Freedom/Heart Inverter Questions

[dweeze]

I've got a couple of fairly basic questions on heart inverters that someone here may be able to answer.

I have a Freedom 25 Inverter on a boat I bought recently from the US. P/N 81-0253-12. The boat is now in the United Kingdom.

The owners manual refers to the input voltage of the unit as 130VAC. Does anyone know whether this particular unit can be modified to take 240VAC input -

Does anyone know of any Freedom support/suppliers in the United Kingdom for Heart Inverters?

And lastly the unit was running on a 30amp shore power supply in the US. At the marina where it is now situated the shore power is only 16amp. Can anyone tell me whether this will affect the running of this particular unit.

Thanks

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[ashley]

I'm assuming from the context of your message that this is one of the units that has automatic switchover from mains to battery supply.

I don't believe these units will switch from 110 to 240v easily without much modification
I've asked about them about this with a view to buying second-hand 110v units off ebay and they have reported that they are different beasts

You should stick with your 110v appliances and inverter and buy a decent powereful 3 stage 240v charger instead.

Even if you could change the power, you will probably run into problems with the way the boat is wired with single pole breakers etc.

<hr width=100% size=1>Live life to the fullest... think of all the people on the Titanic who passed up chocolate dessert.

 

[Tradewinds]

I bought a Heart Freedom 25 charger/inverter for my boat when in the Caribbean in '96. It was bought specifically as a 240v unit. It shouldn't matter that you can 'only' get 16 amps - that should be plenty. The 100amp battery charger will initially draw about 11 amps on start up even if your batteries are high - this will blow the circuit breakers of many European marinas which only run on 6 amps (a point I hadn't considered).

Generally, a brilliant, reliable unit which was in use, one way or another, every day for 6 years on the trot & works as well today as the first day I bought it (although the 6amp problem is an issue).

If you can live with it, I'd stick with the 110v appliances until they give up then, perhaps, change the unit for one with a 240v output.

PM me if you'd like a copy of the original manuals.



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[Salty John]

I had the same charger/inverter and the same situation. Excellent product, but not convertable to 240 VAC input. I kept the boat on 110v and bought an industrial 240 to 110 VAC step down transformer. The transformer is in a hard plastic waterproof case, very compact, but heavy. They are normally used on building sites to power 110 VAC tools so any large builders supply store should stock them.

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[dweeze]

Thanks for the answers.

I've been looking at transformers so will just go and get one for it.

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