Our Inverter Blows Up!

Unbelievably, after only two months of operation, our Xantrex Prosine 3000 inverter blew up! Again! I just called and got ANOTHER RMA# to return it. They say it could take up to four weeks to get it fixed up.

Grant Ball, who re-did all the wiring on the entire boat, installed the inverter and did a bang up job. He is a true expert in these things and I can't think of anything he could have done better - or different - to have prevented this issue.

The only thing remotely possible that could be wrong with the overall boat wiring is that we are running off of two shore ties and it is possible although nor probable, that there was an unbalanced neutral current resulting from being out of phase between one of the circuits.

We get a new inverter

Being a webdood, it is important that I maintain the ability to run my laptop and to connect to the Internet from the boat.

This is our top of the line Xantrex Prosine Wave Inverter / Charger 3.0 (aka the Prosine 3000).

It produces a pure sine wave at 3000 watts.

It is by far the most sohisticated piece of machinery on the boat.

For unknown reasons, it blew up in the Bahamas this year.

This is our warranty replacement:

Bahamas Update - A Major 'Tingum is Broke

The Inverter is Busted

Inasmuch as we are having problems with brand-new $3,500 Xantrex Prosine 3.0 I installed earlier this year on the boat, the very first thing we did on arrival in March Harbor was to call over the expert in inverters, a fellow who owns "Merlin's Marine Electronics."

He showed up right away and went to work. After disconnecting everthing except the batteries, we found it to appear to be working and "ready to invert".

We then went and bought a power strip, cut off the ends and connected that directy to the inverter (so as to bypass any potential wiring problems that might otherwise exist in the boat).

The minute we hit the "Please Invert" button, a loud explosion (like a firecracker) came from within the inverter which, he says, was probably a transistor blowing up. Just to be double-sure, we reset her and tried again. Same loud pop.

Prognosis: Inverter must be returned to the manufacturer

So we wired the boat to bypass the inverter completely. He was kind and only charged me a service call fee of $50 and was on is way.

We have A/C while we're at the dock so we have air conditioning and the kids can watch videos, so things aren't all that bad -- I just have to remember to either run the engine periodically or to charge up the batteries using a regular automotive-type battery charger I bougt here in town ($144.50)