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Old 12-21-2020, 10:16 AM   #21
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Originally Posted by Morich View Post
When your batteries are not being charged, do not bother checking the inverter!
Whoa there Richard... not so fast. There are a huge number of RVs without Converter/Chargers and instead have Inverter/Chargers and if my "charger" stopped charging my batteries the first place I'd check is my inverter.
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Old 12-21-2020, 01:17 PM   #22
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Whoa there Richard... not so fast. There are a huge number of RVs without Converter/Chargers and instead have Inverter/Chargers and if my "charger" stopped charging my batteries the first place I'd check is my inverter.
That's where I feel the confusion comes in. The inverter by definition does not charge, it takes Dc battery power to make AC. But if you have an inverter charger, you have just that, an inverter and a charger! If we called it a charger inverter it would not change the function at all.

This is info I cut and copied:
What is the difference between an inverter and an inverter charger?
An inverter simply converts DC (battery) power into AC power and then passes it along to connected equipment. An inverter/charger does the same thing, except that it is connected to an AC power source to continuously charge the attached batteries when AC utility power is available.

So if you want to charge the battery and have two items in the same box, an inverter and a charger, look at the charge portion!
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Old 12-21-2020, 01:50 PM   #23
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I try to be clear about inverter/chargers especially when discussing charging. But likewise, the Converter isn't a charger either... it just converts 110v AC to 12v DC. it's the charger in the Convert/Charger that does the charging.

Perhaps a better way to state what you said earlier is:

Quote:
When your batteries are not being charged, do not bother checking the inverter! Unless you have an Inverter/Charger, which many RVs do utilize.
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Old 12-22-2020, 12:27 PM   #24
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Maybe at this stage in the thread I should not even comment and there were good comments too. However, The original question did not contain the type of charging system the coach has. My 2002 Journey 36' uses the old 1500W Heart Inverter/Charger ( today called Xantrex ). My sailboat has a 2000W Heart. They are the big black box usually in the electrical compartment.



To have my system charge the batteries I need to turn on the "Charger". I have never used the "Inverter" because of the huge DC Amps required by , say the microwave, but I would use it if I was dry camping or boondocking. My remote panel in the RV has a button for Inverter and a button for Charger. A green light lights when either is active. If the Charger is off it does not charge.
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Old 12-22-2020, 12:51 PM   #25
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Maybe at this stage in the thread I should not even comment and there were good comments too. However, The original question did not contain the type of charging system the coach has. My 2002 Journey 36' uses the old 1500W Heart Inverter/Charger ( today called Xantrex ). My sailboat has a 2000W Heart. They are the big black box usually in the electrical compartment.



To have my system charge the batteries I need to turn on the "Charger". I have never used the "Inverter" because of the huge DC Amps required by , say the microwave, but I would use it if I was dry camping or boondocking. My remote panel in the RV has a button for Inverter and a button for Charger. A green light lights when either is active. If the Charger is off it does not charge.
This post does bring out the real situation that we often get into on forums like this. We have the info we need to sort out the problem but it gets totally lost due to all the well meaning folks who do not stop to think before answering!

The poster is giving us the info we need but we do have to take a bit to find the answers. It really doesn't matter at all that a different Rv has something that changes the answer on their RV, only things that the posters Rv has are really going to make much difference!

Since an inverter does not charge batteries and one is not listed for his RV, I see no value in debating anything involved in an inverter on some other RV!

He does not have an inverter charger, either, so I also write that off as not being part of the problem.

What the OP does have is a converter and converters do charge batteries, which is what they are questioning.

I do think it makes sense to discuss what might be wrong with their converter as they do have one of those and it may have failed!
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Old 12-22-2020, 01:00 PM   #26
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Morich - I have been following you answers for some time and they are usually thorough and well thought out. This one is no different.
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Old 12-22-2020, 01:51 PM   #27
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I'm getting more confused.

