Worth trying to repair?

rgranger · Feb 9, 2017

Fire on a boat.... !!!
Why did is start smoking in the first place? For me to sleep at night, I'd have to be damn sure I understood why it failed before I trusted a repair. If you don't know then I'd bet on a new one.
You can get a new inverter for under $300. Seems like cheap insurance and peace of mind to me.

2 cents worth of wisdom and worth every penny.

KD3PC · Feb 9, 2017

new one would be the way to go, for a multitude of reasons.

best of luck

Justin_NSA · Feb 9, 2017

rgranger said:
Fire on a boat.... !!!
Why did is start smoking in the first place? For me to sleep at night, I'd have to be damn sure I understood why it failed before I trusted a repair. If you don't know then I'd bet on a new one.
You can get a new inverter for under $300. Seems like cheap insurance and peace of mind to me.

2 cents worth of wisdom and worth every penny.

+1 Not knowing what caused it would be unsettling. New designs should be more efficient anyway.

Jim 5757 · Feb 9, 2017

Looks to me like a fairly heavy load for long period of time and either a loose screw and/or corroded wire that created high resistance at that point. Apparently you didn't overload anything - that's why the fuse didn't blow.

SEMPERAVANTI41 · Feb 9, 2017

Looks like high resistance right at the screw connection. Probably developed over time as terminal got hotter over time as resistance increased. Notice how the wires insulation is melted near the terminal. I think it can be saved after cleaning the terminal, trimming the wire and re attaching using
NOALOX Anti-Oxidant Compound.

kloudie1 · Feb 9, 2017

I agree with Semperavanti.. A bad connection is the problem..If the screw was a little loose, the thing will thermal cycle every time a load goes on.. after many of those it will get hot enough to do that.. The power connections on my air conditioner have done that.. a good cleanup (remove and renew the local wire and clean the terminal) and some Anti-Ox and a tightness check every year..

Mark Maulden · Feb 9, 2017

kloudie1 said:
I agree with Semperavanti.. A bad connection is the problem..If the screw was a little loose, the thing will thermal cycle every time a load goes on.. after many of those it will get hot enough to do that.. The power connections on my air conditioner have done that.. a good cleanup (remove and renew the local wire and clean the terminal) and some Anti-Ox and a tightness check every year..

Mark Maulden · Feb 9, 2017

There's alot going on here..if you look on the connector block of pos wire, it looks like a lot of corrosion. And, what are the copper looking tabs between the wire and screw? Looks like something someone stuck in there so capacitors could be soldered in. And you would never put wire insulation into "the clamp" as is evident on the neg wire. The upper capacitor (pos) has physical damage which looks like it came from the chassis screw. I'm wondering if the capacitors were added later to try and solve interference issues. The capacitor on the neg does nothing as both ends are at gnd. (Unless the output is truly isolated)..if all this is truly factory, then I'd replace it with a known trusted brand. If not factory, pull the capacitors out and clean things up and try it..I cant imagine an "engineer" designing a clamping mechanism such as this..

Maine Sail · Feb 10, 2017

gettinthere said:
This pic is the inside of the positive connection on my Statpower 1000w inverter. It was smoking when I found it! Been working fine for the 8 years I've owned the boat, until now!

Is it worth trying to repair?
View attachment 132582

That a good example of a high resistance melt down. Those terminals accept bare wire and just a screw clamp/pressure plate mechanism. Over time the wire corrodes or compresses more. The clamp becomes loose and the wire corrodes creating a spot of high resistance.

Fuses do not trip from high resistance...

It is probably repairable but at this age I would suggest replacing it.

uncledom · Feb 11, 2017

SEMPERAVANTI41 said:
Looks like high resistance right at the screw connection. Probably developed over time as terminal got hotter over time as resistance increased. Notice how the wires insulation is melted near the terminal. I think it can be saved after cleaning the terminal, trimming the wire and re attaching using
NOALOX Anti-Oxidant Compound.

I'd really like to see how bad the insulator is behind it before I would render judgement on repair. There is a second reason to use Noalox and that is because the wire is copper as is the wedge they put in and the terminal is probably some Aluminum hybrid. They Noalox takes away the air and moisture which stops the oxidation of dissimilar metals.

H3newdog · Feb 13, 2017

De-ox, is what I call it. Use it on all aluminum wire connections on shore. Is it recommended for exposed marine connections? If so should it be used on connections other than compression connections such as shown above? What about using a small brush to coat the tops of screw terminal connections. Or is anything else used? As I'm now getting to putting new wiring in the boat I will be making a lot of screw connections on the electrical panel. There is some rust spots but for an 83' not enough to worry about.
As always any comments are greatly appreciated.

Norden Guy · Feb 13, 2017

Most electronic devices run on smoke. When the smoke comes out it's time to replace it.

uncledom · Feb 13, 2017

I use Noalox on every connection I make to avoid heat and oxidation issues. When you say exposed marine connections I guess you don't mean they are out in the open where there is rain and the like.

Alansails · Feb 13, 2017

Peace of mind and maybe your family are at least two good reasons to replace, frankly I could not sleep at night or have family aboard knowing that this part was having issues. That is cheap peace of mind to replace.