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How much hum/buzz noise from Victron Phoenix 12V/375A inverter?

Michal.7

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I'm considering Victron 12V/375VA 230V for indoor use and I need a quiet inverter. I know the fan can start working at higher loads but apart from that I've read that Victron inverters emit a constant humming or buzzing sound coming from the transformer. Do you think the sound is loud enough to be troublesome? Where I live the living room is the only place available for it so I want it to be quiet meaning it should be almost inaudible from 3 meters and more - at least at moderate power draw up to about 150 watts. I know noise it a subjective thing but I'd like to hear some opinions.

I don't know if I should choose the Victron or perhaps a cheap rebranded Chinese inverter that is not based on a buzzing transformer and do a fan swap if it happens to be too loud.
 
I'm considering Victron 12V/375VA 230V for indoor use and I need a quiet inverter. I know the fan can start working at higher loads but apart from that I've read that Victron inverters emit a constant humming or buzzing sound coming from the transformer. Do you think the sound is loud enough to be troublesome? Where I live the living room is the only place available for it so I want it to be quiet meaning it should be almost inaudible from 3 meters and more - at least at moderate power draw up to about 150 watts. I know noise it a subjective thing but I'd like to hear some opinions.

I don't know if I should choose the Victron or perhaps a cheap rebranded Chinese inverter that is not based on a buzzing transformer and do a fan swap if it happens to be too loud.
did anyone replied?
 
There's a thread here that had the buzzing sound fixed after updating the firmware. Could not recall what model it was, though.
 
did anyone replied?
Not yet, I also asked on a different forum but there don't seem to be many people who might have issue with the buzz, probably not many installing an inverter in the living room. I decided to take the risk and ordered the 12V/500A version and will see how it behaves. Anyway, I don't have much choice of inverters, I figured out a cheap Chinese one would have a loud fan and people report short life/frequent failures with them and I don't want to deal with such problems.

That's for MultiPlus and I will be using Phoenix. Can Phoenix also accept firmware updates?
 
Not yet, I also asked on a different forum but there don't seem to be many people who might have issue with the buzz, probably not many installing an inverter in the living room. I decided to take the risk and ordered the 12V/500A version and will see how it behaves. Anyway, I don't have much choice of inverters, I figured out a cheap Chinese one would have a loud fan and people report short life/frequent failures with them and I don't want to deal with such problems.
Did you see the new 120v Sol-Ark just released?? That might be the alternative for your situation. I think is going for $3500. Not able to stack to get 120/240 thou
 
Did you see the new 120v Sol-Ark just released?? That might be the alternative for your situation. I think is going for $3500. Not able to stack to get 120/240 thou
I've never heard of Sol-Ark. Anyway, I can't spend $3500 for an inverter now for a tiny installation like mine. I ordered the Victron for something like $163 and it's still an acceptable price for me.
 
Sol-Ark 5k-1P-N
Thanks, but this is not the type of device I'm looking for. This is a high power hybrid inverter whereas all I need is a small inverter to convert 12V to 230V since I already have the charge controller.

Anyway, Victron Phoenix 12V/500A has just arrived and am waiting for the battery to arrive to test it out. I will report here regarding the noise after some time of real use.
 
Thanks, but this is not the type of device I'm looking for. This is a high power hybrid inverter whereas all I need is a small inverter to convert 12V to 230V since I already have the charge controller.

Anyway, Victron Phoenix 12V/500A has just arrived and am waiting for the battery to arrive to test it out. I will report here regarding the noise after some time of real use.
??.
 
Today, I connected all components and ran my Phoenix 12/500 in the living room. I can hear a constant buzz coming from it but it's not troublesome. In this room I usually sit 4 meters away from the inverter and at night I can hear it very faintly. During the day the sound gets lost among other sounds from the environment. I didn't hear the fan. However, I didn't load it heavily yet, I drew max about 120W from it (but I'm not planning to use it for higher loads, anyway). So far, it is okay for me, it is not 100% silent but at least there are no disturbing sounds of a fan starting to spin at high speed at unexpected moments. If I sat closer to it it might start bothering me.

However, I've discovered weird behaviour when I connect an old Lenovo laptop, which uses a replacement no-name power adapter - with that connected the inverter becomes obnoxiously loud, the buzz of the transformer could wake a person in a room next door and being in the same room is unbearable! Has anyone experienced this? It is only this one laptop power adapter that's causing it, it draws about 35W of power so nothing out of the ordinary. Perhaps it is a low quality adapter that introduces some heavy distortion back to the power source? I then took out the original Lenovo power adapter (whose cable is broken), connected some light bulbs to it and it didn't cause such problems. Can anyone explain it? Is it safe for the Victron inverter to be powering a device like this and work with this high noise level?
 
