure sine wave unit. You need to also match the charging capability to your battery bank size. Some units can only pass through shore current, others can add capacity to shore power(in other words, if you only have 30a of shore but you need 50a to run additional loads for a short time).

The Trace sw2512 was the best inverter/charger ever made. Unfortunately they were bought by Xantrex who discontinued the line.

My most current experience is with Magnum. I have the 3000 watt Hybrid unit. The first one I installed had some peculiar behavior. They sent me a new one with a return label. The second one has been flawless. I was impressed because the first one didn't fail, it just had a mysterious quirk to it. Their position was that something was wrong and they didn't want to wait to see if it failed.

 

[The Brockerts]

Current problem was the switch over time, somewhere in the range of 1.5 minutes to 2 minutes. Switch over time now is running somewhere between 1.5 minutes and never.

The Brockerts

 

[mikehar]

I have a somewhat complicated Victron setup (two inverters in parallel providing 240vac). It has been working great, was surprisingly easy to setup. We just added the battery shunt and the cerbo gx to get some monitoring and n2k data, looking forward to seeing what it does!

It has a lot of nice features from Bluetooth connections (which I thought I wouldn't use) to nice power sharing features.

 

[Simi 60]

I would definitely NOT do a Victron, I've own both a Xantrex and Victron. Abused a Xantrex for 7 years no problem and functioned exactly like I want. I"ve have a Victron for 10 months, nothing but problems.

The Brockerts

We have had a Victron 5000/120 inverter charger for 4.5 years of 24/7 full time cruising usage
Best thing ever
Easy install, easy setup, haven't touched it since.
Occasionally look at it when passing and go "oooh aaah , good blue box"

 

[DDW]

Current problem was the switch over time, somewhere in the range of 1.5 minutes to 2 minutes. Switch over time now is running somewhere between 1.5 minutes and never.

The Brockerts

I'd say, something is very wrong with your installation. Switchover time on a Victron inverter should be in the 20 - 30 millisecond range.