Don't cheap out on inverters, it never ends well.

Posted by Rough_Community_1439@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 42 comments

So this week I was doing a trial run with a WZRELB 7000 watt inverter and simulating a long term blackout and being off the grid for a month. I flipped the mains off a week ago and things were going pretty decently for 6 days and beat my high score for most power produced on this setup (2.352kw/h) and made a total of 9.23kw today. This evening I went and proceeded to go and take a shower and things went normally but then I noticed the light flickering and then I lost power.

I boot up the Renology app and the charge controller said 77% remaining on the bank. I go outside and check the inverter and find it failed and is now producing 77 volts and will not start up anymore. This inverter that costs over 1k in value is about as well documented as your right hand and don't even have a troubleshooting guide. I am at a loss and I am just frustrated a well pump took out my inverter.

I am Kind of greatful that it failed on a nice summer day rather than the dead of winter. But I guess some things don't go right and I am just glad it didn't take out anything valuable, like my PC. That being said, I plan on getting a better inverter and trying again. But i don't think I can try again till next year as they are really expensive.

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Ancient-one511@reddit

ExelTech inverters are mil-grade, expensive, and extremely reliable. I have an 1100W unit (running for 16 years now) with a spare on the shelf and a Cheap Chinese 2KW non-sine-wave inverter for resistive loads like coffee pot and tea kettle (extreme essentials in the morning). I bought the spare because the 16 year old inverter's fan is starting to make a little bit of noise. Battery bank powered by solar with generator backup.

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boxtroutalpha@reddit

Time to change out that fan! Bearings are probably toast

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boxtroutalpha@reddit

I do this stuff in a professional capacity… buy Victron.

If you’re planing on keeping your equipment (and don’t want to buy it twice) oh and don’t want it to let you down when it’s supposed to do its f’ing job… buy victron

I know I know there’s 100’s of ppl that have their own opinions. Do what suits you, what do I know (oh wait I do this all day long and have tried many brands)

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Rough_Community_1439@reddit (OP)

Have you found a victron that can output at least 30 amps of 240v?

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boxtroutalpha@reddit

Look into the multi plus platform. You can get them in either 120v or 240v natively.

Or you can pair two up for 120/240v or three for three phase :)

Please keep in mind they’re not cheap (and I totally understand not everyone has $$ burn on this stuff)

But after seeing all the failures, and damaged appliances… and fires… I personally won’t use anything else.

Good design, parts, and lability costs $$

And good products actually SAVE money (see above lol)

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TTdriver@reddit

Ive been using a wzrelb 48v 3000 watt for over 2 years now at 15% load the entire time. Ive had it up to 75% load maybe 10% of its life, but it never drops below a static 15% from a few 24/7 fans and my server/networking. Its fine. I would say you got a dud.

Also, very happy with my ampivint 6000 watt. Thats been running 80% of my house for over 6 months now.

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Rough_Community_1439@reddit (OP)

I don't think I will get another one of these. I did some troubleshooting and found that the 240v AC is leaking into the 48v DC side of the transformer and you can actually hear the fans fluctuating with the AC being supplied to the fans

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More_Dependent742@reddit

Even here in "fcking HOW much?!" Austria, a 2kw inverter runs about 200 euros (and upward, sure)

1000 (I'm guessing) American dollars is not "cheaping out". You just got screwed. Get your money back.

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More_Dependent742@reddit

Edit: you said 7kw, my bad. Still though, it doesn't sound bottom end by that price.

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Rough_Community_1439@reddit (OP)

I paid around $1,100 for it. Still frustrated that apparently you can still get poor build quality for that rate.

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shikkonin@reddit

And it was a 7kw/h inverter.

If that's what it actually says on the box, that would be a very good indication that you got screwed.

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Rough_Community_1439@reddit (OP)

Honestly thought it was quality, mainly because of the size and the weight of it. Usually inverters that are a scam are light in weight and are small.

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shikkonin@reddit

mainly because of the size and the weight of it.

But they couldn't even manage to put actual units on it. You can get weight and heft easily with a large hex nut...

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Rough_Community_1439@reddit (OP)

I also opened it up and the inverter seems like it had good build quality. Kinda sucks that the primary winding got melted to the secondary windings in the transformer.

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MostlyBrine@reddit

Except if is “Chinese kWats”. Always assume that the Chinese inverters are overrated by at least a factor of two.

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RedSquirrelFtw@reddit

I tend to try to avoid these weird Chinese Amazon brands. They're not ALL bad but lot of them are. I would get a Meanwell or something along those lines, they are built better. I run my server rack 24/7 off a Meanwell inverter, I plan to add more to get better redundancy so I can split my cluster on different power sources and also split up the systems that have redundant power.

Either way redundancy is key though, having a spare or multiple in operation so that if one fails you're not completely dead in the water.

