Inverter Reliability and Service life

[JohnB]

Our Sinergex Inverter has just expired after 2yrs use.(Outside warranty period and not viable to repair.)

 

I have been looking round for a suitable replacement.

 

There seems to be a quite a range of equipment around but a lot of it appears to be the same thing (presumably all made in the one Chinese factory) with a different colour and label. I haven't found a lot of "Which " type assesment on this sort of kit.

 

What have others experienced and should we be pooling our knowledge?

 

Regards

 

John

[jelunga]

Our Sinergex Inverter has just expired after 2yrs use.(Outside warranty period and not viable to repair.)

 

I have been looking round for a suitable replacement.

 

There seems to be a quite a range of equipment around but a lot of it appears to be the same thing (presumably all made in the one Chinese factory) with a different colour and label. I haven't found a lot of "Which " type assesment on this sort of kit.

 

What have others experienced and should we be pooling our knowledge?

 

Regards

 

John

We had a Heart Inverter/charger. 2kva output Failed last year after about 15 yes service. We have replaced with a Victron.

Seems well built with a good customer service back up in UK. Not cheap and we will see how reliable. Also not made in China. (Holland?)

[mrsmelly]

Our Sinergex Inverter has just expired after 2yrs use.(Outside warranty period and not viable to repair.)

 

I have been looking round for a suitable replacement.

 

There seems to be a quite a range of equipment around but a lot of it appears to be the same thing (presumably all made in the one Chinese factory) with a different colour and label. I haven't found a lot of "Which " type assesment on this sort of kit.

 

What have others experienced and should we be pooling our knowledge?

 

Regards

 

John

 

Mastervolt are by far the best. Victron come second. This is one piece of equipment when you realy do seem to get what you pay for. I have had cheap stuff such as Stirling which are crap but I have also had realy cheapo nameless stuff which have been ok

 

Tim

[nicknorman]

Another vote for Mastervolt 1st, Victron second.

[bowten]

Another vote for Mastervolt 1st, Victron second.

I will go along with this,however I use Victron and they seem to have good reliability.

[steelaway]

If you only want a simple / small inverter.

I have to recommend the Sterling 1800W , its has given 7 years of faultless service.

 

Alex

[Grace and Favour]

We had a Sterling - - and have replaced with Victron. - the build appears to be excellent

[SamKingfisher]

I had 2 psw 600w sterling units die in a year. Both under warranty . . Avoid sterling. I had a nameless chinese job that was super, til I sold it.

 

Having said that, the 2500 mod sw that came with the boat is still going - but it hates damp and is v unreliable.

[Slim]

Mastervolt are by far the best. Victron come second. This is one piece of equipment when you realy do seem to get what you pay for. I have had cheap stuff such as Stirling which are crap but I have also had realy cheapo nameless stuff which have been ok

 

Tim

 

 

Regrettably that wasn't my experience.

 

I have a defunct Mastervolt 2000 inverter that went BANG after a maximum of 1500 hours use over about an 8 year period. (that's 8 to 9 weeks of use) A the time it went bang it was running a 230v fridge. It was never asked to supply more than about half it's rated capacity. I should add that it had spent it's entire life in a dry clean environment within the aft cabin.

 

Mastervolt told me that on the basis of it's age it was beyond economic repair and that the best support they could give was the offer of a discount against a new one (list price £1839 if I remember correctly)

 

I had it repaired by an independent company but it failed in a cloud of smoke after about 10 hours. It is back with the repairer (where it's been for any number of months) and they've told me that a circuit board is badly damaged. Mastervolt can't/won't supply either a circuit board or a circuit diagram. The company it's with are waiting to see if they get another Mastervolt 2000 in for repair when they will attempt to copy the damaged board.

 

"Mastervolt the best by far". Not in my case.

 

Frank

[Old Son]

This type of discussion always makes me chuckle. How can you compare Mastervolt or Victron with Sterling. Of course Sterling will not have as great build quality, its less than half the price! Compare apples with apples please. Not all of us can afford £2k for an inverter which is only rarely used.

