Not so impressed with my new Magnum Energy 4448

So I thought that I was buying made in America quality. So far the damn thing won’t start a 1/2hp water pump without flickering all the lights in the house. Now I find out it won’t run my 120v clothes washer. On top of both of those irritating items the internal Magnum charger don’t work.

Called tech support and all he can tell me that it’s the items I’m trying to run and not the inverter. Also the shit happens with the charger deal and to send it in for service since it’s under warranty.

Not very happy at all since I waited 2 1/2 months to get it in the first place. My only backup I have is to go back running generators and running off a Amazon 1500w inverter and a Chins 300ah battery. It’s doable but sucks AZZ!

The place I purchased it from said they would send me another in exchange if they had one to send. That I bought the very last one they had in stock and that Magnum won’t be able to fill there back order until April possibly May.

frustrating.

That sucks.
I'm sorry to hear that.
I hope that you are able to get it resolved, soon.
Good luck, and be safe.

That is just wrong. All I can think to do is verify the DC input terminals for proper voltage as the appliances start.
My 1000 watt 12v Go Power will start a 1/2 hp sump.

Some more details about your pump would be helpful? Here is a pump chart that documents both the starting and running currents required for most pumps. First, is your pump 120VAC or 240VAC? Looking at the table, it appears that a 1/2hp 240V pump requires 21.5A at startup. That's 5160W. Looking at the specifications of your inverter, it appears to be able to support up to 8500W for 5 seconds. I would think that would be enough? What's the gauge of wire going from your batteries to your inverter? Have you measured the voltage of your batteries as the pump gets turned on? When does your pump run? Is it on-demand, 24/7, or do you flip it on during daylight hours? What exactly do you mean when you say it won't run your 120V washer? What happens when you turn it on?

Jack Rabbit Off Grid said:

So I thought that I was buying made in America quality. So far the damn thing won’t start a 1/2hp water pump without flickering all the lights in the house. Now I find out it won’t run my 120v clothes washer. On top of both of those irritating items the internal Magnum charger don’t work.

Click to expand...

Yep, I did some research on Magnum, Outback and Midnite Solar, years back. I was writing an article on the inverters and solar charge controllers, got on the phone and talked to the people at the companies. Great history there. It started all the way back with Trace. I haven't been keeping up with the industry for several years so my info may be rusty.

From what I remember, Robin and Bob started Trace. They sold Trace and started Outback. Sold Outback. Some of the original team started Magnum, Robin and Bob started Midnite Solar. Magnum has been sold off, I think. To the best of my knowledge, Robin and Bob are still running Midnite. This is not a detailed history, just the basics.

What Robin and Bob develop, they've always been a solid product in my opinion. My ancient Trace SW4024 is still running. We have several Outback VFX3648's (the old ones) scattered around the property and in daily use. The two 17 year old VFX3648's at my primary house runs a deep well 120v pump, fridge, freezers, and washing machine, all at the same time, without a problem. All our locations have Midnite Solar Classic's in daily use also. Everything just works, all day, every day. I have no association with any of these companies, BTW. I know nothing about the new Outback inverters.

Magnum, never had one but a neighbor got the MS4448PAE many years ago and had trouble with the charger. Seems they were a little on the small side and overheated, or something like that. Right now I'm patiently waiting for Midnite Solar to get their inverters up and running, I need to expand a couple of the systems out here.

It's disappointing to hear the Magnum's are troublesome. Like you, I'm totally off grid and depend on these things to do their job. This doesn't solve your problem but at least it gives you something to read while waiting for the replacement Magnum .

I'm surprised that it doesn't run the pump. based on the specs it should do it. My LVX6048 has no problem starting my 3HP 240V well pump (draws over 60A at startup).

That seams strange , my out back 3648 has run every thing I throw at it it runs every thing .
It will start my chop saw and compressor at the same time and run the house ?
Could your battery’s be low? Long battery connection ? Bad crimp .
My magnum did not run on dirty generator power it worked plugged into the grid
or running off a Honda .
Iv heard of cloths washers not working off inverter power can’t remember why though maybe double gfi or some thing?

the magnum MS 4448PAE is 2200 watts per leg, 4400 watts total. If you do not keep the lines balanced you will get flickering lights sometimes. so unless what you are running is 240 split phase the most you will get is 2200 watts. in 110-120 per leg. if you need 4KW at 110-120 you should have ordered the MS4048 which is 4kw at 110-120.

the magnum charger does have some interesting settings for charge and genset start etc. Are you sure you have the charging input setup correctly?

