question

Has anyone experienced this?

You need a fair amount of air flow around the charger for cooling. The problem may be that your electrical compartment is hot air to escape and be replaced by cool air. Just a guess since we don't have details on your electrical compartment or Orion mounting.

Yes, gets very hot after 15 minutes. Had a test setup with adequate cooling and ran off a 130Ah AGM battery with 16mm2 wiring. Battery current was approx 44A out and charging current into LiFePO4 was 32A. measured the ORION 12/12/30 temperature with a Fluke IR thermometer and noticed after 15 minutes following readings; Blue cover on outside 54 Celsius and the black cooling fins max of 66 Celsius. Question to Victron; Is this normal? Sustainable for several hours?

Further to my previous findings, I did another test lasting 40 minutes and experienced an Outer shell temperature (blue cover) of 74 degrees celsius with a cooling fin at 83 degrees Celsius, it was also noted that the charger was still in bulk, but throttled back to 26A current presumably due heat. Would it be possible to have some software to adjust the max charging current? It seems that this unit that claims continuous 30A @ 40 degrees Celsius can't deliver. Please advice.

manual states 3% drop in output current over 40*C. unclear if that is ambient T, or temp that develops on case/fins over time with charging. I see today 34A charge current over 22foot loop of 1AWG, that tapers off as LiFePO4 approaches 14.2V with battery T rise to 87*. I don't see that Orion has to output a continuous 30A indefinitely since bank is full at 14.25V. The output current drops to single digit quickly, SOC is synchronized to 100% and Orion is switched off. This seems normal and the case temps are expected. I also think the charge current is not "throttling back" due to case/fin temp rising, but due to rising voltage of the battery being charged.

Mine gets pretty damn hot too. I haven't measured temp on mine but you can't hold your hand on it for long after a 30 minute run. I have seen several threads here on this but no response from Victron.

What's right Big Vic?

Mine sure get hot. Uncomfortable to the touch hot on the blue plastic.

Bought mine yesterday I connected it to day and did a testdrive. It got very hot, about 55 degrees on coolingfins and same on blue cover. Sent a mail to victron and hoping for answer. But if so many getting hot it must be normal I think?

@Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) do you know if someone from Victron's staff is already looking into this issue? Is this issues resolved in upcoming manufactured units?

Following this question. Mine gets damn hot too. Cables from starter battery (OPTIMA AGM Blue Top 12V 75AH 975CCA) to DC-DC charger(30 amp) is 6awg/16mm2 in size and 2m in lenght. Two alternators with capacity of 75amp each are charging the starter battery. Cables from the Orion to LiFePO4 (200ah with 200 amp BMS) is 1m and 6awg/16mm2 size. It start charging close to 30 amp but drops fast, and the charger gets really hot after a short period. Bought one more Orion TR 30 amp DC-DC charger to see if it helps, not installed yet.

Anyone seen a reply/comment from Victron regarding Orion TR Smart 12 12 30 heat issue? It seems to consern several people, and I would like some answears from Victron regarding both safty and performance.

I mounted mine on corner braces so it would be upright and then installed a small muffin fan to blow air directly over the fins. It still got pretty hot, but it never showed any indication of shutting down due to the heat.

When we traded in our old RV for a new one the dealer moved the 12/12/30 to it and installed the fan, but mounted the charger flat to the floor with the cooling fins facing down and far away from the fan. Can't think what was in the installer's head, so I moved it to be upright again. But without the fan blowing directly on the cooling fins I do worry about the heat.

This is an old thread but my 12/12/30 runs at about 166ºF or 74ºC under normal conditions.