Community Forums

Wizzel · 10-12-2013, 10:27 PM

I've been reading up on inverters but am not sure of what I need. I have two primary use cases: 1. making coffee with a Keurig while driving down the road and 2. charging the 4 house batteries. I currently have a Paralax 500 so I'm wondering what type of units I should be looking at to solve these use cases. Many thanks for any suggestions.

RV Wizard · 10-13-2013, 03:39 AM

How many watts is the Keurig?

FIRE UP · 10-13-2013, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wizzel

I've been reading up on inverters but am not sure of what I need. I have two primary use cases: 1. making coffee with a Keurig while driving down the road and 2. charging the 4 house batteries. I currently have a Paralax 500 so I'm wondering what type of units I should be looking at to solve these use cases. Many thanks for any suggestions.

Wizzel,
Well, you can do all the math and add up all the potential appliances and draws or, you can simply purchase one of many, 2000 watt or larger ones that are factory installed in many of the coaches out there. Ours came with the Dimensions 2000 watt Inverter/Charger. The charger side is a three stage charger. Most of the Inverter/Chargers, on the charge side, are intended for the house batteries only but, additional equipment may be purchased to couple the chassis batteries into the charging system of the charger.

The Charger that's built into the Dimensions unit, is like many. In that, it's a "Three Stage" charging system. If the batteries area a low state, the charger begins the charging sequence with the "Bulk" rate. That could be anywhere from 30-75 amps or so. Once it brings them up to a certain level, it changes to a "Acceptance" rate of charging. That can be anywhere from about 10 amps to, oh say around 15 or 20. Then, once it's done with that portion, it migrates to the "Float" rate of charge. And that will be anywhere from 0 to about 5 amps.

So, that's the charging side. Now, as for the Inverter side. In our coach, the entire coach is wired for the inverter. So, it can run just about anything and, any combination of loads too. That is with the exception of the basement A/C. I've never even tried to do that and never will. But, it will handle any other load we've attempted to throw at it.

Now, there's others on the market too. The Magnum brand is one I've seen many coaches with. They are a tad more complicated in the programming of the charging than the Dimensions but, I think many folks are happy with them. But, suffice to say, with about 99.9% of the coaches out there, a 2000 watt unit will handle all of what you want to toss at it. Now, one thing I didn't get too involved in here is the TRUE and MODIFIED sign wave stuff. I'm no where near qualified to even begin to explain that portion.
Scott

BFlinn181 · 10-13-2013, 12:20 PM

Are your house batteries charging when on shore power or driving down the road? If so, I would look at an inverter alone that can handle the coffee brewer plus a little more. If house batteries are not charging driving down the road, then buy a B.I.R.D. or one of the many other systems that tie the two battery systems together. If the coffee maker is just a heating element without a lot of electronic controls it should be O.K. on modified sine wave inverter. If it has electronics, then a more expensive pure sine wave inverter may be needed.

Wizzel · 10-13-2013, 07:07 PM

On the underside of a small Keurig it says 1425W which is quite a bit. My batteries were toast so been replacing them this weekend but they did charge while going down the road and my converter manual says it charges. Sounds as though I might need a 2000W inverter but can forgo the charger. Would it be more cost effective to add a solar panel? I'm thinking this might be a good option during storage.

FIRE UP · 10-16-2013, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wizzel

On the underside of a small Keurig it says 1425W which is quite a bit. My batteries were toast so been replacing them this weekend but they did charge while going down the road and my converter manual says it charges. Sounds as though I might need a 2000W inverter but can forgo the charger. Would it be more cost effective to add a solar panel? I'm thinking this might be a good option during storage.

Wizzel,
Many times, that size of an inverter will come with a battery charger built right into it. I'm not an expert at all this but, it's what I've seen so far. As for the "Solar" panel, well, yes and no. Yes, if you get one large enough to really keep the batteries charged and topped off, despite parasitic drains, than it will work for you.

But, no, in the fact that, as you already know, if the sun don't shine for a given amount of time, as in winter months or a few days storm just cruising by slowly, the solar systems tone themselves way down and do not put out much at all. I'm a big fan of solar and used to carry a 135 Watt panel with a couple of rubber feet and a kick stand. I'd set it up for morning to noon angle of the sun and then, move it one time, to handle noon to dusk sun. That panel would put out, on the average, 7.2 amps all day long.

