Should I Have an Inverter/Charger or a Separate Inverter and a Separate Charger on My Boat?

[@MrMuffinman00]

Love the thought process to the redundancy. Every video is such a great insight.

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Thank you!

[@JohnBraman413]

how do you wire 2 inverter/chargers together?

[@robertschulke1596]

Another plus for some inverter/chargers is that they can sync waveforms with shore power, and protect you from sagging voltages, power outages, etc. seamlessly. They can even double up, so if you need 50 amps, but your shore power is only 30 amps, the inverter/charger will make up the difference. We can be running our washer/dryer on shore power, unplug, and go sailing, and the washer will merrily keep working and finish the load without a hiccup. We had a pier side power pedestal literally burn up (due to a neighbor’s dodgy electrics), and everything running off of the inverter/charger was fine. We have a Mass-Combi 12-2500-100. I’ve heard good about Victron as well.

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Hi Robert, good points, thanks for adding to the conversation.

[@foodley123]

Hi there, great channel. Have a bit of a curveball. So currently we have a sea ray 370 and it is a USA 60hz 110v boat and are in New Zealand. We currently run a isolation transformer to convert New Zealand’s 230v 50hz into 110v 50hz our boat is pretty happy apart from our Hvac output is a little less than on 60hz genset and the microwave clock doesn’t keep time. We are looking at stepping up to a much larger boat (ocean 53 super sport) This boat has a 220v 50a shore connection. How would I turn 230v 1p 50hz into the 220v split phase that I will need to run the dryer / water heater etc? I also would like to have the capability to invert also? Could an inverter charger cope with the frequency being off? I know that the ideal solution is a frequency converter but these are very large and expensive.

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Unfortunately, and to my knowledge, inverter/chargers are frequency specific. Don't know a work around for expensive frequency converters.

[@bluedogozwoofer6737]

this is possibly as basic as it can get, for marine application and 12v plug connections, are the main options 1) cigarette 2) waterproof Cigarette 3) Merit 4) Andersen. I have plans for some 12v 45w portable refrigeration boxes to replace my existing built in 30+ yo small freezer and separate refrigerator in my small and ancient catamaran, I also have a need for some outlets for these out on deck, possibly used for my (required) handheld spotlights. I have previously used merit on my camper trailers and found them good in conductivity and robustness in an outdoor environment. Can you advise or share some of your experiences and opinions? or direct me to a previous video as i have searched and also watched many of them but have not found the one where you have touched on this subject / Thanks in advance.

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Here's one of our KZbin video on marine crimps: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hn7QmKd_d9Z-kNE

[@gordn5411]

Hi Jeff. I'm looking to upgrade by current (older-2003??) Freedom 485 to either a newer Xantrex Freedom SW 3000watt inverter/charger or a Magnasine 3000watt inverter/charger ( unsure of which Magna to get but thinking MSH3012) for my 53 foot houseboat. I have 730Watts of solar with an 8-6volt battery bank. In your opinion which is the better inverter/charger?

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Hi Gord, that's a tough one, you choose two reputable inverter brands. We've installed Xantrex and Magnum on hundreds of boats. The magnum hybrid offers more features (at a higher cost naturally) then the SW3012.

[@gordn5411]

@@PacificYachtSystems thanks for the reply. I'll do some more research as I'm not at all familiar with any of the hybrid inverter/charges Or what the hybrid really means.

[@Walde8842]

Hi I’m about to take a giant step - going all lifepo4 12v Can I use my old victron 12 v 1600 va 70 amp and the new 12 v 3000 va 120 amp Working them together?

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Good question, but that one is for Victron. Really don't know if you can work both in tandem.

[@Walde8842]

@@PacificYachtSystems Thank you Jeff Fantastic effort with all your web work 🐳👍

[@brianbuchanan5170]

Two small inverter/chargers does sound better for redundancy than a single at twice the power. Individually cheaper and redundancy as you said. Plus for small load times only run one improving efficiency. I do see advantages of separate inverter and charger for international cruisers who might hookup at different voltages/frequencies.

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Thanks for sharing Brian.

[@dircery]

How likely is a problem to damage both inverter/chargers at the same time?

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Would have to be a external event from shorepower or generator problem, never seen it happen before. Anybody else can weight in on this.

[@scruff7559]

I really like the dedicated charger(s) and dedicated inverter(s) for a few reasons. Nobody I've seen makes a lead acid charger that goes to specific gravity 1.28. The only company I've seen do that is MorningStar. If I use a low frequency inverter it's isolated from the mains so if it's a marine rated charger then presto I don't need an isolation transformer. With inverter charger combis when shore power is available mains is suppling the loads in pass through. So there's potentially a dodgey grid or dirty genset powering loads onboard with an expensive piece of sophisticated hardware ushering it in. If I have both running continuously then I've a double conversion UPS and the power is often better quality than you get on most marinas. If you care about these things the inverter-combi is from what I've noticed ~15% more efficient round trip than double conversion UPS. As regards redundancy, sure it's a good idea. Have two half size instead of one whole; better to run both at 80% duty peak load parallel than having both oversized and 40% duty at peak load, the quiescent power's a major factor, as is the cost.

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Thanks Liam for you input.

[@garyengelman7867]

.A lead acid battery bank can only charge so fast no mater how many chargers you have, you can destroy a battery by charing it to fast. Lithium batteries on the other hand like a fast charge and they deep charge. Another thought, If you’re cruising areas were the AC shore power is questionable It’s better to charger batteries with a charger as they are less sensitive to voltage variations than running short power directly into the boat. You then supply Boat AC power exclusively from the inverter.

[@andytinline7717]

What about us guys that only have 1 starter battery and 1 house ? Can i charge the single house battery by running an inverter from the starting battery ? House battery only running lights and a fishfinder

[@PacificYachtSystems]

For sharing a charge between batteries, you'll want to install a battery combiner or a DC to DC charging converter.

[@davidpawley7022]

I know of a couple who decided on the separate route, reason being that the separate charger, could take different input volts and cycles (for different countries), not sure about modern combined units, comment welcome.

[@PacificYachtSystems]

David, 100%, when going offshore and connecting to different voltages and frequency, a stand alone charger is the way to go.

[@sv_dandelion]

Why not pair everything with a 12v generator to get even more charge efficiency? You have redundancy on the inverters

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Really like DC generators, realistically not everyone has the space, budget, or even want a DC generator. Certainly see the merit of DC Generators.

[@pierremitham2964]

Those are some really big boats you're working for people to be able to have 2 inverter/chargers and to be able to push 300amps into a battery bank!

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Yep, all sort of boats out there. Largest charging amperage we've done is 300 amps at 24 volts, or 600 amps at 24 volts. Boat was about 90 feet in length and we had 3 charging sources from AC.

[@javierbetancourt9388]

💯

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Thanks Javier.

[@jimmorris8158]

A Honda 2000 will run a 40 amp charger but will not run a 100 amp charger

[@royblackburn1163]

100 amps at 14 volts is 1,400 Watts.

[@jimmorris8158]

@@royblackburn1163 While that is true, on my 41' Roughwater with everything off the Honda 2000 kicks out on overcurrent when my 2000w inverter/charger kicks in. Maybe the initial draw ismre than 100 amps? But that's my real life experience

[@PacificYachtSystems]

All good points, depending on the conversion efficiency, you'll get about a 12 volt 40 - 50 amp charge running on a 2000 watt generator.

[@Hank-Waconda1.]

Yes this is the best most efficient way. You can charge bank and use loads on inverter at same time.