Destroyed Inverter

BigTrace · 04-08-2006, 05:20 PM

Hey All,

My freind Bill and I are sitting here at Campland on the Bay Campland on the Bay preparing to enjoy a few days of the San Diego sun. We go to hook up his coach (2006 Horizon just like mine) to shore power when all of the sudden his inverter catches FIRE !! Sparks, and the whole nine yards. He had the shore power plugged into a surge suppressor on 30 amp service. Not one breaker popped and now ALL of the 110 is down. Any suggestions on what to do? The inverter is a Dimensions (of course). Maybe it's a good excuse to get a Xantrex Pure Sine!!.

Thanks

BigTrace · 04-08-2006, 05:20 PM

Hey All,

My freind Bill and I are sitting here at Campland on the Bay Campland on the Bay preparing to enjoy a few days of the San Diego sun. We go to hook up his coach (2006 Horizon just like mine) to shore power when all of the sudden his inverter catches FIRE !! Sparks, and the whole nine yards. He had the shore power plugged into a surge suppressor on 30 amp service. Not one breaker popped and now ALL of the 110 is down. Any suggestions on what to do? The inverter is a Dimensions (of course). Maybe it's a good excuse to get a Xantrex Pure Sine!!.

Thanks

glenda1908 · 04-08-2006, 06:17 PM

We had the same thing happen to us not long after we bought our 04 Vectra. I was plugging it in to our 50 amp at home and POOF. My DH was on that side of the coach and yelled "we have a fire"! We thought GOOD GOD, what did we do. Seems there was some bad inverters and we got one of them. They replaced it (over nighted) no cost to us. It didn't damage any of the system. We were glad we were at home when it happened, unlike your friend. I'll bet it is a similiar situation. If he hasn't called them, do it right away, and I'd bet they will make it right. Good luck.

Dougmyers · 04-08-2006, 06:25 PM

That would scare the begebers out of me!

I hope everything is ok?

rebelsbeach · 04-08-2006, 06:50 PM

Tracey I think Bill's coach and my coach were built on the same day...

Glad no one was hurt....

cbeierl · 04-08-2006, 07:49 PM

Was that just a surge suppressor it was plugged into, or something like the SurgeGuard which also guards against over/under voltage and reversed polarity?

Motorhome05 · 04-09-2006, 06:22 AM

Same thing happened to us. We picked up our Vectra in March 2005. Put in a surge protector. Then moved the MH to my dads and when he plugged it in, it sparked and caught fire. Winne replaced the inverter. Dimenson's inverter. We ordered our Vectra in Jan.

John_Canfield · 04-09-2006, 06:42 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by BigTrace:
--snip--The inverter is a Dimensions (of course). Maybe it's a good excuse to get a Xantrex Pure Sine!!. Thanks </div></BLOCKQUOTE>I have never regretted the money or effort it took to replace my Dimensions (before it caught fire

) with the Xantrex RS2000. It has performed flawlessley and I can monitor all sorts of parameters and program the operation to our needs.

BigTrace · 04-09-2006, 07:58 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by cbeierl:
Was that just a surge supressor it was plugged into, or something like the SurgeGuard which also guards against over/under voltage and reversed polarity? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

It was a Surge Guard and it didn't do anything. We're here now with a power cord through the window to light off the

AdrianLee · 04-09-2006, 10:00 AM

Tracy,

Did the Surge Guarde fry too?

If it did not, then I suspect there may have been a problem with the internal switching in the Deminsion. Thought - when power was applied from shore power, if the inverter was providing power - the switching mechanisim may not have switched fast enough and overloaded the whole thing.

BigTrace · 04-10-2006, 07:10 AM

Adrian,

Nope, Surge Guard was fine. I think Auto Switcher didn't react... At All.

I'll keep updating when I know more.

Thanks

AdrianLee · 04-10-2006, 08:18 AM

Tracy,

Thanks - with the Surge Guarde being fine it really says a lot to me. I have read enough comments on the different discussion boards to give me a lot of concern about the Deminsion inverter / charger. I used a Heart / Xantrex (Xantrex bought Heart)inverter / charger for a number of years and sold a bunch of them too. After the early days of the Heart product there were very few problems and none that I ever heard of that could potentially cause a fire. I am beginning to think seriously of changing my Deminsion out for a Xantrex RS2000. I also like the pure signe wave of the RS2000.

Thanks

traveler of california · 04-10-2006, 11:19 AM

Wouldn't the Surgeguard just protect from the post to the rig and not after?

Nick, Journey '01

AdrianLee · 04-10-2006, 02:20 PM

Traveler,

That was the point of my question to BigTrace. I was curious if there was some kind of hugh surge or something and the Surgeguarde did not do it's job.

rebelsbeach · 04-10-2006, 03:26 PM

Adrian...playing the devil's advocate here but if Bill's problem (Tracy's buddy) with his Horizon was the Autoamtic Crossover Switch,how would the Xantrex have solved that?

Don't get me wrong I'd thought of changing to the Xantrex myself,I'm just trying to compare apples to apples....Seems the transfer switch is what the issue is in this case.

rebelsbeach · 04-10-2006, 03:28 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by traveler of california:
Wouldn't the Surgeguard just protect from the post to the rig and not after?
Nick, Journey '01 </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Splitting hairs,but in a sense the Surgeguard protecting "to" the rig is in fact protecting bad power from getting "through" to the rig.

AdrianLee · 04-10-2006, 03:55 PM

Bob,

You are right but what I was thinking about is the cut over switching in the inverter itself. It has circuitry that detects A/C power and switches automatically on and off. In other words - if your inverter is in standby and the AC present, the inverter is "off" but if the AC fails to be there for whatever reason the inverter will automatically turn "on". My concern is that for some reason the switching circuitry in the inverter itself got hung up somehow and failed to switch thereby causeing a power overload within the inverter causing it to smoke.

I'veseen 2 or 3 threads lately refering to malfunctins in Deminsion Inverter / chargers.

Sorry if I went through stuff you probably know already.

rebelsbeach · 04-10-2006, 04:06 PM

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