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Lenny_K's avatar
Lenny_K
Explorer
Nov 01, 2016

GFCI Hums

The two GFCI's inside my Monty make a humming sound when running off of my Xantrax 1700 Watt MSW inverter.
Any ideas why this would be the case?

5 Replies

  • Electronic Components that hum are trying to emulate Bach's Fugue in G minor

    They usually end up succeeding. After-which, strains of bag-piped Amazing Grace, can be heard through the smoke...
  • Well everyone confirmed what I was thinking. I liked your "They don't know the words?" SoundGuy......lol
  • The odd wave form is causing the issue.
    A pure sign wave inverter would solve the problem.
  • DrewE's avatar
    DrewE
    Explorer III
    They're running off an MSW inverter; you've (perhaps unwittingly) answered your own question.

    MSW inverters by design do not output a clean sine wave, but a waveform with many high-frequency harmonics...some more so than others, depending on how well their output is filtered. This is causing something in the GFCI's circuitry to wiggle a bit and make noise.
  • Lenny K wrote:
    The two GFCI's inside my Monty make a humming sound when running off of my Xantrax 1700 Watt MSW inverter.
    Any ideas why this would be the case?


    They don't know the words? :W

    120vac fans I own which are designed to run on a sine wave signal hum annoyingly if I run them with an MSW inverter but those are motors obviously - not sure how or if this would apply to a GFCI but clearly yours don't like the MSW waveform. It's the reason I decided to bypass any potential MSW issue by instead installing a PSW inverter. :)

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