Inverter issue

[Glamping4two]

Hi everyone! Curious if anyone has had issues running a microwave on inverter power? I have a 3000 watt pure sign wave Renogy inverter with a 448 Ah AGM battery bank. When I go to run microwave after 3 seconds it trips my inverter and I have to reset it. I have been able to plug in an extension cord and run direct to inverter and it works. My batteries are fully charged and have no issues running anything else. I have and ATS between shore and inverter. I’m thinking of bypassing ATS and trying that. I’m lost. Let me know your thoughts! Thanks!

[TucsonJim]

Hi there. Welcome to the forum.

You've done a lot of the preliminary trouble shooting I'd suggest, so this one may be a head scratcher. I have a different brand of inverter, but when mine trips, there is an error code displayed. Does your Renogy have a display that you can watch while someone tries to run the microwave?

Jim

[howson]

Hi everyone! Curious if anyone has had issues running a microwave on inverter power? I have a 3000 watt pure sign wave Renogy inverter with a 448 Ah AGM battery bank. When I go to run microwave after 3 seconds it trips my inverter and I have to reset it. I have been able to plug in an extension cord and run direct to inverter and it works. My batteries are fully charged and have no issues running anything else. I have and ATS between shore and inverter. I’m thinking of bypassing ATS and trying that. I’m lost. Let me know your thoughts! Thanks!

I have a Victron 12/3000 Multiplus that runs the Furrion FMCM15-BL microwave in my 315RLTS without an issue from a 400aH battery bank.

Do you have a monitor (something like the Victron BMV-712) or some method of monitoring the output of the inverter? When the Renogy trips, does it generate an error code?

Maybe even more important, is it the relatively high current draw (I'm guessing ~8A of 120vAC from the inverter or 80A of 12vDC to the inverter) or the microwave causing the issue? I'd plug in something that has a similar power draw (hair dryer? portable heater?) to the outlet where the microwave is currently plugged in and see if the Renogy still trips.

[howson]

Hi there. Welcome to the forum.

You've done a lot of the preliminary trouble shooting I'd suggest, so this one may be a head scratcher. I have a different brand of inverter, but when mine trips, there is an error code displayed. Does your Renogy have a display that you can watch while someone tries to run the microwave?

Jim

I'm a step behind you today.

[Glamping4two]

I can run a hair dryer, furnace, and other appliance with no issue. I haven’t plugged into microwave outlet to rule that out.

My inverter has lights for codes. The yellow light does go off which is “GFCI has tripped”.

[howson]

The yellow light does go off which is “GFCI has tripped”.

Interesting.

So the inverter is seeing an imbalance across it's GFCI when the microwave is running. (If you're not familiar with how a GFCI works, please read Mike Sokol's excellent website article at https://www.rvtravel.com/rv-electric...g-gfci-part-i/).

Plugging in another high-draw appliance into the microwave's outlet should tell us if the problem is related to the microwave or the wiring in the camper. Another way of testing the microwave is to plug it in (via an extension cord) into one of the camper's GFCI outlets on the island. Run the microwave on shore power on a camper GFCI circuit--does it work?

-Howard

[howson]

I can run a hair dryer, furnace, and other appliance with no issue. I haven’t plugged into microwave outlet to rule that out.

My inverter has lights for codes. The yellow light does go off which is “GFCI has tripped”.

Here's another excellent article on your issue: https://blog.donrowe.com/2017/06/15/...gfci-tripping/

The key is this paragraph: If you need to energize an entire RV, boat, or electrical panel, I would recommend staying away from inverters that only have outlets. Inverters with a 3-wire AC hardwire terminal block option are designed and much better suited for these types of installations. These types of inverters with AC hardwire capability will often come with GFCI outlets as an option as well. I do not recommend altering the GFCI outlets or bypassing the ground prong as this can lead to other problems or hazards. Inverters with outlets only are suitable for plugging devices directly in or energizing a single 15-20 Amp circuit.

My takeaway--there may not be much you can do about the tripping other than plugging in the microwave directly to the inverter.

-Howard

[Glamping4two]

I am wired into the hard wired portion on the inverter. It is also gfci protected

[Glamping4two]

[Glamping4two]

Going to have to wait now till spring. Renogy did say that they would like me to send it in for testing. I’m very confused and frustrated by this issue.

[howson]

I am wired into the hard wired portion on the inverter. It is also gfci protected

I saw your post on the sub-panel thread so thought I'd circle back to this thread instead of going off-topic (OT) on the other thread.

Hopefully you've read the links I provided in the posts above and now understand that the GFCI circuit in your inverter is "seeing" an imbalance between the current going out and the current returning. I believe it's a nuisance fault caused by the trailer's wiring. (This is also discussed in the links I provided earlier.)

I thought of a test you can run if you're interested to try and prove my theory.

