Inverter Shut Down

[oldSarge98]

Last Friday we had a power failure at home. When at home our coach is plugged in to a 50 amp service near the house through a Surge Guard 34850 EMS. Yesterday we were checking things out and discovered the refrigerator wasn't on and would not return to service. Further investigation revealed that the inverter was not on although the switch was set to auto. I moved the switch to off then back to auto and it clicked a couple of times and came back on. It continued without a hitch from that point on.

We have had power failures at our place in the past but have never had this happen. Is this normal but just doesn't happen all the time or is it a matter of concern that we should have checked out?

Here's a picture of the inverter. I matched the photo online and believe it's a Tripp Lite 1250 Watt RV PowerVerter Inverter Charger RV1250ULHW. I know being installed by Tiffin it's likely a reasonably decent unit but should I be looking to replace it if we decide to boondock and use my CPAP?

[luvlabs]

Do you have a residential refrigerator or a gas absorption model? If you have a residential frig, the Tripp-Lite is normally replaced by a Magnum 2200 and 4 house batteries. It sounds like you have a gas absorption refrigerator and to get it run with 120V power removed, you need 12V and the gas turned on. The system also has to be set to Auto so it can switch back and forth. Has nothing to do with your inverter.

By any chance do you have a CPAP that will run on 12V? If so, skip the inverter and run it on 12V. Inverters are not the most energy efficient devices out there and if you only have two batteries your capacity is pretty limited.

[oldSarge98]

Originally Posted by luvlabs

Do you have a residential refrigerator or a gas absorption model? . . . By any chance do you have a CPAP that will run on 12V?

We have a residential refrigerator and four 6 volt lead acid coach batteries.

I just discovered the 12 volt solution for my CPAP. Thanks for the advice.