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Does any manufacturer make a good mobile/RV inverter with good warranty support?

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reader2580

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I have a Victron 48 volt inverter with Cerbo GX that are still under warranty, but neither works. It is pretty much impossible to get warranty support from Victron and my dealer won't communicate with me. I am going to just take a loss on the Victron stuff and recycle it all.

Any suggestions for a mobile/RV inverter at 48 volts with good warranty support? Cost is less of an issue than being able to get support if the thing breaks under warranty. I had a Prosine 3.0 24 volt for about a dozen years that the transfer relay finally failed. The relay is unobtainium and nearly impossible to get at to replace so I bought SOK 48 volt batteries and a new inverter to replace the Prosine 3.0.
 
reader2580 said:
I have a Victron 48 volt inverter with Cerbo GX that are still under warranty, but neither works. It is pretty much impossible to get warranty support from Victron and my dealer won't communicate with me. I am going to just take a loss on the Victron stuff and recycle it all.
Click to expand...
Could you clarify what you mean by "neither works"? Victron is considered top of the line equipment, many on the Forum use Victron with excellent results and reliable operation.
 
My Victron Multiplus II 48 volt randomly shuts off with a fault, or it restarts itself so I lose power for about 30 seconds. I have not been able to figure out what the faults are. I turn it off and back on then it works fine. My Cerbo GX would go into a reboot loop until I disconnected the power to the Cerbo GX. It would work for about an hour and then start the looping thing again. I finally disconnected the inverter from the Cerbo GX which stopped the looping. However, the Cerbo GX still reboots about once an hour with nothing connected. The inverter never faulted again after the Cerbo GX was disconnected.

I have tried to contact the dealer I bought the stuff rom to no avail. Everything is still under warranty.
 
Sounds like the problem is with the Cerbo GX sending some kind of random corrupted communication to the inverter. Since your testing has shown the inverter to be functioning normally when on its own, my advice is to keep it. Victron is good equipment.
Perhaps one of the Victron owners on the Forum can give you some advice on how to contact Victron directly or other dealer to get the Cerbo GX replaced.
 
reader2580 said:
My Victron Multiplus II 48 volt randomly shuts off with a fault, or it restarts itself so I lose power for about 30 seconds. I have not been able to figure out what the faults are. I turn it off and back on then it works fine. My Cerbo GX would go into a reboot loop until I disconnected the power to the Cerbo GX. It would work for about an hour and then start the looping thing again. I finally disconnected the inverter from the Cerbo GX which stopped the looping. However, the Cerbo GX still reboots about once an hour with nothing connected. The inverter never faulted again after the Cerbo GX was disconnected.

I have tried to contact the dealer I bought the stuff rom to no avail. Everything is still under warranty.
Click to expand...
Have you tried to use a USB stick to re-flash the firmware on the Cerbo? Sounds like something might be corrupted.

9. Firmware updates

www.victronenergy.com www.victronenergy.com
 
Brucey said:
What battery system? Which model of 48v multiplus 2? Cabling?
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SOK 48V100 batteries. I believe the cables are 2/0. They only go about five feet to the batteries. Inverter is Victron Multiplus-II 3000va.
 
I refuse to do email to try to get support because it can take weeks to get anything resolved.

They'll respond to the first email after two to three business days and then ask me to tell them again what I already told them in the first email. After another two to three business days they'll respond again using asking a yes/no question. I respond and then two to three days later they ask another yes/no question and the cycle repeats again until two weeks to a month or more have gone by. A phone call could get all those questions out of the way in a single call.
 
Adam De Lay said:
Did you have any issues before you upgraded?
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I had fault issues with the inverter last year, but no issues with the Cerbo GX before the upgrade. The Cerbo GX worked fine for about the first half of my trip and then was acting up the last half of the trip. I only upgraded because the Cerbo GX won't properly recognize the SOK batteries without the new firmware
 
reader2580 said:
Do forum rules allow mentioning dealer names for issues like this? I can't recall if it is this forum or another one that has such a rule.
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There's no restriction about mentioning dealers names. The biggest thing is you have to have proof backing up your issues.
 
reader2580 said:
I had fault issues with the inverter last year, but no issues with the Cerbo GX before the upgrade. The Cerbo GX worked fine for about the first half of my trip and then was acting up the last half of the trip. I only upgraded because the Cerbo GX won't properly recognize the SOK batteries without the new firmware
Click to expand...
What firmware version are you running on your MP2?