There are multiple 110v circuits in your camper. Using the circuit breakers on your distribution panel, turn them all off (not the mains!) and energize one circuit. Plug in your extension cord into the applicable energized circuit and plug in the microwave to the extension cord. Will the microwave run without tripping the GFCI in the inverter? Keep testing one circuit at a time except for the trailer's GFI circuit (bathroom, island, pass-thru).

If the GFCI faults on the inverter, regardless of the circuit tested in the trailer, the issue is likely with the inverter itself (or maybe the microwave). If the microwave runs fine on several circuits but the inverter faults when the microwave is running on the Microwave circuit--there's something going on with that specific circuit.

I hope that makes some sense.

If you'll do the tests and post the results we can try to make some sense of it. If you don't understand what I'm proposing let me know--communication can be difficult using only words.

Howard

[Glamping4two]

I saw your post on the sub-panel thread so thought I'd circle back to this thread instead of going off-topic (OT) on the other thread.

Hopefully you've read the links I provided in the posts above and now understand that the GFCI circuit in your inverter is "seeing" an imbalance between the current going out and the current returning. I believe it's a nuisance fault caused by the trailer's wiring. (This is also discussed in the links I provided earlier.)

I thought of a test you can run if you're interested to try and prove my theory.

There are multiple 110v circuits in your camper. Using the circuit breakers on your distribution panel, turn them all off (not the mains!) and energize one circuit. Plug in your extension cord into the applicable energized circuit and plug in the microwave to the extension cord. Will the microwave run without tripping the GFCI in the inverter? Keep testing one circuit at a time except for the trailer's GFI circuit (bathroom, island, pass-thru).

If the GFCI faults on the inverter, regardless of the circuit tested in the trailer, the issue is likely with the inverter itself (or maybe the microwave). If the microwave runs fine on several circuits but the inverter faults when the microwave is running on the Microwave circuit--there's something going on with that specific circuit.

I hope that makes some sense.

If you'll do the tests and post the results we can try to make some sense of it. If you don't understand what I'm proposing let me know--communication can be difficult using only words.

Howard

If I remember correctly I ran the microwave with no issues right to the inverter with an extension cord and it worked fine. Also I did turn all breakers off in the trailer except for the microwave and it worked. I did not however run to each outlet. I will have to do that in the spring. That’s why I’m curious if a sub panel with only a few dedicated circuits would solve the issue instead of feeding the whole trailer.

[ncitro]

I saw your post on the sub-panel thread so thought I'd circle back to this thread instead of going off-topic (OT) on the other thread.

Hopefully you've read the links I provided in the posts above and now understand that the GFCI circuit in your inverter is "seeing" an imbalance between the current going out and the current returning. I believe it's a nuisance fault caused by the trailer's wiring. (This is also discussed in the links I provided earlier.)

I thought of a test you can run if you're interested to try and prove my theory.

There are multiple 110v circuits in your camper. Using the circuit breakers on your distribution panel, turn them all off (not the mains!) and energize one circuit. Plug in your extension cord into the applicable energized circuit and plug in the microwave to the extension cord. Will the microwave run without tripping the GFCI in the inverter? Keep testing one circuit at a time except for the trailer's GFI circuit (bathroom, island, pass-thru).

If the GFCI faults on the inverter, regardless of the circuit tested in the trailer, the issue is likely with the inverter itself (or maybe the microwave). If the microwave runs fine on several circuits but the inverter faults when the microwave is running on the Microwave circuit--there's something going on with that specific circuit.

I hope that makes some sense.

If you'll do the tests and post the results we can try to make some sense of it. If you don't understand what I'm proposing let me know--communication can be difficult using only words.

Howard

you bring up a good point. I seem to recall bad things happen when you put a GFCI downstream of another GFCI. If you turn off the breaker for your GFCI circuit in your panel, does the microwave still trip the inverter GFCI? Would be an easy thing to rule out.

[Glamping4two]

you bring up a good point. I seem to recall bad things happen when you put a GFCI downstream of another GFCI. If you turn off the breaker for your GFCI circuit in your panel, does the microwave still trip the inverter GFCI? Would be an easy thing to rule out.

Ah! No I have not. I will try that as well! Thanks!

[TucsonJim]

So last night, I turned on my inverter, and immediately the inverter GFI tripped. This is the first time this happened. So I shut off all the breakers and turned the inverter back on. Then, I started turning on breakers and the when I got to the living room outlet breaker, the inverter's GFI tripped again. I thought there must be a problem with that circuit. But no... I repeated the test and then it tripped on a different breaker. When all the breakers were on, it tripped every time within a couple of seconds. It was getting late, and I decided to just leave everything alone and work on it this morning.

This morning, I went to start trouble-shooting and now, the only way I can get the inverter gfi to trip is to push the test button. I changed nothing between last night and this morning. Last night, the gfi wouldn't stay on at all. This morning it won't trip at all. .