Inverter

[Dennis Crawford]

I posted a problem regarding my Xantrex inverter.  Well I contacted Xantrx today and they told me a relay was going bad and would fail. This is not a repairable item.  I need to replace the inverter. And since there is new technology. I have to replace control pannel and genstart module.  Has anyone had this done and is there a better alternative

Dennis

[Edward Buker]

Dennis,

This was posted by Joel Weiss regarding a Xantrex inverter replacement.

We installed a Magnum MS2812 pure sine wave inverter today to replace the Xantrex whose charger was beginning to fail.  Since the Xantrex was over 13 years old and had been rebuilt once, I decided there was no point to spending more money on it.  Amazon is selling the Magnum product line at incredible prices so I decided to upgrade to the 2.8 kW model (with a max output of 3.6 kW).  Here's a link to the Amazon price which is more than $300 less expensive than any other price I had seen on this item:   http://www.amazon.com/Magnum-M.....num+inverter+charger  The remote control panel is another ~$200.

 The installation was relatively easy other than having to crawl into the basement.   The devices are roughly the same size and both are connected to their remote panels using 4 conductor phone line so the existing connection can be reused.   The Magnum does not come with a built-in subpanel so we installed a separate one above the water pump box.  This has the advantage of moving the subpanel breakers to a location I can easily reach instead of having to pull things out of the basement so I can crawl in; inevitably the breaker trips early in the morning when someone does something foolish like using a hairdryer while the coffee is still brewing!  Crawling into the basement before having coffee doesn't start the day out on a good note.

Later Ed

[Joel Weiss]

About the only thing I can add to that elegantly written post   is that unfortunately Amazon is no longer selling the Magnum at that great price.  The last time I looked it appeared as if all the vendors selling the Magnum through Amazon were doing so at the exact same price to the penny.  Looked as if Magnum put its foot down on its dealers.

[Dennis Crawford]

When I caled Xantrex today,it looks like they have been bought by someone else. If I can. give them serial number fron old unit they will give 30% discount.

[Joel Ashley]

Xantrex has had quality issues for awhile, and has been trying hard of late to change that and gain a better reputation.  That may be a result of an ownership change, I don't know.  Consider though that most of us that have original, or have converted to, Magnum units have few problems historically;  the "new" Xantrex can't say that yet.

Joel

[Keith Cooper]

We had a failure in 2011 and took a different path. The power transfer relay for the unit is actually mounted on a removable circuit board. while Xantrex wont repair the defective power board, they will replace a board at their "certified service centers". the cost is significantly lower than a new inverter. If you do a search on power transfer relays on the forum you will see several treads on this topic.

[Dick Simonis]

Our Freedom 458 died last year in a voltage spike and it was replaced with a Magnum 2020 PSM and remote.  The folks at Magnum designed these to be pretty much a drop in replacement for Zantrex units and did a good job.  IMHO, a call to Magnum might be in order and the extra $$$ may well be worth it.