When the inverter faults out, what is the state of the indicator lights on the front of the inverter? I have the 5kVA inverter and whenever I've thrown a fault, the lights on the front tell you what the problem is (you just have to compare to the error code pages in the manual).
 
Adam De Lay said:
What firmware version are you running on your MP2?

When the inverter faults out, what is the state of the indicator lights on the front of the inverter? I have the 5kVA inverter and whenever I've thrown a fault, the lights on the front tell you what the problem is (you just have to compare to the error code pages in the manual).
Click to expand...
I am not sure what firmware version. The dealer said to upgrade to the latest when I was first having problems so I upgraded to the latest about two weeks ago. Firmware did not fix the issue.

The inverter was faulting on my motorhome while we were going down the road. I was unable to see the fault lights since the inverter is mounted in the cargo compartment. I was able to turn off and on the inverter from the Cerbo GX touch screen to restart it. I didn't know until later that you can see the fault lights from the Cerbo screen.
 
Adam De Lay said:
There's no restriction about mentioning dealers names. The biggest thing is you have to have proof backing up your issues.
Click to expand...
The dealer is Invertersrus. They answered my initial phone call and told me to upgrade the firmware on the inverter to the latest. I have not been able to get through to them on the phone since then. I have since also had issues with my Cerbo GX I need to talk to them about. I left them a message on last Friday I believe and no call back yet. I left messages a year ago and they almost always called back within three to four hours.
 
reader2580 said:
I am not sure what firmware version. The dealer said to upgrade to the latest when I was first having problems so I upgraded to the latest about two weeks ago. Firmware did not fix the issue.

The inverter was faulting on my motorhome while we were going down the road. I was unable to see the fault lights since the inverter is mounted in the cargo compartment. I was able to turn off and on the inverter from the Cerbo GX touch screen to restart it. I didn't know until later that you can see the fault lights from the Cerbo screen.
Click to expand...
Usually when the inverter throws a fault code, it would be listed on the Cerbo under Settings -> Notifications. I actually see some faults thrown on mine (due to testing) from about 2 weeks ago, so they shouldn't disappear right away. I guess you have to have a stable Cerbo first though...
 
I thought I looked in the Cerbo under notifications and didn't see anything. I'll try to remember to check again when I get home.
 
Some ramblings WRT warranty/support ... the time to investigate a "vendor's support capability" is before one buys, not after the sale and during a support event. This is for anyone reading these posts, not just directed at OP.

Victron, as many consider it a Tier-1 vendor, should have good warranty support. What I'm not sure of (I have no Victron equipment, yet), is if they only offer support through their "dealer network" ... if so, you could be in trouble here. Perhaps others will chime in with advice on this exact scenario, where Inverters-R-Us is crummy with their version of "victron dealer support". I'd go to Victron directly, somehow, someway ... including telling them of your support woes with the dealer you are dealing with.

It is typical to get asked to raise the firmware to the latest level, as part of any support effort ... firmware is really software, and many fixes come down the line with running the latest firmware. You'll have to get good at determining what level of firmware you are at, and how to get the latest firmware in place, on just about any piece of (intelligent) hardware these days. Not everyone raises their firmware to the latest, but I tend to, vs waiting for a support event that requires it.

Also, you want voice support (not email), and that is a prime reason to buy from "a dealer network", but this is just getting more iffy these days, in my mind. Nobody is going to provide good voice support, and odds are you'll get no support, or shipped off to foreign call centers, or any other number of rat holes. I do like email support, because it is "disconnected" ... I know that no matter which support route I go, I'll have to pass through several layers, and I'd rather do that in email than wait hours on a phone.

Hope (some of) this helps (some folks) ...
 
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