dougrainer wrote:
BFL13 wrote:
I have been on this forum for a while, and have never heard of such a thing!
If it is true, it is an amazingly stupid set-up. I have a single use 2000w inverter that does need house batteries, but if I have shore power I don't that inverter at all.
I have a converter/charger that does not need any batteries to make 12v from 120v. So I would be fine on shore power with no batteries at all.
Hard to believe an expensive inverter/charger instead, would require a battery to even run its 120v. What about using the engine battery to get the inverter/charger operating using the boost interconnect that Class A MHs have?
Just ridiculous!
You are confusing PASS THRU 120 power with the CHARGER section of the Inverter/Charger. YES, I am saying, MOST Inverter/Chargers will not function the Charger section if NO batteries(good or bad) are connected. Remember, Inverter/Chargers are NOT like CONVERTERS. Inverter/Chargers supply power TO THE BATTERIES, then the batteries supply power to the RV 12 volt systems. Inverter/Chargers NEED a load(batteries) to determine what to do with the 12 volt charger section. Magnum Inverter/Chargers, if the batteries are totally dead and you connect 120 volts, the Inverter/charger usually will NOT charge the battery bank. You need to either start the chassis engine to supply excitation voltage to the dead batteries or connect a stand alone 12 volt charger for a few minutes to get the voltage to trip the Inverter/Charger to start its BULK charge. The Inverter/Charger monitors what the batteries are doing to determine how and what charge to send to the batteries. Doug
PS. the 120 will pass thru, but you do NOT want to do that with no batteries.
Yes, I always thought the charger portion of an inverter/charger was like a converter. I assumed having a separate inverter and a deck mount converter up by the batteries was equivalent to an inverter/charger set-up.
My Vector portable smart charger has that same feature that it won't run unless the battery has a minimum voltage.
Thank you for the explanation.
