Excerpts from recent Houseboat forum exchanges at www.houseboatmagazine.com/forum
dalehollow: I have a Xantrex (sp) 2000 inverter/charger and I’ve had some issues with it. I’m thinking about trying the Magnum unit. What are your thoughts? My goal is to find the best unit that keeps the proper battery charge.
stmbtwle: I’d look into solar for charging the batteries. It’s not reliant on shore power and you can still use your inverter charger. How old are the batteries? It might not be the charger at all.
dalehollow: You’re probably correct on battery life. I’m bumping five years (that’s expected life) and I never let it drop below 50 percent. It’s always charged back at the lowest amps on the remote, but they do see extreme temperatures during the Kentucky/Tennessee winters.
stmbtwle: Before I spend any money on a new inverter/charger I’d have the batteries checked out. My guess is it’s the batteries and your inverter/charger is fine.
easttnboater: I went with a pure sine wave unit from AIMS. The old modified sine wave Trace unit still functioned, but some of the electronics in the boat would not recognize the modified sine wave as legitimate power. I have been very pleased so far with the AIMS unit. It is lightweight, inexpensive, and the transfer switching time is extremely fast. But check your batteries first.
Zilpo55: I would like to make this change, too. I still have a functioning Trace, but I’ve always been annoyed by the loud hum that it causes in the ceiling fans. We replaced the master cabin fan with a Haiku, which doesn’t hum, but we have a very nice four-speed fan in the salon that we’d rather keep. It runs the most when we are out. I wonder how much efficiency is lost in fan and refrigerator motors by not having a true sine wave.
easttnboater: I do not know how much efficiency is lost. I do know that it supposedly reduces the life of electric motors. You will eventually install something with digital controls that will not recognize the square wave power.
I had to replace mine in a short time period. If I could go back and do it again, I would have gone with a 24VDC unit for the extra efficiency of 24VDC over 12VDC.
Do you have any questions or advice about chargers and batteries? Hop on the forum and join the conversation.