Battery Charger and Inverter

[Pasarell]

I may be in the market for a new battery charger and so considering combination inverter and charger. Probably around 60A charger and 1500W inverter. Anybody have views on what to go for? Is my size about right? The ones I see most often are Mastervolt and Victron. Which is best or should I be looking at other makes?
The original 40A charger in the Moody 44 I've just bought appears to work well but is probably a little small with the extra batteries that have been fitted since it was new. I would also like a decent inverter as I hope to spend quite a lot of time on the hook in the Med. We have a Rutland 913 wind charger and 160W of solar which I am likely to increase. Domestic battery bank is 480AH.
Thanks in anticipation of your opinions!

 

[Jabs]

I have a Mastervolt 100a charger/2500w inverter on 540aHr bank on a Moody 42.

The charger is brilliant and we regularly use the inverter to drive the microwave. It is a huge convenience to just 'ping' such as rice or when the boat was in UK, mid morning pasties.

Good luck. Buy the biggest you think you will need!

Good luck

Tony.

 

[sarabande]

have you seen this ?

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?462093-Mastervolt-Mass-Combi-Inverter-Charger-For-Sale

 

[Richard10002]

I bought a Sterling 2500w 70A sine wave inverter charger, but it has some shortcomings, which have been corrected in the latest model. The Victron and Mastervolt equivalents didn't have the issue.

I'd buy a Victron if I was buying today.

 

[pvb]

You might also consider buying the inverter and charger separately. The cost is about the same, but you gain a bit of flexibility (and possibly some efficiency).

Note that inverter continuous power outputs are usually temperature dependent - eg a 1600W continuous rating at 25C might drop to say 1400W at 40C, so you need to specify for your intended Med use.

 

[geem]

If you want to run an inductive load such as a motor you will need a large inverter. The most reliable inverters use a large transformer. These are low frequency inverters and they are heavy. My 3000w LF inverter weighs 28kg and will run a 2000w inductive load. We can run the watermaker or the vacuum cleaner with no problems. We have an 800 amp hr domestic bank

 

[Pasarell]

Thanks for all your comments. It was the one advertised that prompted me to write my original post. Thought about it but decided I wanted something bigger to future proof. I'm hoping my battery bank is big enough but time will tell. Inverter size is still to be decided and I will try to leave it until we have some experience of what we need

 

[William_H]

I reckon that you might be too quick to condemn the charger you have. An amp meter will indicate just how hard the charger is working at any time. A greater capacity charger may not actually charge at a much greater rate. Even then will only give you a quicker recovery from a deep discharge. It really sounds like you want more solar charging but that is usually limited by space for panels. Regarding inverter make sure you get a Pure Sine wave inverter not a modified square wave type. good luck olewill

 

[Richard10002]

I've got a 450Ah battery bank and, when I use about half of it, I like the fact that I have 80A for about two and a half hours before the Amps start falling, and 3 hours before they fall to 40A. With a 40A charger, it would be about 5 hours before the Amps start falling below 40A. So, unless I'm missing something, I'm about 2 hours ahead of the game with an 80A charger, as against a 40A charger?

 

[duncan99210]

I've got a 490 amp hr domestic bank linked to 220 watts of solar panels. That set up just about keeps pace with demand at anchor in the Med. The battery charger is a 40 amp Sterling which happily recharges the bank within 24 hours of plugging into mains electricity. Yes, it could be bigger but I won't replace it until it dies as I can't justify the expensive for knocking a few hours off the time taken to charge the bank on mains power.

I have a Maplin 1000 watt inverter which provides mains power on the few occasions it's required ( making fresh orange juice, charging the drill batteries and the like). Generally speaking the idea is to use 12v equipment where at all possible. Six years live aboard has shown this to be a viable concept although I know others like having 230v ac stuff such as microwave ovens.

 

[stranded]

You might also consider buying the inverter and charger separately. The cost is about the same, but you gain a bit of flexibility (and possibly some efficiency).

Note that inverter continuous power outputs are usually temperature dependent - eg a 1600W continuous rating at 25C might drop to say 1400W at 40C, so you need to specify for your intended Med use.

Having just fitted a new Mass Combi Ultra, I would in future look for separates. The ultra incorporates charger, inverter, solar charger, automatic mains source switching. Sounds fantastic. But the first unit we installed went bang. No mains charging, no inverter, no solar charging, no generator or shore power. And Mastervolt customer service is not the quickest - took about two months to sort it out.

 

[Monique]

We have 960 AH battery bank. We reviewed our electrical needs 2 years ago when we bought this vessel. We have a 50Ah & and a 60 Ah dedicated chargers plus a 3KW Cotek Inverter/charger. (We have 450 W solar panels... good enough to run both the freezer and the refrigerator plus mooring lights at night and recharging all the battery driven gizmos aboard.. on a sunny day). Otherwise, Onan must be brought into action.

We had much Mastervolt kit on the previous boat but found their performance/reliability to be wishful thinking by Mastervolt rather than reality for the end user. On this vessel, we chose to go for Victron or Cotek. After 2 years, not one component failed. We conclude we made the right choices.

 

[Pasarell]

What is clear from all your comments is that I shouldn't rush into anything. I will not see the boat again until November but will then have the winter to plan what is required. From what everybody has said I need to set my sights rather higher, especially regarding solar capacity. My existing charger works well and my thought for replacing it was based on its age and getting an inverter as well. Without benefit of experience a combined unit sounds good but now thinking that's not correct.
I've always tried to keep everything simple and work with 12v as much as possible for charging phones, computers etc. Maplin dc - dc voltage converters have always served me well for the various power requirements. Now, however, it all gets more complicated with 3 people including a young child on board. I think a washing machine and microwave are going to be essential for marital harmony so inverter is necessary. I do have a Honda 20i generator but hope to let the sun do the work whenever possible