Ken: What is your opinion of the Magnum? Do you like it? Quality? Noise level? Some people knock them because they have an old fashioned style transformer. I don't see this as a problem per se...
I've talked to them on the phone a couple of times, and I got knowledgeable, friendly people. I don't see anything to dislike. Would appreciate your thoughts. THX.
OK this is a bit long-
It is a love hate relationship to be honest.
I have two of the MS-PAE 4448 and one of the MS-2012 . I have had the MS-2012 for close to 10 years now with zero issues, and the 4448 #1 is 8 years old and #2 is only two years old as a lightening strike took out the first 4448 two years ago. (i got it repaired and keep it as a spare). The MS-PAE 4448 powers the cabin, and the MS2012 powers my camper the below comments are about the MS-PAE4448 that powers the house, but the 2012 is the same in all regards, just smaller.
Love:
It is very robust and I have yet to find anything that I cannot start with it. 240 split phase A/C starts right up with no mods to the a/c (soft start etc.) 1/2 h/p water pump (not grundfos (spelling)) no issues. In the shop 1 hp drill press, chop saws - both metal cutting and wood chop/miter. Normal skill saws, router table, table saw all no issues.
Two 1600 watt kotatsu heaters running along with , water pump, and normal lighting in house and shop and wife turns on the microwave.... no issues.
I have no complaints about its power output and its idle consumption is reasonable, the available modules for expanding (gen start, battery monitor with shunt, etc.) are numerous and for the level of quality I feel reasonable in price.
its range of operation both frequency and voltage (both a/c and d/c) make it very easy to use if you have a power supply that is say less than optimal (wonky genset or poor line power quality). its HVD on the DC side is high enough that you can use it with almost any variety of cell, FLA, AGM, Gell, Lithium etc.
its sine wave as measured on an O scope while under load was consistently clean.
the fans are variable speed on demand. as mine is situated in my battery outbuilding the noise is not an issue for me. though to be honest the only time they turn on is when I am running one of the larger power tools in the shop, or possibly when the wife runs the microwave at the same time as everything else.(she has a bad habit of running everything like at our main house with grid tie)
Hate:
1. Inability to speak with SCC's other than its own. (if they can I have not managed to figure it out) . Inability to communicate with BMS's like a lot of newer inverters can do.
Note: I use Morningstar controllers as that's what I started with while originally using agm batteries as at the time Magnum did not offer a SCC, and I am not about to replace four good SCC without a really good reason. I am currently using three DALY BMS's in a 16S, 3P bank
2. the MS4048's are not able to series or parallel for additional output. it is 4KW @120 volts on one leg.
3 the MS-PAE4448 and the 24volt version can paralleled, but... If you do not need 240 split phase its a bit of a waste. IE you need more than 2 kw per leg (L1,and L2) then you would need two of them as they only output 2kw per leg so two of them together would give you 8kw or 4kw per leg. off course you would want to balance the legs so that it was not taking all of the power from just one leg.
The company was purchased by Sensata a few years back and the quality of their customer service fell somewhat. if you can live with the cons I have listed they are a robust inverter with lots of startup headroom due to the large iron transformer.
I was looking at the sigineer line of inverters as they are basically a clone of the magnum design but in much larger sizes, plus they offer 3 phase power, which is what I was looking at for my shop. a 12kw 3phase inverter would be large enough to power my compressor, lift and welder without the need to fire up the diesel genset.
