Is my inverter fried?

[campigloo]

Hi y’all.
I have a 2kw Renogy inverter/charger/auto transfer switch connected to 4 Lifeline 6v agm batteries, wired series/parallel. Just for fun and to see what affect it would have on the batteries I plugged a 5k btu air conditioner in. It has a 4.6 amp draw and the batteries were at 13.1v. It ran fine for about 5 minutes and I turned it off to see how the batteries responded. They went to 12.9. I plugged the ac back in turned to fan only and nothing! Turned the inverter off and a couple of minutes later the lights flashed and less than a second later, nothing. Plugged into shore power, nothing. Is this just typical Chinese quality? It’s been mounted in the camper since Dec 2019 with moderate to light use and has worked fine up until now.
TIA for any thoughts!

[pianotuna]

Hi,

I hope the Victron will surpass your dreams.

I suspect that the cooling fans on the failed inverter stopped. That is what happened on my Magnum--so NEVER just shut the inverter down--the cooling fans may be (and are, on the Magnum) 120 volt operated. I have the black soot above the Magnum to remind me.

[campigloo]

Hi guys! Been gone awhile as I’m sure you’ve noticed and hopefully you gave up by now, lol.
Thanks for all the replies and info.
To wrap up and answer pianotuna’s question, I wrote off the China junk and got a Victron multiplus 3kva. I haven’t installed it yet but I’m really pumped over it. I like the resume for one. Victron is widely used in little things like oil refineries and on pipelines where reliability is paramount, boondocking is not their primary focus. I like the power assist and the trickle charger for the battery for the tongue jack.
Thanks again for all the feedback!!!
Mike

[wa8yxm]

Odds are the inverter is good the batteries are a bit low.
"
IF the inverter is "Fried" odds are good it's the "T" fuse inside the inverter
And that for that inverter might be as much as sixty dollars but likely less.
And user replacable I might add.

the fuse. if blown is a flat copper bar with a big "barrel" around the middle of it 1-3 inches long two bolt holes (one in each end of the bar)

The LINK is **NOT** the fuse you need but the design is the same (Too small a fuse)

Click here to see a 100 Amp version you likely need 250 or 300 amps

[pianotuna]

Campigloo,

Sorry to hear the the dead inverter.

Did you open the case and look for fuses??

What have you decided to replace it with?

[campigloo]

3 tons wrote:
“Is my inverter fried”??

Looks like we may never know - 🙂

3 tons

Hi. Haven’t been on the forum lately. Tried all sorts of stuff, kind of like what piano tuna was saying.
It fried.
It won’t even push a fan!
Thanks for the help y’all!

[3_tons]

“Is my inverter fried”??

Looks like we may never know - 🙂

3 tons

[pianotuna]

Disconnect from DC power.

Cycle the inverter on and then off.

Wait ten minutes.

Reconnect DC power.

Turn on the inverter (after pouring a libation to the inverter gods).

[3_tons]

Well though it could be a faulty (mechanical) ATS switch, the fact that the lights came on then shut off a second later tends to point to a more serious problem..,Is there a reset on the inverter?...Also, what is the inverters surge rating?... Heavily reactive loads like an air cond can easily take 4-5 times the running amps (momentarily) to spin-up a locked AC rotor...

3 tons

[time2roll]

Does it have a gfci that may have tripped?

[theoldwizard1]

campigloo wrote:
Plugged into shore power, nothing.

Start by verifying the obvious upstream.

• Do you have 120VAC at the shore power outlet?
• Do you have 120VAC at the Renogy AC inlet and outlet ?

Could be just a bad transfer switch relay.

[BFL13]

What is the "12v" voltage at the inverter/charger's DC terminals (not at the battery terminals) ? If zero- the inverter's fuse (or DC breaker) blew, and the inverter /charger needs 12v to be on at all. Test for that by using jumper cables direct from battery to inverter charger.

Could be other things of course.

EDIT--the air conditioner controls are 12v too which would explain the fan not working second time?