candace Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 I have been operating with a bad deep cycle battery since I bought the motorhome last August. It really wasn't a big deal. I could charge electronics with two 400 watt Cobra inverters while driving. Lights and water pump always worked fine. Rarely plugged in at rv campgrounds. I installed a 100 watt solar panel and solar controller a month ago. Now, even when not driving I could charge electronics as long as the sun was out. The other day I decided it would be nice to be able to actually store power in my battery, so I bought one at Walmart. The Everstart 24dc. Before installing the new battery, I never had any problems charging my laptop, cellphone and camera battery at the same time. The other day, I was only charging my laptop. When I went to unplug it, the inverter started burning up. I could smell it. I opened it up and the two fuses were burned on their negative sides. The other inverter had just randomly stopped working a couple of days before. No signs of it burning. So I bought a new inverter at Walmart 410 watts made by Schumacher. When I charge only my laptop with the new inverter, the fan runs constantly. What is the deal? I have plenty of power. The solar controller indicates the battery is charged and healthy. Any ideas why my inverters went bad and now this one's fan won't stop running? If I just charge my phone, it the fan doesn't run. It's with the laptop charging that the fan turns on immediately. When the old inverter burned, could it have scorched the wires causing them to work less efficiently? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 Many cheap inverters have fans wired to run all the time instead of being thermally controlled. I hate them and won't use inside an RV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob C Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 The fan may run when charging the laptop because the computer charger requires more power than the phone. My inverter fan runs when I start drawing major power with power tools but rarely runs when charging a couple of phones or battery packs. It runs when the inverter starts to warm up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
payaso del mar Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 seems like you're adding an unnecessary extra step when you convert the 12V to AC, then back to DC, to charge DC appliances. what about installing a USB outlet that just drops the 12v DC to the 5v DC for USB output? no fan, and no fan needed. I just ordered one from Amazon, no idea of quality since it ain't here yet, but they do exist: http://www.amazon.com/ISWEES-Cigarette-Lighter-Splitter-Charger/dp/B00RJVJJCI?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 (edited) If you blew both fuses it usually is reverse polarity. Cheap, small inverter fans often do run all the time if it stops with a light load like a phone then I would say it's doing what it was designed to do a laptop batter is fairly power hungry if it's in need of a charge and will heat up the inverter circuitry. . Edited April 11, 2016 by Maineah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totem Posted April 13, 2016 Share Posted April 13, 2016 don't cheap out, get a new battery...your poor alternator will hate you otherwise and kill itself in protest and in doing so leave you stranded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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