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Today, I connected all components and ran my Phoenix 12/500 in the living room. I can hear a constant buzz coming from it but it's not troublesome. In this room I usually sit 4 meters away from the inverter and at night I can hear it very faintly. During the day the sound gets lost among other sounds from the environment. I didn't hear the fan. However, I didn't load it heavily yet, I drew max about 120W from it (but I'm not planning to use it for higher loads, anyway). So far, it is okay for me, it is not 100% silent but at least there are no disturbing sounds of a fan starting to spin at high speed at unexpected moments. If I sat closer to it it might start bothering me.

However, I've discovered weird behaviour when I connect an old Lenovo laptop, which uses a replacement no-name power adapter - with that connected the inverter becomes obnoxiously loud, the buzz of the transformer could wake a person in a room next door and being in the same room is unbearable! Has anyone experienced this? Is it only this one laptop power adapter that's causing it, it draws about 35W of power so nothing out of the ordinary. Perhaps it is a low quality adapter that introduces some heavy distortion back to the power source? I then took out the original Lenovo power adapter (whose cable is broken), connected some light bulbs to it and it didn't cause such problems. Can anyone explain it? Is it safe for the Victron inverter to be powering a device like this and work with this high noise level?
What the heck Victron is doing to their products. I can believe they havent resolve the transformer humming issue as of 2022. People is willing to pay more for a better product and they are loosing ground for not listening to customers and their complains. Victron is looking more and more like a cheap chinesse inverter.
 
What the heck Victron is doing to their products. I can believe they havent resolve the transformer humming issue as of 2022. People is willing to pay more for a better product and they are loosing ground for not listening to customers and their complains. Victron is looking more and more like a cheap chinesse inverter.
Hm, maybe, but I personally have no experience with inverters so I don't know what to expect. Would inverters of other brands work better? Or is this a limitation of current technology? How isolated is my case with this cheap no-name power adapter - am I very unlucky with some rare incompatibility of two devices or does this happen frequently to other people?
 
What the heck Victron is doing to their products. I can believe they havent resolve the transformer humming issue as of 2022. People is willing to pay more for a better product and they are loosing ground for not listening to customers and their complains. Victron is looking more and more like a cheap chinesse inverter.
Hm, maybe, but I personally have no experience with inverters so I don't know what to expect. Would inverters of other brands work better? Or is this a limitation of current technology? How isolated is my case with this cheap no-name power adapter - am I very unlucky with some rare incompatibility of two devices or does this happen frequently to other people?
Its common issue with the multiplus-2 and other Victron inverters. The complains are all over the internet. Check this youtube link
@ 24:00min

The hum you hear was at 30A+ max charge rate. I think is a combination of various factors including the quality of transformer, the way that transformer is installed in the case, and the case isolation itself.
 
The hum you hear was at 30A+ max charge rate.
Yes, this one sounds really bad. But do we have a choice? Are there inverters of other manufacturers which are better regarding noise? Maybe that is the nature of equipment with transformers and it has to be this way?

So far I'm fairly pleased with the 12/500 unit, it's not perfectly quiet but I don't find the buzz troublesome in the living room. Apart from this one laptop power adapter of unknown origin all my other loads don't cause any noise problems. I wonder what's the problem with it, I've read that there are electric devices that introduce a lot of distortion into the power grid, maybe that is an example of such a trashy unit - but I don't know if the adapter or the inverter is to blame.
 
Yes, this one sounds really bad. But do we have a choice? Are there inverters of other manufacturers which are better regarding noise? Maybe that is the nature of equipment with transformers and it has to be this way?

So far I'm fairly pleased with the 12/500 unit, it's not perfectly quiet but I don't find the buzz troublesome in the living room. Apart from this one laptop power adapter of unknown origin all my other loads don't cause any noise problems. I wonder what's the problem with it, I've read that there are electric devices that introduce a lot of distortion into the power grid, maybe that is an example of such a trashy unit - but I don't know if the adapter or the inverter is to blame.
Yes there're better inverters in this regard. Transformerless and not at this price point. The Sol-Ark 8k, 12k & 15k and now the new 5k-1p-N (120v). There's a sustancial price difference.
 

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