It was great for our two, 6V Trojan batteries we used for boon docking. It would top off the batteries by noon each day. If you plan on Solar, look around, there's a few zillion companies out there that sell them now.
Scott

wa8yxm · 10-16-2013, 06:11 PM

For charging the batteries.. Well. I'm not all that keen on all of the Parallex models and not familure with yours specifically so I looked it up and the owner;'s manual was no help. I do know the 7300 though and it is a single stage converter, I strongly suspect the 500 is as well.

So replacing it is a good idea.

Check the id tag on the coffee maker, get an inverter at least 150% of what it can run. Or if you wish (And have at least 2 pair of golf car batteries or 400Plus amp hours at the 20 hour rate) go with a 2KW and then you can use the Microwave as well.

Most "in-line" type inverter/chargers are very good at the charger side as well.

TRUE SINE WAVE inverters work best.. There is a thread elsewhere about racing clocks. (MSW INVERTER). and I've even heard of things releasing their magic smoke on MSW power (even a LED night light). Kind of scary actually.

Wizzel · 10-16-2013, 09:10 PM

Heh, well I was going to buy this guy for coffee and TV's but now I'm reconsidering.

http://www.theinverterstore.com/2000...-inverter.html

My issue is that we don't boondock often, really just at NASCAR races so trying to keep cost reasonable. If we vacation we generally choose KOA so my use cases are currently minimal. Would be nice to watch TV without a noisy generator in a few weeks time though.

Wizzel · 10-19-2013, 10:02 PM

Ended up with a 3000W Whistler but when I hook it up the alarm sounds indicating a low charge. I'm using massive 00 cables and voltmeter reads 6.25 at the inverter connection. I have a bank of 4 and tried hooking up across multiple batteries as well as the same one. Any ideas?

RV Wizard · 10-20-2013, 03:17 AM

Your battery bank should be a "12 volt DC" output and the inverter needs to also be rated for 12 vdc and connected across the battery bank output. If you have four 6 volt batteries, they should be wired - two in series (+ post of one connected to - post of another) in parallel (+ post connected to + post of the other) with another set of batteries in series.

Dave78Chief · 10-20-2013, 08:55 AM

The right hand side 6VDC picture is what is meant by 2 6VDC batteries in series to produce a 12VDC output.

camaraderie · 10-20-2013, 07:00 PM

And since you have FOUR 6 volt batts that you want to ACT as TWO 12V batts in parallel...here's the diagram to do that.

Shadowcatche · 10-20-2013, 07:58 PM

The Paralax 500 is a single stage power supply 13.8V that may not ever bring your batteries to 100% state of charge http://www.parallaxpower.com/500/500 series.pd I would replace it with a Progressive Dynamics 4600 Series Upgrade or Replacement Power Converters from Progressive Dynamics Inverter in your power range Magnum Energy Inc. Note both of these are made in the US If you wish I can go into detail as to why these two are the only ones I recommend. I also strongly recommend either a Trimetric of Victron batter monitor.

jerichorick · 10-21-2013, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wizzel

I've been reading up on inverters but am not sure of what I need. I have two primary use cases: 1. making coffee with a Keurig while driving down the road and 2. charging the 4 house batteries. I currently have a Paralax 500 so I'm wondering what type of units I should be looking at to solve these use cases. Many thanks for any suggestions.

I see a couple of considerations here that you need to focus on and have been mentioned. You definitely need a good inverter. There are two basic types: True Sine Wave and Modified Sine Wave. The TSW will give you a good representation of what you have in you house. The MSW is a filtered sawtooth that resembles AC but is very dirty and some electronics and most motors don't work or work well with this type.

A 2000 watt inverter is just about the standard in most newer motorhomes. The consideration here is how long your batteries will last under the load size you are presenting to them. As mentioned by others this is a consideration. If the wire to the inverter is not correctly sized when you upgrade you are defeating the purpose of the bigger inverter and there is a good chance of blowing the main feed fuse.

I lean toward the Magnum true sine wave inverter myself. I have a 2800 watt Magnum TSW inverter in this coach and it is running great. It charges 6 AGM batteries.

So, for you coffee pot you will have to spend some big buck for the proper equipment to do as you want. If you are capable you can save much money by doing the install yourself. One big word of caution if you diy. Study and fully understand what you are doing before you attempt this procedure. You can get seriously injured if you don't follow correct procedures.

Here is a handy tool I found out about on this forum but don't own yet. It will be handy if you do this change yourself: Hydraulic Wire Crimping Tool

Happy trails and great results.

Rick