• it has options for quiet time where it will not accept genset input. if you do not have it set correctly it will ignore the input from your genset and will not even pass through power.
• It also has the ability to set the amount of amps that it will out put from 100%-0%
• it also has the ability to set the input amps from the charging source.
• if you have any of the settings wrong the charge circuit will turn on draw more than your genset can output, then the voltage will fall at the genset and the magnum will reset itself due to unstable power, and then go through the countdown to charging again and will cycle like this till you stop it or the magic blue smoke escapes from either the genset or the inverter.

This is just my experience with them, I had mine set incorrectly on my very first magnum and it cycled for about 2 hours while I was away and let the magic blue smoke out of both the inverter and the cheap genset i was using at that time. when I got it back from repair they basically said...Did you read the manual at all? (guilty as charged) they still fixed it for free, I just had to pay shipping there are back. after that I read the manual from cover to cover found the error of my ways and have had no issues in that regards since then.

Are you using the ME-ARTR Router or the External remote? There are so many settings that you cannot access without these. I'd highly recommend you try one out if you're having problems so you can at least verify what's happening when you attempt to run the pump. The BMK battery monitor is a god send on the charging side also.

I'm surprised you're having issues also, but as some others mentioned, I'm curious if this is a 120v pump or 240v. I'm running two MS4448-PAE in parallel and they're absolute monsters. I run a 4-Ton Mini Split alongside all my lighting with cushion left over.

I've heard a lot of complaints about many brands that won't run the newer hi-tech washers. My Gentry inveter had the same problem but a couple of filter capacitors on the 120 output fixed it.

Jack Rabbit Off Grid said:

So I thought that I was buying made in America quality. So far the damn thing won’t start a 1/2hp water pump without flickering all the lights in the house. Now I find out it won’t run my 120v clothes washer. On top of both of those irritating items the internal Magnum charger don’t work.

Called tech support and all he can tell me that it’s the items I’m trying to run and not the inverter. Also the shit happens with the charger deal and to send it in for service since it’s under warranty.

Not very happy at all since I waited 2 1/2 months to get it in the first place. My only backup I have is to go back running generators and running off a Amazon 1500w inverter and a Chins 300ah battery. It’s doable but sucks AZZ!

The place I purchased it from said they would send me another in exchange if they had one to send. That I bought the very last one they had in stock and that Magnum won’t be able to fill there back order until April possibly May.

frustrating.

Click to expand...

The flickering is normal, Magnums regulation is very slow compared to say a Schneider or SMA. I complained about that a bit when I worked there. If you want to shoot me an email ryan@midnitesolar.com I am happy to discuss the charger issue (We may have hired a few Magnum people).

Jack Rabbit Off Grid said:

So I thought that I was buying made in America quality. So far the damn thing won’t start a 1/2hp water pump without flickering all the lights in the house. Now I find out it won’t run my 120v clothes washer. On top of both of those irritating items the internal Magnum charger don’t work.

Called tech support and all he can tell me that it’s the items I’m trying to run and not the inverter. Also the shit happens with the charger deal and to send it in for service since it’s under warranty.

Not very happy at all since I waited 2 1/2 months to get it in the first place. My only backup I have is to go back running generators and running off a Amazon 1500w inverter and a Chins 300ah battery. It’s doable but sucks AZZ!

The place I purchased it from said they would send me another in exchange if they had one to send. That I bought the very last one they had in stock and that Magnum won’t be able to fill there back order until April possibly May.

frustrating.

Click to expand...

I had the same problem running my washer on a different brand inverter & I heard victrons have the same issue but I fixed it with a couple cbb22 capacitors on the inverters output.

ken morgan said:

the magnum MS 4448PAE is 2200 watts per leg, 4400 watts total. If you do not keep the lines balanced you will get flickering lights sometimes. so unless what you are running is 240 split phase the most you will get is 2200 watts. in 110-120 per leg. if you need 4KW at 110-120 you should have ordered the MS4048 which is 4kw at 110-120.

the magnum charger does have some interesting settings for charge and genset start etc. Are you sure you have the charging input setup correctly?

• it has options for quiet time where it will not accept genset input. if you do not have it set correctly it will ignore the input from your genset and will not even pass through power.
• It also has the ability to set the amount of amps that it will out put from 100%-0%
• it also has the ability to set the input amps from the charging source.
• if you have any of the settings wrong the charge circuit will turn on draw more than your genset can output, then the voltage will fall at the genset and the magnum will reset itself due to unstable power, and then go through the countdown to charging again and will cycle like this till you stop it or the magic blue smoke escapes from either the genset or the inverter.

This is just my experience with them, I had mine set incorrectly on my very first magnum and it cycled for about 2 hours while I was away and let the magic blue smoke out of both the inverter and the cheap genset i was using at that time. when I got it back from repair they basically said...Did you read the manual at all? (guilty as charged) they still fixed it for free, I just had to pay shipping there are back. after that I read the manual from cover to cover found the error of my ways and have had no issues in that regards since then.

