Renogy PCL1-30111S 3000w inverter charger install

[wcn00]

I bought one of these on Amazon.ca (so I don't get renogy support) because its heavy and they deliver for free. I set it up for testing on my bench and applied 120v ac to the input and turned it on ... crickets. Absolutely nothing happened. There is no output on the output terminals either ac or dc. The panel on top is dead. Either this thing's a dud or I've missed something incredibly basic.
Anyone have any experience with Renogy inverter/chargers? I would hate to send it back because the packaging is wrecked and shipping anything in Covid19 blackout is awful.
Thanks in advance..
wcn

 

[wcn00]

Well, as so often happens, soon as I asked for help I went back to work and found the answer. You have to have the batteries connected or it won't power on! This isn't great because if I had imbalanced batteries that I didn't want to load till after charging I can't do it without plugin in the ac, and I'd be doing that before programming. Well maybe its smart enough not to charge till its programmed. at any rate I can now program it from my fully charged batteries and then install it and apply the AC.
Life's good.
thanks and hope this was of use to someone. I happen to have an oscope so I'll perhaps post some of the ac output from this unit a little later. For now... I gotta get it in the RV which is no small trick as its about 35kg and I have to put it somewhere delicate where only one person can operate.
ttfn
wcn

 

[wcn00]

Well its almost a month since I installed the Renogy inverter/charger and today I heard the fridge beeping (it was working on 120 from the renogy). When I looked into it i found that the inverter was completely dead. No life on the panel or remote. no beeps or error codes.
Does anyone have experience with this?

This thing would cost a fortune to ship back and its camping season so I don't want to wait for a round trip. Has anyone fixed this issue?
wcn

 

[tictag]

The PCL1-30111S is an inverter/charger with an in-built transfer switch so it should power your devices from the grid and, should the grid fail, automatically switch over to battery power. Assuming no failure of the device, the fridge supply should only fail if:

1. The grid has failed or is disconnected AND
2. The batteries are fully discharged

The default low voltage disconnect is 10V. If you have a multimeter can you see whether your battery bank is above 10V? If it is, then you potentially have a fault e.g. fuse blown? If it is not then you need to independently charge your battery bank until it is above 10V - sometimes just connecting a 12V battery in parallel will be enough to wake the inverter up.

 

[wcn00]

The battery bus is at 13.7 volts. I can power the AC in either off the grid or the generator but in all cases the inverter remains completely dead. There are two popout breakers on the back of the unit, but they are not popped.

 

[tictag]

If this was mine and I had a warranty, I would be getting it warranty repaired/replaced. If it wasn't under warranty I'd be opening it up to see if there was an internal fuse or to see if the on/off switch was functioning. If you do open it up, be sure to discharge all the capacitors before touching anything.

Just because you bought it from a retailer, doesn't mean that you don't have a manufacturer's warranty.

 

[wcn00]

I suppose I'll have to. I would REALLY like my money back at this point. It will take the rest of the RVing season here to get it replaced and who knows how long the next one will last. There was an old basic inverter in the exact same place in this RV where the Renogy went for 10 years and it was still working when I took it out. I suppose I could put it back... but that seems like quite a defeat!
Naturally I've thrown out the packaging material for this thing and it weighs 23 kg... and the return freight is on me.
I think I'll give it a review that makes the internet smell bad for a week.
wcn

 

[tictag]

I think I'll give it a review that makes the internet smell bad for a week.

I know this is not the time for humour but I have to say, that is the funniest thing I've heard/seen all week.

Beyond internal fuses, switch contact loose or other component failure I cannot think of any other troubleshooting you can do - inverters kinda just work ... until they don't anymore.