I recently purchase a 2018 Beneteau 38.1. The boat came with a factory stock microwave oven and a 700 Watt Marinco Inverter. The Marinco inverter would immediately trip the inverter so I assumed the 700 Watt inverter was overloaded and not enough to power it. I’m at a loss to understand why the factory would have put only a 700 Watt inverter in the boat? I contacted Marinco customer service and they told me the company no longer manufactures inverters as they had purchased Pro Mariner inverters so they directed me to a 2000 Watt pure sine inverter and told me Amazon has them at best prices. So I purchased the 2000 watt Pro Mariner pure sine Inverter and installed it as the prior Marinco inverter. However, once I turned it on , it tripped the GFCI switch on the inverter. I unplugged the “ boat connection” and the inverter works fine, so the problem is with the boat wiring downstream of the inverter. I’m at a loss to troubleshoot what could be tripping the inverter. The owners manual on the boat says the original inverter is fully automatic and works when the shore power is disconnected and does not offer any further details . I see the boat has two relay switches but there is no serviceable parts or information anywhere. Any suggestions on where to troubleshoot ?
Inverter upgrade on 38.1, model year 2018
- Thread starter JShilo
- Start date
Inverters must have transfer switches ,be it automatic relay ( the relay de-energizes when shore power is shut off transfering to the inverter) or a manual interlock switch .On my beneteau its a manual interlock on the AC panel ,so its either shore power or inverter. Even after interlock is thrown to inverter ,inverter must be turned on from remote at nav station. Having both on at the same time will cause inverter damage /fuses or gfi trip. One relay is for the transfer and most likely the other is to turn on inverter . You cannot have both on
Attachments
Thanks for your reply. Appreciate it. My boat has automatic relays so there isn’t anything I can switch on or off. I forgot to mention in my prior post I checked all outlets on the boat just to eliminate any issues with loose wires. There are no GFCI outlets on the boat though. Just thinking out loud, maybe the microwave wiring is another place to check? I owned a 32 Beneteau 2004 prior and wiring on that was not complicated as this 2018 model.
The way I read the manual is, the shore power goes directly to the inverter input connection. The output of the inverter goes to the boat AC system. The inverter works in bypass mode while shore power is applied. When shore power is removed the inverter switches on. It can be turned on/off with the remote while shore power is removed. Now, I don't know how your AC shore power was originally wired but if you where to remove the inverter would you still get AC power to the outlets?? If yes then that's your problem. Hard to diagnose from afar.
Last edited:
Thank you for your reply, if you can , would you expand on the neutral ground possibility? Thank you.
Thanks for your reply. Yes the outlets work without the inverter on shore power. I believe the bypass relays handle that. Not sure if that trips my inverter. I turn off the inverter when on shore power.
What I was trying to explain is, if you physically disconnect the inverter output (Carefully) do you still get shore power at the Outlets?
The wiring diagram of the inverter would indicate that there should be no power at the AC outlets with the output disconnected. If you don't then the wiring is correct and if you have power there is a wiring problem.
The wiring diagram of the inverter would indicate that there should be no power at the AC outlets with the output disconnected. If you don't then the wiring is correct and if you have power there is a wiring problem.
I could try to explain neutral/ground bond but I really don't think I would do it justice. I would suggest that you google "inverter neutral ground bond".
I would also suspect that you may not have the inverter wired correctly. You might have some bypass relays, they would bypass heavy loads like the water heater and maybe the microwave. The transfer switch is in your new inverter, I don't know how your old inverter was setup. The new inverter needs to be wired as per the instructions manual.
I read through the manual a little. On page 2 under Transfer Switch, it explains that the transfer switch takes care of the neutral/ground bond automatically. A sketch of how the relays are wired would be helpful and maybe some pictures. Pictures of the old inverter would answer several question.