Faulty Xantrax Inverter - went up in smoke!

[wuphf]

I'm new to RVing and solar in general! I traveled to an out-of-state dealership to do a walkthrough of a 2022 Micro Minnie FLX 2108TB (June 2022 build). In the middle of the walkthrough, we noticed smoke and a smell coming from the floor! I thought it was the battery, but later the tech confirmed it was coming from the Xantrax inverter.

The tech tested the Lithionics battery and it was pulling 13v, which he said is 'that's where it should be' and he does not think the battery was affected. The dealership will be replacing the inverter, but I'm still a bit worried! Side note : RVIA inspector already completed inspection and all was good when they previously tested the inverter and battery.

Background info - Salesman plugged into shore power, something in control panel area kept beeping, he touched buttons to make it stop (unfortunately, I wasn't looking). Smoke started about 5-7 minutes later and lasted about 2-3 minutes.

$26k list price, negotiated down to $23k.
After I put $1k deposit, dealer replaced water pump and 2 propane tanks.

A couple questions:

1. Should I be concerned about the battery after the inverter fried?
2. Is there a reason this happened? I would like to prevent this from happening if at all possible (the tech said this can happen randomly).
3. Should I walk away even if they replace the inverter?
   
   
   
   
   

 

[creativepart]

I would find another RV and probably another dealer.

This can only go one of two ways and there's no way to determine in advance which way that will be:.

1. The inverter replacement goes smoothly and all is well from now on
2. The failed inverter is just the start of costly electrical issues that dog you for years.

Do you feel lucky? Well, do you?

 

[creativepart]

You might post in this thread in the Electrical forum. This thread is monitored by an electrical engineer that has extensive experience with the FLX system. He may have a recommendation:

Assistance with Lithionics batteries

I'm starting this thread to see if I can provide some assistance to owners of Lithionics batteries, which are now a standard equipment on some Winnebago products. This is not an official Winnebago support initiative, it is purely personal desire to help people, educate people, advance acceptance...

www.winnieowners.com

 

[powercat_ras]

Assume it was a 1,000 Watt Xantrex inverter. It will generally be fed with a 100 Amp DC fuse. Sometimes a component in the inverter fails and there is thermal run-away that can cause an internal component to overheat and smoke, while drawing much less than 100 amps DC so the fuse never blows. The enclosure of the inverter contained the overheat preventing fire but not the smoke.

The battery will be fine as it never drew more DC amps than it was designed to be able to deliver.

The failure rate on Xantrex inverters is less than 1% so I would not be concerned, the odds of it happening again is very low.

Inverters are not made to go into wet or dirty locations so you should examine the area the inverter is mounted at and make sure there is no indication that there can be water intrusion or openings to the outside of the RV that could admit dust or rodents.

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Electrical issues can be a nightmare to diagnose, troubleshoot and fix, especially if you are having to rely on dealership monkeys and cannot do it yourself.

There is also no reason to replace a water pump on a ~3 year old trailer. Especially since these water pumps are self priming. It would take some concentrated effort to burn one out.

The tech's "this can happen randomly" explanation suggests he has no idea what the problem is, and doesn't want to figure it out, either. Typical clown.

I would walk away from that specific trailer.

 

[Morich]

I have some questions that may be simple or a sign of real trouble.
First is maybe just a simple word problem but I would have a question about the batteries "pulling" 13 volts.
This sounds odd as I don't think of batteries pulling volts. Did they maybe mean they were charging at 13Volts, reading stable 13volts or how do they get batteries to pull volts? How much they pull when charging would normally be in amps not volts, so there is some confusion or doubt thrown in there.
Not a way to make us feel good about the tech that says this!

Then there is a bit of problem with an inverter which draws power from batteries smoking when an AC power cord is plugged in!
If an inverter is making AC and AC from a cord is also there, we would expect the inverter or some transfer switch to connect to the cord power and stop the connection to the inverter.
So some big questions on how plugging in the cord made the inverter smoke?

I would guess that the group you run into is not really very well trained and that leaves them very prone to making mistakes in things like wiring or the options set on the inverter.

I would not want to buy into an RV with known problems from people who really have even bigger problems.
I don't deal with things that just fail "at random" and they can't explain what happened.

 

[DEWEY-WO]

If it were me, I'd be inclined to open up the inverter and actually see the failure point. Doubtful, the dealer or manufacture would agree to it though. Knowing the output is fused and barring a cabling error, I'm leaning towards an internal component failure. Excluding a defective component, causes could include infiltration of construction debris, including aluminum drill curlies (I'm still cleaning it up in my 2023 MM), or insect and critters. These TTs sit out in the lots and who knows what moves in should a customer fail to close a basement door after looking at it.

 

[Morich]

Mention of things moving in brings memories!
One of the common things to move in are ants! That doesn't seem to be a big deal until you find the ant body will pass power and that means they can short out lots of electronics!
They also can build big, ugly smelly nests and those can also create shorts.
One of the bigger problems is that they are so small that it is really hard to make a cabinet that both vents heat out and keeps ants from getting in!

 

[Redbowtie]

Could be an intermittent problem with the Gopower solar charge controller causing over voltage on the 12v side. This happened on my 2022 Micro Minnie FLX. This over voltage issue also broke the Truma furnace, co/LP detector, and entry light.