Overload Warnings - Multiplus 48/5000 during electric motor start. Should I be worried?

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matt09 asked Jan 10, '23

Overload Warnings - Multiplus 48/5000 during electric motor start. Should I be worried?

Good morning everybody,

I have an off grid system with Multiplus 48/5000/70-100 and 4x Pylontech US2000B plus solar panels etc

The overload warnings come while I am using an electric log splitter with a motor rated at 2300w. I assume that it is the initial inrush that lasts a few milliseconds, but I don't have anything sensitive enough to measure that: What I am seeing is 1400w on start up and then 600w or so on idle.

The motor of the log splitter drives a hydraulic pump to action the jaws of the machine - the way it is set up is that the motor has to be started with one hand and then the hydraulic pump controlled with the other (in order to prevent one putting a hand in with the logs). This has to be done for each log, so that the motor is started 4 or 5 times per minute. Therefor a lot of overload warnings. (No overload alarm or shut down).

My question is: Is this over stressing or damaging the Multi or shortening its life?

Would it be a good idea to fit some sort of "soft start" device?? If so, what?

Any thoughts would be gratefully received...

multiple inverters

2 |3000

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Answer 1 · 2023-01-10T10:18:48Z

nickdb answered · Jan 10, 2023 at 10:18 AM

Motors can have up to a 4X or more surge, so for that motor a soft-start would be a good idea on that inverter.

Will it break anything? Shouldn't. Ultimately it will just turn itself off if it becomes a problem.

At least the batteries seem to cope, that is a more frequent issue, especially at lower states of charge.

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matt09 commented · Jan 10, 2023 at 10:44 AM

That's reassuring - thanks.

I've mostly used it when there has been a decent amount of solar coming in and the batteries have a decent amount of charge, so not relying too much on the batteries to provide everything.

Looks like it is a brushless motor - any ideas on what sort of soft-start module would be helpful; there seems to be quite a bit of choice. I'll contact the manufacturer and ask them, but in the meantime if anyone has some ideas that would be very helpful.

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