Inverter shut-offs

[Cjssaws]

We have a 2017 anthem coach and am having issues with the inverters shutting down when we are boondocking or disconnecting from electrical hook-up. We can't seem to isolate exactly what is causing the issue, but occasionally (too frequently) we find one of the inverters is shut off and I have to crawl underneath in the basement and manually reset it. Sometimes, it is the inverter that controls the refrigerator and so our refrigerator shuts off. Have talked to Entegra, but no luck so far. Anyone have any ideas what could be causing this?

[DougTex]

My 19 Anthem did that once. I think I did not turn off circuit breaker before unplugging from pedestal. I was running my mouth with neighbor, and it broke my train of thought, what little I have

[twinboat]

You probably have near max draw on that inverter.
Go thru what's plugged in and running on shore power before you unplug. Block heater, portable heaters......

The fridge will only draw a few amps.

[Gary.Jones]

Saws

An inverter kicking off is almost always an indication that you are pulling too much current through that inverter. It doesnt make much sense at first, but there is a bypass circuit in the inverters and that bypass circuit limits how much current you can pull through the circuit even if you happen to be hooked up to commercial 50A service at that particular point in time. I would first think that well, as long as I am connected up to the commercial mains, I should be OK on what current I pull with a space heater or something connected because its not going through the inverter... However, it is still going through the inverter and if you are having to crawl into the basement to reset those circuit breakers, the most common reason in winter is that you are drawing too much current on that line. The most common reason for that is that you might, in winter, be running one or two space heaters in your coach. Are you? If you are, then the odds-on favorite reason for those circuit breaker shut downs is those space heaters.

I can safely get away with running two small space heaters on the 800-900 watt range both at the same time. However, if I run them on the 1600-1800 setting at the same time, I will shortly throw a bypass circuit breaker that needs to be reset in the basement.

Are you running additional extra space heaters during the winter somewhere? If you are, run them at lower wattage, or try moving one of them around to different locations and see if you can find a socket that is on the second inverter and see if that works better.

Gary

[brobox]

If space heaters are causing a problem, one solution is to run an extension cord to the pedestal 120 outlet. That will bypass the inverters and still allow the heat to be cranked up.

[KanzKran]

What they said about overloads would be my guess. Found that out the hard way once when shore power went out and the battery ran down overnight and shut itself off at 20% charge. No more heat. Pedestal power was still on, including at the coach connection with the little LED indicator. Adapting to the 50A pedestal connection made no difference, of course, so I gave up and went back to bed since it was 4:00 AM and still dark and this was my first real trip in this unfamiliar unit, and first overnight stay ever in an actual RV park.

Seems the Xantrex inverter/converter/charger can’t pass all of the available 30A of shore power. Which I didn’t know.

The specifications show “AC input current - 24A max. (including pass-thru)”. I never gave it any thought and just assuming with a 30A shore power connection, you could use 30A of shore power, at least intermittently. Since it all goes through the inverter, that would seem to NOT be the case, and I didn’t figure that out until weeks later when I took the time to dig into the system component specs.

You may have the same issue. It’s something I’d look into at least, and also (as already suggested) look into how your big loads like heaters are distributed between the two units.

My SW3012 unit. Bottom of page 105 for AC current limits.

http://www.xantrex.com/documents/Inv...Rev-G)_ENG.pdf

[757driver]

Originally Posted by Cjssaws

We have a 2017 anthem coach and am having issues with the inverters shutting down when we are boondocking or disconnecting from electrical hook-up. We can't seem to isolate exactly what is causing the issue, but occasionally (too frequently) we find one of the inverters is shut off and I have to crawl underneath in the basement and manually reset it. Sometimes, it is the inverter that controls the refrigerator and so our refrigerator shuts off. Have talked to Entegra, but no luck so far. Anyone have any ideas what could be causing this?

Two things to check on your inverter settings in Vegatouch. Make sure your search watts is set to OFF or ZERO. Next make sure LBCO (low battery cut out) is not set too high. For boondocking should be at about 10.8v.

[Beerfarmer]

I dont know if the 17 and 18 Anthems are the same but on my 18 Anthem the #2 magnum inverter would shutdown when ever I would unplug from power. I would have to crawl in the basement and do a reset, then it would work through the next plug in up until I unplugged again.
Entegra service sent me the old style controller to plug into the inverter that would show the fault codes. They walked me through that process over the phone. Ended up the inverter was faulty. They sent a new inverter and a technician to replace it. I would think any Entegra dealer and maybe some RV techs would have the fault code reader.
I always shutdown any heaters or extra things that I have running before I unplug so don't know how all that works.
I didnt boondock with it in that situation, but would shut the coach down for several hours during transit and the inverter didnt shut down until the unplugging sequence.