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magnum inverters any good?

realpinochet

realpinochet

Make Stuff In America Again!
Joined
Jul 4, 2022
Messages
585
Greetings, I'm narrowing my options down for my solar system. So far it seems like conext 6848 and the outback radian 8048 are solid choices. However I ran across a few videos and other information about these magnum inverters. Specifically this one which is what I'd use.. "MS4448PAE". Thought I'd ask here to see if any of you guys run a magnum based system and how you like it. Are they solid quality? They seem to be made here in the USA. I'd most likely start off with two and add another one or two latter. The manual says that if only using one you don't get the full power potential on 120V. Anyways I'd like to hear how they stack up against the conext and radians for folks that may have experience with both.
 
Pretty good experiences so far. All of the added pieces can add up and technologically they are behind. Here is an example of their web interface.

MagnumHome

Magnum Energy
data.magnumenergy.com data.magnumenergy.com
 
I just got an earful of folks on another thread saying that magnum customer service was not great.
 
redalertdt said:
Pretty good experiences so far. All of the added pieces can add up and technologically they are behind. Here is an example of their web interface.

MagnumHome

Magnum Energy
data.magnumenergy.com data.magnumenergy.com
Click to expand...
Thanks for your input. I thought I'd ask as they seemed to have some quality issues as people reporting the charging stops working. I'm going to spend a good sum of money, to me at least, so I want the best quality I can get as I'll be rural and need the reliability.
 
Some good recs here:

diysolarforum.com

Rock solid, no bells, 48 volt inverter

I think I have my off grid charge controller and battery stuff covered. Ultimately, 10 or so SOK rack batteries and a Victron Smart Solar RS 450/200 (4 mppt trackers). Or maybe a midnite controller. Either way, lots of panels and plenty of juice to charge up a dead bank and run my little 2000...
diysolarforum.com diysolarforum.com
 
realpinochet said:
Thanks for your input. I thought I'd ask as they seemed to have some quality issues as people reporting the charging stops working. I'm going to spend a good sum of money, to me at least, so I want the best quality I can get as I'll be rural and need the reliability.
Click to expand...
I contacted them a couple of times, mostly mistakes I made, no big complaints so far. One fix under warranty (probably my issue). For quality I think victron has the best rep probably. plus you get bluetooth into the devices.
 
It might help to list some of my wants:

1. Be able to charge via the grid when the sun or battery power isn't there.
2. Be able to power loads from the grid or assist with loads when not enough solar or battery power.
3. Be able to use incoming PV for loads without having to store it first.
4. Good surge capabilities for starting things like a well pump, air compressor and AC.
5. I'd like to have one that have generator input ..maybe start and stop the gen.
6. Spit phase
7. Good software and control panels for stacking and being able to tune them. *without having to buy a config tool like schneider.
8. Great customer support.

Robust ....good track record for being reliable.
 
redalertdt said:
I contacted them a couple of times, mostly mistakes I made, no big complaints so far. One fix under warranty (probably my issue). For quality I think victron has the best rep probably. plus you get bluetooth into the devices.
Click to expand...
I don't see where Victron has a split phase system for the US. It all seems to be 240V.
 
realpinochet said:
Greetings, I'm narrowing my options down for my solar system. So far it seems like conext 6848 and the outback radian 8048 are solid choices. However I ran across a few videos and other information about these magnum inverters. Specifically this one which is what I'd use.. "MS4448PAE". Thought I'd ask here to see if any of you guys run a magnum based system and how you like it. Are they solid quality? They seem to be made here in the USA. I'd most likely start off with two and add another one or two latter. The manual says that if only using one you don't get the full power potential on 120V. Anyways I'd like to hear how they stack up against the conext and radians for folks that may have experience with both.
Click to expand...
I would steer clear of Magnum if you can even find one. they are no longer currently making them and parts are nonexistent. I spent a week calling all over the US looking for a A/C input board for mine.

Magnum no longer answers their phone or emails. Rumors they are out of business rumors they are moving to Mexico. No one knows for sure.

But if you know where one is at I’d be interested in buying it so I have a spare for parts.

GREAT inverter. Shittty dealer service and non existent warranty. 5 years turned into 5 seconds or 5 feet for me And I paid them 5k.
 
