Inverter

[nutensteve]

I have never had a reason to use my inverter until we were travelling from Oregon last week and we wanted to use the crockpot while underway. I hit the inverter button and nothing happened. The charger works but not the inverter. Am I missing something? We ended up using the generator but would have been more efficient to use the inverter.

[RJay]

Is the inverter on? There's an on/off switch on the inverter you should check. There's also a circuit breaker on it that may be tripped.

[nutensteve]

RJay is the on off switch at the control panel inside or on the inverter itself ? I checked the breakers and they seem ok.

Thanks for the response

[YC1]

Not all outlets are on the inverter. Was your microwave flashing? If the microwave was lit up the you can try another electrical device in the outlets to find which ones are on the inverter. I labeled mine after exploring them.

[nutensteve]

I turned it on at the inside control panel and nothing happened. The light does not illuminate indicating that it is on. The microwave did not light up.

[Robi.1014]

"I turned it on at the inside control panel and nothing happened."

Please tell us the brand of inverter you're running. Now, having "asked" that, my suggestion is that you press and hold the INVERTER button on the inside panel. A quick press on my Inverter panel doesn't do it. A 2 second press and AH HA.

[Bob (WA0MQE)]

There should also be a switch on the inverter itself. It will be located on the front panel near where the phone type cable plugs into the inverter. If this switch is off, it won't matter what you do on the remote panel up inside the coach. Also, depending on what type of inverter you have, there may be a couple of circuit breakers sticking out on one side or the other on the inverter. Make sure those are not popped. If this doesn't fit your inverter, you can try resetting the inverter by removing the large battery cables from the inverter as well as the small phone wire jack coming from the remote control panel. Leave them unplugged for at least 30 minutes. This allows the large filter capacitors and some other components to bleed off any residual dc voltage and will reset the inverter to it's factory state. Then reconnect everything and try again.

If none of the above works then there's something internally wrong and it will have to be repaired.

[RJay]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nutensteve RJay is the on off switch at the control panel inside or on the inverter itself ? I checked the breakers and they seem ok. Thanks for the response

There should be an on/off switch on the inverter itself.

[JimM68]

Does your inverter look like this one?

It has 3 breakers. CB1 and 2 are AC out. CB3 is AC in. Breakers will pop out if they are tripped.

On the other side is a pushbutton on-off switch (which must be on) and a green light which does various things depending on what the unit is up to.

These magnums are usually controlled by a remote panel inside the coach which controls both the charger and inverter functions.

Do you have power to all outlets on shore power?

I had what I thought was an inverter problem once, turned out a GFI outlet had popped. It was down near the floor, behind a cabinet, never even knew it was there.

[nutensteve]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a Magnum inverter. I'll try holding the button and check at the inverter for an on/off switch. If that fails I'll try Bob's suggestion of disconnecting it for 30 mins.

[nutensteve]

Jim
My inverter is exactly like yours. I checked all the breakers and all are ok. I saw the green light on the right side and it is on and off .... blinking about every 15 seconds. I did not find a push on/off switch. Is it on the rear of the unit ?

[Monaco38]

Also, as someone else mentioned, the inverter may only power some of the AC outlets in the coach, not all of them. Once you find everything to be working, all circuit breakers located and on, no GFI's tripped, etc., you may still have to determine which outlets are actually being powered by the inverter.

[nodine]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nutensteve Jim My inverter is exactly like yours. I checked all the breakers and all are ok. I saw the green light on the right side and it is on and off .... blinking about every 15 seconds. I did not find a push on/off switch. Is it on the rear of the unit ?

nutensteve,

The manual says that if the green LED is flashing once every 8 seconds it indicates the inverter is float charging. I didn't see any reference to 15 seconds. Here is a link to the manual:
http://www.magnumenergy.com/Literatu...%20Series).pdf

All the outlets in the kitchen area are through the inverter so if they were working on the generator the circuit breakers on the inverter are not tripped. Our coach has a GFI located in the bathroom and that also must have been OK or the outlet would not have worked on the generator. Read over the manual and make sure you have the inverter setup correctly.

Bob

[nutensteve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nodine nutensteve, The manual says that if the green LED is flashing once every 8 seconds it indicates the inverter is float charging. I didn't see any reference to 15 seconds. Here is a link to the manual: http://www.magnumenergy.com/Literatu...%20Series).pdf All the outlets in the kitchen area are through the inverter so if they were working on the generator the circuit breakers on the inverter are not tripped. Our coach has a GFI located in the bathroom and that also must have been OK or the outlet would not have worked on the generator. Read over the manual and make sure you have the inverter setup correctly. Bob

Bob, I might have been off on the flashing light interval, it probably was more like 8 secs. I could not find a manual in my file for the Magnum so I went on line and downloaded it .... all 62 pages. I will look through the manual and see if I can diagnose the problem. Thanks everyone for the suggestions.