Click to expand...

Yes I went though all those settings and double checked with Tech support. They told me the inverter was bad and to send it in for service.

It was a 240v pump. I have since replaced it with two Pentair 120v 3.3gpm diaphragm pumps plumbed in parallel. Very nice setup for an off grid house. Both pumps run at 6.6gpm then when the pressure gets to about 40psi one turns off And the other pumps to 50psi. I have them setup 30/50 with a 30 gallon bladder tank.

Why wouldn’t you go with a DC diaphragm pump? They make them at 24 and 48v that would provide more than enough GMP.

Halfcrazy said:

The flickering is normal, Magnums regulation is very slow compared to say a Schneider or SMA. I complained about that a bit when I worked there. If you want to shoot me an email ryan@midnitesolar.com I am happy to discuss the charger issue (We may have hired a few Magnum people).

Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer but I think it needs to go in for repair. I went though all the settings with tech support and at the end he told me it’s broke And needs to be sent in. The charger light does not blink when it is supposed to be checking the generator input frequency. From what I understand from another thread is a bad coil.

This is the problem high frequency split-phase inverters. You can't get full power, unless the two legs are perfectly balanced. Which is nearly impossible to do. Many loads go through cycles of varying draw.
The only way to get full power, is to use a transformer. And then, you might as well just buy a single phase 240v inverter. And save some money.
Which is exactly what I done. Because I didn't want a large heavy low frequency inverter.

740GLE said:

Why wouldn’t you go with a DC diaphragm pump? They make them at 24 and 48v that would provide more than enough GMP.

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I seen 24v but not 48. That and I already had all the 120/240v where I needed it. I really didn’t want any diaphragm pumps. I don’t like them because I have replaced and repaired many of the 12v pumps over the years. Just about every RV I’ve ever owned over the years.

Yea I should have done

timselectric said:

This is the problem high frequency split-phase inverters. You can't get full power, unless the two legs are perfectly balanced. Which is nearly impossible to do. Many loads go through cycles of varying draw.
The only way to get full power, is to use a transformer. And then, you might as well just buy a single phase 240v inverter. And save some money.
Which is exactly what I done. Because I didn't want a large heavy low frequency inverter.

Click to expand...

yea I should have done some better research before I started this adventure. Other then the clothes washer and onboard charger not working things are getting better. The dryer works just fine it’s just the washer. we don’t have a well yet so we do our laundry in town anyway. If my wife needs something small done we just run the generator for that.

Most of us have learned, as we went.
It just costs a little more, this way. But, the lessons learned are not easily forgotten.

timselectric said:

This is the problem high frequency split-phase inverters. You can't get full power, unless the two legs are perfectly balanced. Which is nearly impossible to do. Many loads go through cycles of varying draw.
The only way to get full power, is to use a transformer. And then, you might as well just buy a single phase 240v inverter. And save some money.
Which is exactly what I done. Because I didn't want a large heavy low frequency inverter.

Click to expand...

not so much a frequency (low vs high) as a split phase issue, one with which I have been wrangling with. prior to order of my current inverter, I could have went either way. I wanted 240 though i did not need it. so then i started ordering items that were 240. split pack etc. now it is either toss all 240 items or continue on with 240 inverters.... we all get sucked up in this one I think.

Deleted

ken morgan said:

not so much a frequency (low vs high) as a split phase issue, one with which I have been wrangling with. prior to order of my current inverter, I could have went either way. I wanted 240 though i did not need it. so then i started ordering items that were 240. split pack etc. now it is either toss all 240 items or continue on with 240 inverters.... we all get sucked up in this one I think.

Click to expand...

I went with split phase for two reasons. 1. Ease of wiring to my current split phase panel. 2. I want to power a 240v mini split because the power consumption specs were half of a 120v. The model I purchased claims 33 seer From a 12k unit.

Jack Rabbit Off Grid said:

I went with split phase for two reasons. 1. Ease of wiring to my current split phase panel. 2. I want to power a 240v mini split because the power consumption specs were half of a 120v. The model I purchased claims 33 seer From a 12k unit.

Click to expand...

What brand and model did you go with? I am looking to power a small Mini split.

ken morgan said:

not so much a frequency (low vs high) as a split phase issue, one with which I have been wrangling with. prior to order of my current inverter, I could have went either way. I wanted 240 though i did not need it. so then i started ordering items that were 240. split pack etc. now it is either toss all 240 items or continue on with 240 inverters.... we all get sucked up in this one I think.

Click to expand...

The issue only arises from high frequency split-phase inverters.
High frequency single phase = no problem.
Low frequency split-phase = no problem.
High frequency single phase, with built-in split-phase transformer = no problem.
High frequency single phase, with additional external split-phase transformer = no problem.