My inverter finally burnt.

AZB

Platinum
Jan 2, 2002
12,290
519
113
My dominican made fancy inverter finally burnt after 4 years of rough usage.
I was surprised to see it blow up in front of my eyes when it worked flawlessly for so many years. Its a domincian made fine inverter which was supposed to be burn-proof no matter what load you connect.
So I come and find total darkness. I notice that lights were on in the street so why the inverter is dead? I simply pressed the reset button and was glad to see inverter come back to life. But I heard some buzzing sound and smelled something burning inside. More buzzing and rattling of transformer. I should have turned off the unit off but I was curious to see what would happen next. Then my wish was answered, a loud flashy boom and everything went dead. So I disconnected the inverter and opened it up to see what was the foul burning smell was all about, and to see what got burnt.
To my surprise, the culprit was not bad engineering design but something that no engineer could provide protection for. Seems like a lizzard was living inside my inverter. It finally made its way to the wires which carried high current and 120 volts. The lizzard made a short circuit and fried instantly. At that point the trip (reset) button popped and saved the inverter but then came my engineering idiocracy. I reseted the unit and turned it on again. The short fried the lizzard some more and the high current draw blew up all my power transistors (ICs). So i guess it would set me back 800-1000 pesos to have my unit repaired and working again.
AZB
 

MrMike

Silver
Mar 2, 2003
2,586
100
0
52
www.azconatechnologies.com
Hey Buddy,

My store is just launching our own design, we need beta testers. Somebody told me you were some kind of engineer, I need you to test mine. Come by and I'll hook you up with one so I can get your feedback...
 

AZB

Platinum
Jan 2, 2002
12,290
519
113
MrMike said:
My store is just launching our own design, we need beta testers. Somebody told me you were some kind of engineer, I need you to test mine. Come by and I'll hook you up with one so I can get your feedback...
Okis, I can do that for you. If you put a nice unit in my office, I will show it to all my patients and many will buy from you. I have given plenty of business to my friend eddy but he has moved too far away (santo domingo). I already have a unit in my office but I will take it out and put yours in for a while. Its best to test it in my house, there I put on a heavier load.
AZB
 

sjh

aka - shadley
Jan 1, 2002
969
2
0
52
www.geocities.com
I pushed the reset breaker button and fried my unit too.

I had just installed it and had the incoming and outgoing lines reversed. The breaker tripped and saved the unit, until I helped it along.
 

AZB

Platinum
Jan 2, 2002
12,290
519
113
sjh said:
I pushed the reset breaker button and fried my unit too.

I had just installed it and had the incoming and outgoing lines reversed. The breaker tripped and saved the unit, until I helped it along.
Hahahaha, SJH, you are too funny.
I had a good laugh when I read, "the breaker saved the unit, until I helped it along."
Thats exactly what I did. I am the worst enemy of my own inverter.
AZB
 

DunHill

New member
Aug 29, 2003
351
0
0
www.dunhill.ws
To protect (at least a bit) your inversor from moisture
Buy some plastic spray (NOT WATER BASED)
Open your inversor carefully
Spray all of the inside parts EXCEPT for the fan
close your inversor

With this you reach a more protection against moisture, specially if you live near the coast.

I got this trick years ago from a German company (EA gmbh) who makes power supplies, inversors and ups systems, and for the tropics they used this trick.

btw, i blew my 5000Watt inversor as well due to a "human breaker error" :) and i am supposed to know what i am doing with those machines
People were "playing" with the wires and they managed to put 220 on my 110 line and i didn't check the reason why the breaker went out etc etc ...