house batteries ONLY charge by running the engine

[Bobmn]

Hello to all; 2001 Discovery, 7500 Onan diesel Genset, 458 Freedom charger/inverter (2000w) If I run the genset, no charge...if I plug into 110...no charge! The only way the house batteries will charge is when you run the engine.





I have ck'd the fuses under the fridge, and all the breakers there. I installed 4 new 6v golf cart batteries last week. nope! Still the same. Is there some thing in the inverter that could have gone bad? The breaker on the inverter is not out, and the other 2 breakers are good, that are on the front. Maybe a "spike" at a campground? Has anyone had this happen to them? Thanks BobMn

[Lukeaa]

Check if you have 12v coming out of the inverter into the batteries. If not, check if you have voltage going into the inverter. Inverters do die ocassionally.

Luke

[garym114]

More info would help.
When you are plugged in do you have AC passing through the inverter?
Have you tried resetting the AC input trip to the inverter. It is the white button next to the negative battery connection on the inverter. Unplug from AC to try the reset.
Do you have any LED status lights flashing on the inverter.
Have you cycled the 30 amp AC breaker to the inverter. It should be in the main AC breaker panel.

[loulong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobmn Hello to all; 2001 Discovery, 7500 Onan diesel Genset, 458 Freedom charger/inverter (2000w) If I run the genset, no charge...if I plug into 110...no charge! The only way the house batteries will charge is when you run the engine. I have ck'd the fuses under the fridge, and all the breakers there. I installed 4 new 6v golf cart batteries last week. nope! Still the same. Is there some thing in the inverter that could have gone bad? The breaker on the inverter is not out, and the other 2 breakers are good, that are on the front. Maybe a "spike" at a campground? Has anyone had this happen to them? Thanks BobMn

When you are un-plugged from shore power, does the inverter work? (e.g. provide 120vac to the designated circuits) It would be very unusual for the inverter to operate, but for the charger portion to NOT work, since most of the internal circuitry is used for both functions. Also the external path from the 458 to/from the batteries is common (and required) for both functions.

If neither the charge or invert functions work, then I suspect there is a blown Class-T (DC) fuse between the batteries and the input to your inverter/charger.

Shore power and the generator use the 458 to charge the batteries while the engine charges them from the alternator through a separate path.

PS - troubleshooting can also be complicated by the fact that on most Heart Interface and Xantrex inverter chargers, the ac passthru function of the internal transfer switch will not function without 12vdc on the DC side. This would be indicated by the circuits normally fed by the inverter NOT working even when plugged into shore/gen power.

[Bobmn]

Hello; Thanks for the grt answers. As, we are haying..(yet! to much rain) I will be cking all of the leads and getting back to all of you soon. I'll ck on the outlets to see which ones work on the inverter or not. I did charge up the house batteries so the green lite is showing on the panel when you ck it. I also ck'd the breakers on the inverter and the white button, which was fine. The BIG fuse above the batteries ck's out good also. BobMn

[Bobmn]

Hello to all. Finally got time to look at the 458. I found the 1/4 amp fuse was bad!!! Had 110 going in but not all the way. The worse part was getting all 10 of the small screws out so the cover could come off!! Then the fuse looked good.but it tested bad. So, a new fuse, ( and a spare), and it started charging!! I want to thank all for the leads....(and my neighbor) for all the help with this. Thanks again! Bobmn