Jack Rabbit Off Grid said:
I would steer clear of Magnum if you can even find one. they are no longer currently making them and parts are nonexistent. I spent a week calling all over the US looking for a A/C input board for mine.

Magnum no longer answers their phone or emails. Rumors they are out of business rumors they are moving to Mexico. No one knows for sure.

But if you know where one is at I’d be interested in buying it so I have a spare for parts.

GREAT inverter. Shittty dealer service and non existent warranty. 5 years turned into 5 seconds or 5 feet for me And I paid them 5k.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I figured that out. People are complaining they are failing at alarming rates as well on youtube; seems like a once great company is no more. Did you pay with credit card..if so call them and tell them what the deal is and they might refund you and go after magnum. I know discover and American express usually will.
 
realpinochet said:
Thanks, I figured that out. People are complaining they are failing at alarming rates as well on youtube; seems like a once great company is no more. Did you pay with credit card..if so call them and tell them what the deal is and they might refund you and go after magnum. I know discover and American express usually will.
Click to expand...
I was going to go after NAWS get my money back and go with Victron. But decided I’m just going to stick it out and hope for the best with Magnum. Also I have it all installed with Magnum Mini panel and sub panel all the controllers. In order to change over to something else I would have to remove 160 lbs of inverter that was not very easy to mount and move 800lbs of batteries. Along with solar in and sub panels and Magnum AGS backup generator controller with hardware.

Another aspect for me is I know how to run it. I owned a 4024PAE that is 12 years old and still running great. My neighbor now owns it. In fact I was just over to his place to night showing him how to adjust charge rate.

I’m going to start buying up any 4448’s that I find that are used And stock pile parts I think.
 
I have a ancient Magnum MS4024AE which has served well for many years, Magnum support is poor at best. I have broke mine open several times, little issues

I am working on a freind’s van conversion motorhome. It has a MS2000 12 volt unit running off two Battleborn BB100’s
Works fine at low power, load it to 1500 watts and the stink is awful....burnt component smell.....Zip,squat,nada support from Magnasine, no one is offering anything, repair depots do not have parts

On my test bench fed with 4 ea L-16 traction vehicle batteries 2S2P 842 a.h. when loaded to 1500 watts blows 300 amp ANL in 5-8 seconds....stinks like burnt components, ..but nothing is hot, testing with Fluke 62 Max IR thermomerer shows FET’s at 92 deg. F. Main transformer at 106 F. Control board regulator at 112 F.

Unit works fine as a charger for hours at 75 amps charge, no stink
Cannot find a FET board anywhere, no response from Magnum (Sensata)

My freind bought another Magnum MS-2000-20-20 ( same guts with two 20 amp branch breakers built in)
Im installing it now.
I had suggested a Victron 1500 watt unit. but it would not fit in the space allotted...

At this point I would stay away from Magnum (Sensata) until they publicly state their intensions
I have heard the “moving factory to Mexico” story as well as sourcing Chinese

I have a new inverter coming anyway.....a Rosie...from Midnight Solar high frequency 6kw 120/240 split phase
 
Jack Rabbit Off Grid said:
I owned a 4024PAE that is 12 years old and still running great. My neighbor now owns it. In fact I was just over to his place to night showing him how to adjust charge rate.
Click to expand...
@Jack Rabbit Off Grid

wow....a 12 year old PAE, My MS4024AE was the forerunner of the PAE, it is getting up there in age I bought it with a stuck fan controller well used for a few hundred bucks i can not remember how many years ago. It has been very trouble free I use it to run my deep well pump, it does stumble at startup and the voltage takes a few seconds to recover to 120/240 volts, frequency stability is suspect as old clocks cant keep good time.

But it is old technology.....I still have a Dynamote Brutus which still works fine Tank with a huge overload capacity 3200 watt inverter with a 11,900 watt surge capability...
 
Tecnodave said:
I have a ancient Magnum MS4024AE which has served well for many years, Magnum support is poor at best. I have broke mine open several times, little issues

I am working on a freind’s van conversion motorhome. It has a MS2000 12 volt unit running off two Battleborn BB100’s
Works fine at low power, load it to 1500 watts and the stink is awful....burnt component smell.....Zip,squat,nada support from Magnasine, no one is offering anything, repair depots do not have parts

On my test bench fed with 4 ea L-16 traction vehicle batteries 2S2P 842 a.h. when loaded to 1500 watts blows 300 amp ANL in 5-8 seconds....stinks like burnt components, ..but nothing is hot, testing with Fluke 62 Max IR thermomerer shows FET’s at 92 deg. F. Main transformer at 106 F. Control board regulator at 112 F.

