Inverter on or off

[carwash]

should the invertor be on or off when plugged to shore power

[BigSkyBob]

I've not turned off my Magnum invertor in over three years and it works perfectly as does the charger. I might add it's plugged into shore power 99% of the time.

[Kent and Sharon]

I believed the same thing "leave inverter on all the time" until I had a power blip in yuma one day and it cost me $2,000 for a new inverter. The repair guy said "if your on shore power, the current doubles back thru the inverter" and it's going to cost you if there is a surge. I won't recommend what you should do, but for me, if I'm on shore power, my inverter is off.

[NLOVNIT]

Ours is on. For some reason, the factory wired the bedroom TV so it only operates when the inverter is on.

Lori-

[Route 66]

Quote:

The repair guy said "if your on shore power, the current doubles back thru the inverter" and it's going to cost you if there is a surge

Never heard that before, and it doesn't sound right.

Like many others, my inverter is always on.

[paintman607]

I saw this O.P. so it made me wonder. I never have mine on when hooked to shore power. What is the reason to have it on all the time? Now I'm confused. Of course I'm new at this too.

[HD4Mark]

Used to leave ours on all the time until one day for some reason the shore power must have been off for a long time and the inverter killed the batteries. Now it goes on when we need it which is rarely.

[Route 66]

Quote:

Originally Posted by paintman607 I saw this O.P. so it made me wonder. I never have mine on when hooked to shore power. What is the reason to have it on all the time? Now I'm confused. Of course I'm new at this too.

If there is a loss/interruption of shore power, everything keeps working off the inverter.

Some DirecTV DVRs can take 5 to 10 minutes to reboot on a power loss.

It's a convenience thing.

[WindsorDave]

Like Mark, we only turn ours on when necessary. I discovered that if the reefer is on "automatic" and the inverter gets turned on, the reefer thinks AC is available and elects to run on that. Maybe the reefer outlet should not be on the inverter circuit but that's the way our coach is wired.

FWIW

[Jim A]

I also only use the inverter when necessary, and not when connected to shore power or running the gen. I also only turn it on when dry camping when I want to run something on 120v. Never have had a problem with it. A few times I did have to wait for the DVR to reboot when I unplugged and forgot to turn it on first. I avoid using some of the high drain items like coffee makers, the microwave, and hair dryers whenever possible when operating on the inverter. I know it should take it, but I hate to risk it if not necessary.

[Old Rv'er]

First I don't care who made your motorhome, if it does not have some kind of surge guard electrical system protection, buy an aftermarket one and either install it or have it installed. No, I am not talking about a Hughes Auto former, although it would (I think) it does the same thing, not sure. Various companies make surge guard units, “surge guard” being one brand name. Then no matter what happens the electrical portion of the motor home is protected.

It’s like always using the water pressure regulator on the faucet, before you hook up the fresh water hose, it protects the hose and everything downstream from that. Nuff Said!!!!

I cannot speak for all Alpines, but, our APEX, when you first turn on the master switches, the inverter starts as "pass through", which means, any other source of power, be it shore or generator, will pass through the inverter. If no other power source exists the inverter, and then shuts off, but the fans continue to run. This is also our converter and battery charger all in one unit. Ours is a Xantrex which has done a great job, and has not given us any trouble except when the battery temp sensor went out, and then we had to unplug the input wire for the inverter/charger features to work. I replaced the sensor, and everything is fine now.

When plugged into shore power, the inverter "passes through" and I leave it that way, because we have the residential fridge, and I don't want to lose all that food if the shore power fails. It does not hurt the inverter at all to be in pass through mode. This is especially true if you have protection outlined in paragraph 1 of this post.

[OldForester]

We don't have an Apex, but I couldn't agree more with Old Rv'er. We leave our inverter on whether we have gen on or shore power on. Only time we disable it is when we have it plugged in to shore power in storage. I've found it's very convenient to have the inverter kick in when shore power is lost, or the generator shuts down when we didn't think it would.

[Old Scout]

Your inverter is hard-wired into your 120v circuits--therefore, it wont matter if your inverter switch is on or off when a surge hits. If you dont have an OEM or aftermarket surge protector in your coach's shore power feed line, you are living on the edge of a "train wreck"==and the inverter wont be the only casualty.

[alan1]

When I had the Endevor I attended the 419 maintance rally. Part of the programe had Magnum reps putting on some sessions and the question of leave it on all of the time came up. Consensus of the group and the rep was it does no harm to leave them on all the time.