Edited March 27, 2013 by Old Son

[steelaway]

This type of discussion always makes me chuckle. How can you compare Mastervolt or Victron with Sterling. Of course Sterling will not have as great build quality, its less than half the price! Compare apples with apples please. Not all of us can afford £2k for an inverter which is only rarely used.

 

I agree - not every one wants / needs a 2-3Kw inverter/charger costing £1500- £2500, when a £300 model would cover all their requirments.

 

Alex

[smileypete]

Our Sinergex Inverter has just expired after 2yrs use.(Outside warranty period and not viable to repair.)

 

I have been looking round for a suitable replacement.

 

There seems to be a quite a range of equipment around but a lot of it appears to be the same thing (presumably all made in the one Chinese factory) with a different colour and label. I haven't found a lot of "Which " type assesment on this sort of kit.

 

What have others experienced and should we be pooling our knowledge?

What are your requirements - beyond 'an inverter'?

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Edited March 27, 2013 by smileypete

[Chalky]

Biggest thing that will affect reliability after the build quality is cooling. A 5 degree increase in temperature can halve the life of semiconductors. Make sure that the inverter has space round it and can draw in cool air and exhaust the hot air.

 

We have an 800W sterling that has worked reliably for 6 years. The Nikai 800W one it replaced lasted from Fenny Compton to just before Claydon top before it failed.

Edited March 27, 2013 by Chalky

[Chris Pink]

 

"Mastervolt the best by far". Not in my case.

 

Frank

 

This is my experience, yes their build quality is good, but they use the same components as everyone else so it's likely to be a fair amount of hype or at best components running within looser limits - solution; overspec your cheap inverter.

 

And their customer service? I don't think there's any one in the company capable of making a sentence with those two words in it.

 

I will never buy a Mastervolt unit again.

[J R ALSOP]

I have had a 3KV Sterling for ten years, never missed a beat, after twenty years of everything else, I got rid of the lot and went totally Sterling never regretted it, always batteries full, can not praise it enough.

[mrsmelly]

This type of discussion always makes me chuckle. How can you compare Mastervolt or Victron with Sterling. Of course Sterling will not have as great build quality, its less than half the price! Compare apples with apples please. Not all of us can afford £2k for an inverter which is only rarely used.

 

Totaly agree

 

When doing these questions the op needs realy to ask the opinions of Liveaboards who use their kit 24/7 365 and hobby boaters who have much less a need for longevity of equipment. If I were a hobby boater I would probably pay as little as possible whereas as a full timer I usualy though not always go for the best.

 

Tim

[cariad]

We live full time live aboard and our sterling inverter hasn't given any problems in it's 9 years along with the sterling battery charger.

[nbfiresprite]

I have a PROsine inverter, that I brought from Merlin at the Southampton Boat Show in 2000. It has been in use five days out of seven for most of the last 12 years. Never had a problem with it.

 

Edited March 27, 2013 by nbfiresprite

[MoominPapa]

I have a PROsine inverter, that brought from Merlin at the Southampton Boat Show in 2000. It has been in use five days out of seven for most of the last 12 years. Never had a problem with it.

 

 

Got one too, came with the boat, I suspect similar age.

 

The only complaint I have is that the start-up surge for the fridge triggers the fan, totally unnecessarily.

 

MP.

[larryjc]

Sorry about a tad of thread drift but the boat I have just bought has a Power Master Systems 1500w charger/inverter/solar controller. Its six years old and seems to work very well. However I can't find anything about them on the web. The UK distributor has their domain name for sale and apparently they come from the Far East somewhere. I did find one new replacement on e-bay in the US as old stock. Anyone have experience of these? My suspicion is that with a lot of use over 6 years I shouldn't be too surprised if it goes pop sometime.

[rgreg]

Regrettably that wasn't my experience.

 

I have a defunct Mastervolt 2000 inverter that went BANG after a maximum of 1500 hours use over about an 8 year period. (that's 8 to 9 weeks of use) A the time it went bang it was running a 230v fridge. It was never asked to supply more than about half it's rated capacity. I should add that it had spent it's entire life in a dry clean environment within the aft cabin.

