We live on the coast - our inverter is housed in a wall garage in a wooden frame with muslim curtain to prevent direct contact with coastal air - Victron will not honour the warranty as it argues they do not cover rust caused by salty air. We bought this top-end inverter as it is supposedly a “marine” inverter. How on earth do we prevent access to our environment without placing it in a sealed cupboard - which we are told you cannot do as the inverter will over heat. The supplier and installer say we have to replace it at our own cost - it has it just over 3 years old. we do not want to replace it will simply have the same problem again. please advise.
Your installer should take some blame there. He should have offered you a solution to protect your investment.
Not even switch gear would remain safe with that kind of environment.
I would have refused to install knowing there may be a chance of condensing air. (Which is stated in the documents)
Salt is particularly difficult. And there are solutions.
Rust means liquid damage. Or liquid accumulation happend - condensation. A condensing environment is specifically mentioned in the victron documents.
It a tough lesson. And one i am sorry you learned this way.
A closed environment is better. With filtered ventilation heat build up is not an issue.
Boats have significantly more environmental control as they know where they are going and what they are dealing with and are designed to stay there.
Also the aluminium range would not rust (the same way) if you have a steel case unit salt would accelerate it.
I do know even solar panel railing and clamp systems near coastal line also have their warranty altered to a 2 year warranty on systems that have 8 to 10 further away from the coast. It is a know issue.
Many thanks for your response, however, do you have any suggestions for an alternative make of inverter which would stand up to being housed in walled, roofed garage in a protective wooden box with a protective curtain at the very far end of the garage. Our fridge, cars etc do not have this rust probem. I am really not keen to buy the same product particularly as we aim to expand our solar installation to eventually go off grid. thanks again.
Coming to a Victron community to ask for non-Victron product suggestions is not likely to yield the results you seek. Your issue is less about it being a Victron product vs another product. Your issue is your location coupled with improper installation techniques for your location. You need a way to deal with the humidity and condensation no matter what you install. And, you want to make sure all the terminal connections should be protected with anti-corrosion coating. If you put the inverter into an enclosure as you have done, it needs to be properly ventilated. And if you live somewhere with condensing humidity, consider using some means of dehumidification if you enclose it.
What can you find in the manual about mounting the inverter in salty (marine) conditions?
Did you or the Installer mount the inverter?