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Blacktip75@reddit

Makes me feel a little better dropping 20k in my battery and inverter with 0ms switch over… still financially a dumb decision but not a waste so far (and it caught 3 power outages in less than 6 months)

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WhereDidAllTheSnowGo@reddit

Perhaps something else contributed to the failure…

Do you have an extremely good ground?

Have you checked resistance on every circuit? A multimeter is best but any hot spots is a dead giveaway away.

If this is a multi-phase system, are your loads balanced?

The above are static issues…

Have you studied the dynamics of the system? Any surges, spikes, intermittent odd loads? Could two peak-load devices come on at the same time?

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Rough_Community_1439@reddit (OP)

I have a very good ground and it seems like everything is normal after switching to the grid. Also it's a single phase system. Only thing I could think caused my inverter to fail was the duty cycle of the 1hp well pump and the potential for the fridge to kick on and load everything down. But the weird thing is that the total load would have been about 42% of the total output of the inverter. So far I have no idea what caused it to fail like it did

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WhereDidAllTheSnowGo@reddit

Just had an odd thought..

Some inverters have a self-protect fuse inside. Have you opened it up yet?

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Rough_Community_1439@reddit (OP)

Yep, it had close to 12 fuses. All tested good. It's like there is a short somewhere but I can't find it. I am starting to wonder if I lost a transformer or something.

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BL1860B@reddit

Dual Victron inverters is the way to go. Split phase and redundancy if one fails.

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nanneryeeter@reddit

My favorite camper system I ever built had two of the Victron Multiplus 2000 watt inverters. I sold the camper with the system.

I was interested in power box installs and picked up a bluetti AC300 + battery for a good price. It's okay but it absolutely is no Victron.

I really wish Victron offered the inverter in something over 24V. Maybe they do now. Been awhile since I've checked.

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BL1860B@reddit

Nice. Victron does make a ton of 48v units. Both the MultiPlus and Quattros. I have a 24v MultiPlus setup now but I’m planning an upgrade to the 48V 5000VA units soon.

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party_peacock@reddit

You used a brand new inverter for 6 days and it already broke? I'd be chasing down the seller for a refund

fwiw over half my household's power consumption has been running on off-grid solar for years now on an $150 2000W inverter. The low cost meant I could buy a second spare inverter (which is still in its box unused).

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TheLostExpedition@reddit

I did the same thing. I have one under the hood of each vehicle and 1 in the shop and 1 in the house and 1 backup.

Off grid for 5 years and I haven't touched the backup yet.

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randynumbergenerator@reddit

What brand?

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party_peacock@reddit

"Zhejiang Swipower Technology Co., Ltd"

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shikkonin@reddit

made a total of 9.23kw today

That's a pretty large system, how much total energy did you get out of it in that day?

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wwglen@reddit

You might want to get a small 1000-2000 watt inverter as a backup.

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Nucken_futz_@reddit

For a backup, I'd stick closer to the 2000w range. Larger capacity for high-current loads such as an electric heater, with extra headroom for more devices, safety margin/long-term reliability & improved inrush current handling.

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davidm2232@reddit

You should not be running an electric heater off an inverter. That is a massive draw and waste of energy. Get a 12v diesel heater. They are cheap and use much less battery

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randynumbergenerator@reddit

This is why when I get the funds to build a system I'm planning to run 2-3 smaller inverters in parallel. If there's a failure, maybe I have to turn a couple appliances off but I won't be totally SOL until a replacement arrives.

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davidm2232@reddit

I have been running off a 5500w 24v Powerjack inverter in my RV for 7+ years. I have a 10+ year old 12v Powerjack that is still going strong too. I also have a few more noname ebay cheapies that have been fine. The cheap chinese inverters have never let me down. I do grossly oversize though

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Anonymo123@reddit

I don't have solar, so honest question: will you repair or replace it? what's your options if there's a long term outage and you can't replace it, can you use the power at all without it? Does the "2 is 1..." motto fit here especially with the cost..

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SeriousGoofball@reddit

Not exactly the same situation, but I have an Ecoflow and an Anker battery system and no solar except a portable panel.

In my situation, my plan is to primarily use the battery systems and recharge with my gas/propane generators. Based on expected usage I can run the generators for 8 hours a day but still power what I need for the full 24 hours.

The numbers change a little if I have to run AC, but even then I should be able to run on battery for over half the time.

Massive savings in fuel and generator longevity.

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Smooth_Cat8219@reddit

nit really cause home solar gives 150v - 800v per string in DC, so no appliance is ready for this, except for some water heaters. But DC is a safety bitch so rather not.

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randynumbergenerator@reddit

Unless you go the microinverter route. But apart from the added experience, that always struck me as (a) inefficient if you have a battery system due to the double conversion that has to happen, and (b) a recipe for pain climbing the roof whenever a microinverter fails.

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