A/C or generator issue??
We just got back from a week of camping and have a new issue.
I have a Coleman 13.5K BTU A/C and a pair of Honda EU2000i's.
Over the course of 4 days an issue developed and got worse as the days went by.
The first day I was running my A/C and after about an hour the 20A breaker tripped. I heard the gen's rev up but they didn't go into overload before the 20A breaker inside the camper tripped. I reset the breaker and restarted the A/C. It ran fine for several more hours.
The second day the same thing happened and I reset it again, and realized that is was more than a coincidence at this point. It ran fine the rest of the evening.
The third day I hear the gen's rev up and then the overload tripped on the gen's instead of the breaker popping inside. I was actually inside the trailer when this happened and noticed some other things at the same time. During the 3-5 seconds that the gen's reved to max and the overload tripped I saw the fridge switch back to gas and the converter shutoff, but the A/C fan kept running at a very reduced speed. The A/C compressor didn't seem to be running. The compressor may have been humming but it was hard to tell over the sound of the gens and A/C fan.
So I had a voltage issue!! I wasn't sure if was a gen output issue or a A/C draw issue. At this point I started looking more into the issue. We took a small chest freezer with us and I wondered if the chest freezer was cycling and lowering the generator voltage to a point where the A/C compressor would stop and require locked rotor amperage, so I took the chest freezer out of the equation and it still made the generators go into overload protection mode. It sometimes would run 5 minutes and sometimes as much as 15. I'm not sure what was cycling to cause the issue.
Since day 2 I have only had it trip the generator overload protection and not trip the 20A A/C circuit break.
On day 4 I turned off all the AC loads and ran the A/C. It ran fine for over an hour. As soon as I turned the converter back on it caused the same low voltage issue. Oddly enough by switching the A/C from high to low fan allowed the compressor to get back up to speed and it didn't trip the overload circuit. I cycled the converter with the fan on low and it happened again, so it's not a function of the fan on high.
Now that we are home I am back into troubleshooting mode. I cannot get the voltage to drop or the breaker to trip on shore power, but that alone doesn't tell me it's a generator issue as shore power can overcome high amp draws easier if it is a A/C issue.
I got the gen's to go into overload protection mode and just before they shutoff they were holding 85V, hence everything dropping off and the fan slowing down. Same thing where it sounds like the compressor isn't running but it could be buzzing like it wants to.
I haven't been able to make the 300w fridge cause the low voltage issue but it seems to me it was the only thing that could have been cycling when the problem occurred. I am able to induce the issue with the converter and 400-500w of draw from it.
I have messed with each generator individually and cannot get them to have a low voltage issue. I have only put 1500w of load on them but if I have a issue it should still manifest.
Any thoughts on what's causing the issue?
Run Capacitor?
Generator?
I don't think it's the compressor as the breaker doesn't ever trip on shore power.
Thank you
I have a Coleman 13.5K BTU A/C and a pair of Honda EU2000i's.
Over the course of 4 days an issue developed and got worse as the days went by.
The first day I was running my A/C and after about an hour the 20A breaker tripped. I heard the gen's rev up but they didn't go into overload before the 20A breaker inside the camper tripped. I reset the breaker and restarted the A/C. It ran fine for several more hours.
The second day the same thing happened and I reset it again, and realized that is was more than a coincidence at this point. It ran fine the rest of the evening.
The third day I hear the gen's rev up and then the overload tripped on the gen's instead of the breaker popping inside. I was actually inside the trailer when this happened and noticed some other things at the same time. During the 3-5 seconds that the gen's reved to max and the overload tripped I saw the fridge switch back to gas and the converter shutoff, but the A/C fan kept running at a very reduced speed. The A/C compressor didn't seem to be running. The compressor may have been humming but it was hard to tell over the sound of the gens and A/C fan.
So I had a voltage issue!! I wasn't sure if was a gen output issue or a A/C draw issue. At this point I started looking more into the issue. We took a small chest freezer with us and I wondered if the chest freezer was cycling and lowering the generator voltage to a point where the A/C compressor would stop and require locked rotor amperage, so I took the chest freezer out of the equation and it still made the generators go into overload protection mode. It sometimes would run 5 minutes and sometimes as much as 15. I'm not sure what was cycling to cause the issue.
Since day 2 I have only had it trip the generator overload protection and not trip the 20A A/C circuit break.
On day 4 I turned off all the AC loads and ran the A/C. It ran fine for over an hour. As soon as I turned the converter back on it caused the same low voltage issue. Oddly enough by switching the A/C from high to low fan allowed the compressor to get back up to speed and it didn't trip the overload circuit. I cycled the converter with the fan on low and it happened again, so it's not a function of the fan on high.
Now that we are home I am back into troubleshooting mode. I cannot get the voltage to drop or the breaker to trip on shore power, but that alone doesn't tell me it's a generator issue as shore power can overcome high amp draws easier if it is a A/C issue.
I got the gen's to go into overload protection mode and just before they shutoff they were holding 85V, hence everything dropping off and the fan slowing down. Same thing where it sounds like the compressor isn't running but it could be buzzing like it wants to.
I haven't been able to make the 300w fridge cause the low voltage issue but it seems to me it was the only thing that could have been cycling when the problem occurred. I am able to induce the issue with the converter and 400-500w of draw from it.
I have messed with each generator individually and cannot get them to have a low voltage issue. I have only put 1500w of load on them but if I have a issue it should still manifest.
Any thoughts on what's causing the issue?
Run Capacitor?
Generator?
I don't think it's the compressor as the breaker doesn't ever trip on shore power.
Thank you
