Cracked capacitor on working inverter.

[steviep19]

I had to take the cover off my Inverter for another reason, when I noticed this middle capacitor. The Inverter is working just fine, but does anybody know if this is something I should be worried about?

 

[Bud Martin]

Bad lytics cap, you must replace them (all 3 at the same time, they are connected in parallel, typical failure.
Can you read the print on the cap? they may have to be low ESR type and may be high ripple rating too.
Do not keep on using the inverter, more damage may result due to the failed filter caps.
Make and model of the inverter? How old?

 

[steviep19]

Reliable 24v 5000 watt inverted. Probably 2 years old or so. And good to know. I’ll stop using it, and switch back to my older 2000 watt inverter for now

 

[Bud Martin]

That means I have to keep my eyes on my 12V 1500W and the 3000W too now that I have been using them for about 3 months now, darn. They use cheaply made caps, after all these years they are still suing crap caps. It is not that hard to replace the caps. I replaced lots of caps in my life time, attached picture is from 2012 year, many more years after years.
Capacitor plague.

Capacitor plague - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Bud Martin]

BTW, funny that I stumble into this thread, same H/N reversed wiring on the two front panel outlets both of my unit when I first inspect them before puttng them into service, I always check the Chinese wiring, they do not seem to get them right.. I collect broken inverters to study the circuits and to see how well they are made. My last purchase is Victron which is built like a tank.

Open Ground when testing outlets on inverter

Just an update. I had contacted the seller again before posting the original post. They changed their mind, and sent me instructions to fix the grounding issue. I'm posting what they told me to do. I'll follow up with my results. They want me to bond the neutral to ground, like I thought...

diysolarforum.com

 

[steviep19]

BTW, funny that I stumble into this thread, same H/N reversed wiring on the two front panel outlets both of my unit when I first inspect them before puttng them into service, I always check the Chinese wiring, they do not seem to get them right.. I collect broken inverters to study the circuits and to see how well they are made. My last purchase is Victron which is built like a tank.

Open Ground when testing outlets on inverter

Just an update. I had contacted the seller again before posting the original post. They changed their mind, and sent me instructions to fix the grounding issue. I'm posting what they told me to do. I'll follow up with my results. They want me to bond the neutral to ground, like I thought...

diysolarforum.com

Bud Martin,

You said they were running in parallel. Just wandering, is it possible to still use the inverter, but for smaller loads while waiting on a replacment? If another one failed, would I be risking blowing up the inverter only? or taking out other things along down the line?

I literately just finished rewiring everything, and am asking out of pure laziness.. lol

 

[Bud Martin]

The problem right now is that we only see one bad damaged cap, the other two can be bad withiout any physical sign, you will have to verify them with cap meter that can read capacitance, leakage resistance, and ESR at the least.
It also looks like you will have more of those caps in another section of the board as well.
The circuit may blow up due to bad filtering or may lost Voltage regulation which can then damaged the connectd equipment.
When I make repair I replace the caps as a set, not just the bad one that you can see, if one already bad sooner or later the other will fail too.