I’ve had a Multiplus 24/3000 brought to me that used to be installed in a house on the East African coast for around 12 years. I opened it up to have a look and there’s noticeable corrosion on the circuit boards and components:
Firstly, it’s not worth trying to recover this inverter is it?
Secondly, what are others thoughts on these inverters in harsh coastal environments?
I have to say 15 or so years ago I was an Outback fanboy. Then I started seeing Victron being installed and was a little gobsmacked by the exposed circuitry (as an aside I also often worried about damaging something when trying to manipulate heavy battery cables in there). I thought Outback was more elegant and in particular their sealed model for harsh environments. I then heard that Victron came up from the marine market, which are some of the harshest environments, so figured that they must have some fancy circuit board sealing tech - however seeing this corrosion makes me wonder. 12 years life is not shabby, but with Victron I would’ve expected better?
PS Victron products my main go to now - love Venus OS and VRM, but haven’t had to install at the coast yet.
I have seen the inside of another no-name brand of inverter from china that looked way worse, which was installed for less than a year in a coastal environment.
One option to avoid this with a new unit (though impacting warranty and making repairs more difficult) could be to mask all connectors and apply one thin coat of plastic spray… just a thought, (haven’t tried it, yet).
On the other hand: when installing in East Africa environment the temperatures are usually higher than in central Europe, reducing performance (like maximum load). So it could make sense to put them into a small otherwise sealed room that also contains a reasonably sized AC unit to keep the inside at ~20°C, which should get rid of the moisture (and with it: the salt content of the air) quite nicely…
Gregor, thanks for your comments. I agree, considering the exposure the Multiplus has held up well. But I remain surprised that a sealed version would not be more popular for the likes of boat owners - but guess cost to performance ratio is what most customers are concerned about. Those that are more concerned with longevity would, as you suggest, install the unit in an air conditioned environment.
I notice that the “marine” tag was changed to “domestic” by a moderator. Whilst this unit was from a domestic installation, I would have thought that the theme would apply much more often to marine installations? Indeed I am curious as to the experiences of marine installation owners.
Hi often manufacturers will use conformer coat to protect the pcb and its components but using this can depend on a number of factors.
In humid and/ or costal environment it’s always a challenge to stop this happening, responsible manufacturers (like Victron) would of done lots of testing to gauge the longevity of their products it different environments.
So what can you do, well try to put the equipment in a environmentally controlled environment, not always possible i know, use a dehumidifier if possible or practical or have a expert conformer coat the pcb but this would almost certainly invalidate the warranty.
All said and done all you can do is your best and hope you’re equipment last a reasonable amount of time and 12 years is not to bad.
Hi if thats corrosion after 12 years it looks great!
I have seen multiple audio processors and amplifiers on the dutch coastal restaurants that were trash after 1 or 2 year near the coast, completly destroyed circuit layers on pcbs because of the salty air
There is no sealed option from victron for 48V systems, or am I wrong with that?
Also the wide input range IP43 charger is nice because it’s quiet and relatively small, but maximum is 24V/25A and the integration is (to put it politely) rudimentary: power supplied from them is not accounted for in VRM (they even show battery as discharging, while charging it) and no DVCC (no option to give MPPTs priority over them).
Only upside is the wide input range, which makes them accept shore/mains power where a MP2 would simply refuse to charge.
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