The OP says:
Quote:
Originally Posted by CharlesMoore View Post
My 2002 Journey 36' uses the old 1500W Heart Inverter/Charger ( today called Xantrex ).
And then Richard quotes that and responds with:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Morich View Post
He does not have an inverter charger, either, so I also write that off as not being part of the problem.
Please help me understand which it is... I guess I'm not following. I'm not trying to be dense, I really just don't understand.
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Old 12-22-2020, 07:33 PM   #28
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My thinking is that we know exactly which RV the poster has and a bit of looking shows it has only a converter, not an inverter nor an inverter charger.
So if he has none of those and he does have a potential problem with charging the batteries, I see no reason to get confusion started about what he DOES have.

There are lots of ways to charge batteries but the big two in Rv are the converter, and the combined inverter/ charger which is both the inverter which USES battery instead of charging but often comes in the same box as the charger. But when speaking of batteries, we often see the inverter throw in as a potential problem with getting the batteries charged.

I suspect a lot of the confusion is due to the way we so easily fall into the "shorthand" names we see.

An example might be the Modem used for communications. We get used to thinking we have to have a modem to send out a digital signal without thinking that a modem is just shorthand for modulator/ demodulator meaning that there are both in the modem but when we want to send we use the modulator and when we receive we use the demod!
But it only takes one or the other to set up the communications, depending on what else we are doing.

We easily fall into thinking we use an inverter /charger when we see them in the same sentence and the same box. They do both use some of the same connections and some of the internal parts are likely used in both changing AC to DC as are used to change DC to AC but they are not really the same, just often in the same box.

We can fall into thinking a charger is some sort of special item and it does often have lots of small features built in and we still call it a charger.

The most basic "charger" that we never call by that name might be a 12 volt battery! If hook a 12 volt battery to a run down 12 volt battery, it will charge it and that is what a charger does but we normally just call it a jump start!

This communications stuff is tougher than it might seem and I also added confusion when I did not specify that I was referring to the OP, not what Charles Moore has! Using "he" was not as clear as it might have been!
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Old 12-22-2020, 07:48 PM   #29
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Sorry, I thought CharlesJames was the OP. I even looked but somehow didn’t make it back to page one.

Thanks for the clarification.

Oh, I see the OP is ColbyJames...that’s why I thought CharlesJames was the OP.
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Old 12-23-2020, 07:43 AM   #30
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And it may all be a lost cause type question as things get confused and we may never know what the true problem was!
Just got to keep doing the best we can and when we can and not worry too much about the details?
If we can get out of 2020 alive, we may have to call that good enough!
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Old 12-23-2020, 08:56 AM   #31
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And it may all be a lost cause type question as things get confused and we may never know what the true problem was!
The OP revisited winnieowners 2-days ago. So, he has checked in.
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Old 12-23-2020, 09:19 AM   #32
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The OP revisited winnieowners 2-days ago. So, he has checked in.
We all have different lifestyles and it is nearly impossible to look into what might be happening on somebody else's day. I often look in and have hours to set here and that leads to reading and responding to lots of post but then there are other days when I look in , get a call or other interruptions and don't respond on anything.
Or I may be riding while somebody else does the driving and I have plenty of time but not going to try to type out any logic while bumping down the road and using a phone!
At the low cost of ones and zeros, I figure I can spew a few out to be lost forever and not worry the question too much!
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Old 03-21-2021, 06:33 PM   #33
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We are having an issue with our electrical system.
We are living in our motorhome full time. We are plugged in to a 50 amp circuit. Our house batteries keep going down, they are brand new batteries, only a couple months old. We do have a couple of oil filled radiator type electric heaters plugged in and of course some christmas lights. But shouldn't they be drawing from the 50 amps, not the batteries? Does my inverter need to be on or off?
I can charge the batteries by running the engine every couple of days.
We didn't have this problem until we plugged in the christmas lights and heaters.
Oh, It's a 2007 Winnebago Adventurer 38J. We are enjoying this life so far although we have way to much stuff.
Thanks for any help you guys can give me.
Had similar issue a few hours ago on my 2019 Adventurer 35F - no power from inverter subpanel (refrig, microwave) and was getting low battery fault.

Breakers on main panel were fine. Went to inverter. It is contained in a metal box so was hard to see. But the 30 amp breaker on the inverter popped. I just had to push the breaker button in and power was restored.
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