Unit works fine as a charger for hours at 75 amps charge, no stink
Cannot find a FET board anywhere, no response from Magnum (Sensata)

My freind bought another Magnum MS-2000-20-20 ( same guts with two 20 amp branch breakers built in)
Im installing it now.
I had suggested a Victron 1500 watt unit. but it would not fit in the space allotted...

At this point I would stay away from Magnum (Sensata) until they publicly state their intensions
I have heard the “moving factory to Mexico” story as well as sourcing Chinese

I have a new inverter coming anyway.....a Rosie...from Midnight Solar high frequency 6kw 120/240 split phase.
Click to expand...
I purchased my A/C input board from PJ Gonzalez at Inverter service center. It was the last one he had. They are big Magnum people so you may want to try them for parts. He claims Magnum’s not done just regrouping.
 
@Jack Rabbit Off Grid

Thanks much for that lead, I want to repair the MS-2000 and use it in my little motorhome. Overall they are great inverters, I really hope that Magnum really reorganizes and stays in business. I really do not like what I see in the Sensata part of the business.
 
When I was speaking to one vendor his words were. Magnum is a little tiny division of a very large corporation and is expendable.
 
Companies tend to do that, While I was at GE they bought RCA for cash and chewed it up into bits, sold off most, but kept NBC and RCA appliance, threw 330,000 workers out the door. We all saw the handwriting on the wall.
 
Tecnodave said:
I have a ancient Magnum MS4024AE which has served well for many years, Magnum support is poor at best. I have broke mine open several times, little issues

I am working on a freind’s van conversion motorhome. It has a MS2000 12 volt unit running off two Battleborn BB100’s
Works fine at low power, load it to 1500 watts and the stink is awful....burnt component smell.....Zip,squat,nada support from Magnasine, no one is offering anything, repair depots do not have parts

On my test bench fed with 4 ea L-16 traction vehicle batteries 2S2P 842 a.h. when loaded to 1500 watts blows 300 amp ANL in 5-8 seconds....stinks like burnt components, ..but nothing is hot, testing with Fluke 62 Max IR thermomerer shows FET’s at 92 deg. F. Main transformer at 106 F. Control board regulator at 112 F.

Unit works fine as a charger for hours at 75 amps charge, no stink
Cannot find a FET board anywhere, no response from Magnum (Sensata)

My freind bought another Magnum MS-2000-20-20 ( same guts with two 20 amp branch breakers built in)
Im installing it now.
I had suggested a Victron 1500 watt unit. but it would not fit in the space allotted...

At this point I would stay away from Magnum (Sensata) until they publicly state their intensions
I have heard the “moving factory to Mexico” story as well as sourcing Chinese

I have a new inverter coming anyway.....a Rosie...from Midnight Solar high frequency 6kw 120/240 split phase
Click to expand...
Are they selling the Rosie now..if so how much? And, when you get it you need to beat it up real good and video it so you can share. I've seen videos on youtube where a guy tried to start a massive compressor and it didn't work to well but didn't blow up either. I'm looking at conext or outback but would rather have a hf invertor if they could just get better at starting high inductive loads.
 
The Rosie is not ready yet.....I do beta testing for Midnight Solar....bought some of the very early blue screen Kid’s
I have been promised a Rosie in full beta.

It is a high frequency inverter that has some pretty big surge capability, I‘m sure that I will be writing about it here, and at NAWS as well as Midnight Forum
 
Tecnodave said:
The Rosie is not ready yet.....I do beta testing for Midnight Solar....bought some of the very early blue screen Kid’s
I have been promised a Rosie in full beta.

It is a high frequency inverter that has some pretty big surge capability, I‘m sure that I will be writing about it here, and at NAWS as well as Midnight Forum
Click to expand...
Hasn't that thing been in dev for like 7 years now? I thought it was suppose to be out by now. I appreciate devs and engineers taking time to make a great product but man...midnight is really really slow at releasing new stuff. There's a guy on youtube that has a beta I think...the one where it failed to start his air compressor. I'd be interested in seeing it start a 4 ton ac, 3hp deep well pump, mid size welder etc.
 
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