 

Mastervolt told me that on the basis of it's age it was beyond economic repair and that the best support they could give was the offer of a discount against a new one (list price £1839 if I remember correctly)

 

I had it repaired by an independent company but it failed in a cloud of smoke after about 10 hours. It is back with the repairer (where it's been for any number of months) and they've told me that a circuit board is badly damaged. Mastervolt can't/won't supply either a circuit board or a circuit diagram. The company it's with are waiting to see if they get another Mastervolt 2000 in for repair when they will attempt to copy the damaged board.

 

"Mastervolt the best by far". Not in my case.

 

Frank

Same with my Mastervolt; it died after 6 years of very light service.

[Guest User]

Another vote for Xantrex products, I have the 2kw version of their PROWatt SW-International

 

 

 

I bought mine a while ago from the US, but they're now available branded as the Merlin M-Power

 

[JohnB]

What are your requirements - beyond 'an inverter'?

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

 

All we actually need is an inverter -nothing else -

We just use it to run things like the; Magimix(oddly enough the highest power motor!),vacuum cleaner, washing machine - cold wash only-,oh and the hair dryer. We can start the inverter up by the remote in the utility room when we get stuff out to use.

 

Everthing else on the boat is 12v and set up so we can go for months without ever needing a land line or generator. As we travel every couple of days the engine puts back the energy while we are moving and we try to keep the major use of 240v to those times.

 

What started me on this topic was partly; power supplies were part of the paying job and I can't leave it alone, Sad isn't it? but I also get to look at other peoples boats (usually when broken) and I have noticed the wide range of approaches to the "mains "provision and use.

 

There seems to be very little solid "Consumer type " assesment of what is available even in the "off grid" community and is struck me as a good idea to get a dialogue going amongst those who have some real world experiences. Hopefully we may help each other and provide some direction for newcomers.....

 

Best John

[JohnB]

Sorry about a tad of thread drift but the boat I have just bought has a Power Master Systems 1500w charger/inverter/solar controller. Its six years old and seems to work very well. However I can't find anything about them on the web. The UK distributor has their domain name for sale and apparently they come from the Far East somewhere. I did find one new replacement on e-bay in the US as old stock. Anyone have experience of these? My suspicion is that with a lot of use over 6 years I shouldn't be too surprised if it goes pop sometime.

 

 

I think that was a company based just outside Cambridge (Bar Hill) They started up about 10 years ago.

We were going to use one of their inverters, it looked fairly chunky kit but they packed up before we got to the point of needing mains on our boat.

Im sure I saw the same stuff offered with a different label by another supplier.

I suspect the current production and supply process means a lot of kit nowadays come from just one source.

If this thread continues we may make a little sense of what is going on.

 

Best John

[smileypete]

All we actually need is an inverter -nothing else -

We just use it to run things like the; Magimix(oddly enough the highest power motor!),vacuum cleaner, washing machine - cold wash only-,oh and the hair dryer. We can start the inverter up by the remote in the utility room when we get stuff out to use.

 

Everthing else on the boat is 12v and set up so we can go for months without ever needing a land line or generator. As we travel every couple of days the engine puts back the energy while we are moving and we try to keep the major use of 240v to those times.

OK, what is the power and surge rating on the broken inverter? If it's lasted a while there's a company in Tamworth (google will find it) that do inverter repairs, they may be able to repair it or recommend some good makes.

 

For running big motors a 'low frequency' pure sine inverter has the best surge capability, BUT are big, HEAVY, less efficient and have a high standby current (unless they offer a power save mode).

 

Something along these lines might do:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360621772484

 

The descripton states 'Pure Sine Wave or Quazi Sine Wave' so I'd double check and ask it outputs a sinewave when inverting, and should be OK to run a washing machine, food mixer, hoover - though not at the same time of course! For smaller long term loads like lappies, chargers, you might be better off getting a smaller cheap 'high frequency' pure sine inverter for them.

 

In general the chinese made inverters are a bit of a lottery so good backup from a UK supplier is well worth it, Taiwanese made inverters should be better, from the likes of Rich Electric, KiPoint which some of Sterlings may be.

 

That said if you want the prestige and percieved reliability of a Victron or Mastervolt, and have the budget for it, then go for it.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Edited March 28, 2013 by smileypete