Giandel Pure Sine Wave Inverters

Thanks drivesafe I will.

Before I finalise the install, I connected the new CALB LifePo4 batteries to the inverter & plugged the van's power lead onto the inverter.

First I tested the microwave, no problem. The lights in the van didn't even dim briefly when the microwave started. Then I ran the aircon for 20 minutes. The cables supplied with the inverter got up to 40 deg so I will use my own 25mm2 instead. The inverter itself stayed cold.

A couple of pictures of the numbers after 20 min with aircon running.

Inverter output in kW.
Attachment 132033

Battery amps.
Attachment 132034

Battery volts.
Attachment 132035

So far so good & that is with only 1 of the 2 batteries. Love the lithiums already.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Milton477

Going to need a bigger van to accommodate the inverter. That's a 40l Engel that the inverter is sitting on.

Attachment 131980

---

Well it let the smoke out/expired/blew up today. 18 months of intermittent use later, while powering the aircon, Giandel saw fit to smoke the two 125A fuses on the outputs of the 2 LifePo4 battery banks & fill the van with unpleasant smelling electrical smells.

The question is now: Another Giandel at $320 or a Victron at $1500?

First of all .. interesting thread .. learned a lot from it.

Second .. my thoughts are; get another Giandel, and learn what happens to them when they let the smoke out!
I'm neither an electrician, nor an electronics person at all .. just an 'interested type'.
That is, I've always had the mindset that when something breaks, rather than just replace it, figure out why?(where practical).

Recently got myself a benchtop power supply to play with once again(had one before but 'lost it') .. anyhow, started charging up stuff with it, turned it up to see what it'd do, and it 'popped'
Contacted seller on ebay, and very weirdly they sent me another .. no questions asked! [thumbsupbig]. Didn't even ask for me to return the one I popped.
So when the new one came, first things first was to not pop the new one too .. so opened it up and took some measurements.
Anyhow, found out that the rectifier was damaged. Unsoldered it off the old one, also got a couple of MOSFETs too, as they were all on the hard to access heatshink, put together and nothing.
Inspected more bits, too more measurements and worked out that more MOSFETs were dead, one of them actually the 'popped' one. No smoke, just a snapped mosfet on the output voltage side.
The hard part was just accessing these items on the PCB that are attached to the heatsinks.
Anyhow, attempt No 2, replaced all four fets, and rectifier again, and now the dead supply is also working too.

Technically it did cost me more than about $20 to fix it all up(each part cost about $4 or so), but that additional cost was due to me buying packs of the required bits, not just singular.

Bonus! I Now have two 30v 30a power supplies for less than $200.
more importantly, if one or the other ever pops again, I'm armed with enough experience to fix it again.

The above point is that while you may have no idea of electrical and electronics, they aren't as hard to 'figure out', as they may initially seem.
Now I'm not referring to designing and building these items .. just fault finding and tracing and replacing the broken part!

The point of this? when something goers wrong, you fix it yourself, and you have a better understanding of what actually goes wrong.
Obviously I couldn't tell you what got smoked in your Giandel inverter, but there's a high degree of likelyhood that it's going to be a simple didode in the rectifier group.
(from what I've seen)Many of these cheap inverters seem to run multiple diodes as a rectifier instead of a single chip design. That doesn't mean that this IS what happened, just a very high probability of what could have.
If it has, then a simple $1 part could be the issue .. and you may not need to spend to much to sort it.
Tools needed to fix aren't expensive either.

You have made some interesting points Arthur. I never considered approaching the seller to see what they would do. Will definitely open the inverter & look for the damaged components & see if I can replace them. This might also be the result of vibration from the dirt roads we have traveled lately. Will report back.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Milton477

The question is now: Another Giandel at $320 or a Victron at $1500?

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Homestar

Based on the output versus price is will be just like any other cheap Chinese inverter - it should work fine for as long as it works.

---

I think the question is answered, UNFORTUNATELY!

If you do open, be sure to post some general pics(ie. wider area) and if you can, get closer up to the 'diode pack' area.
Also look for at least one fuse close to the input side of the PCB .. it could be soldered on, could be replaceable ???

Well Milton the old one lasted a long time, you can buy nearly 5 of them for the expensive one so i would buy two of the cheapies and I think overall you will still be way ahead - however I suspect you A/C has been overloading the converter and that has what as let the green steam out - get a bigger inverter.

Likewise who is to say the Victron would have lasted.

My Giandel is still running well after many years.

Just a word of caution is dismantling to inspect and possibly repair - Inverters produce lethal voltages and SHOULD NEVER have repairs attempted by inexperienced persons - there is a lot in them that WILL KILL YOU if you are not careful.

There are plenty of extra low voltage electronics that are perfectly safe to learn on - inverters ARE NOT ONE OF THEM.

Please if you don't understand them, or electronics in some way shape or form and have appropriate test equipment - NOT a $20 ebay multimeter - do yourself a favour and let it go to God gracefully or have someone else look at it. Please don't start (and potentially end) your electronics hobby on one of these.

Sorry for the dire warnings but I have seen someone seriously injure themselves doing exactly this - even after I said I'd look at it for them, they couldn't help themselves and earned a trip to Hospital for their efforts - it could have been a lot worse.

Oh, and personally I wouldn't buy another one of those if it lasted 18 months, but that's just me. My secondhand Selectronic Inverter is over 20 years old now and still going strong - you can't buy them new any more, but they come up secondhand quite often. Not the lightest, smallest or cheapest, but designed and made right here in Australia and are the ducks guts IMO. If you have the budget, the Victron unit should last a lifetime too.

These are the units to keep an eye out for in the size you need - SA31 and SA41 Inverters - I've seen them secondhand for around $1300 when they surface, but you need to keep your eyes peeled. Pity they aren't still made - they start and run a decent AC system with ease and the fan only kicks in once they are running at more than around 50% load continuously so most of the time much quieter (silent) than other units. The 600 watt version comes up quite often as they were used in NSW Ambulances for years, so there are plenty more of those on the market and make great camping inverters as they'll peak at 1300 watts for 5 minutes, so can run a microwave, etc to reheat things. The 600 watt version is what I have. The also have a sleep mode so draw no power when not being used unlike many that actually draw quite a bit sitting there in standby mode.

Hi Milton, I regularly deal with a company that sells a range of inverters, including a 3,000W unit and if you are still looking for one, they can supply their 3,000w inverter for $1299.


The inverter is an AMPS brand, it has a 3,600w overload protection, comes fitted with an RVD, a 3 year warranty and the price includes delivery.


The company is RV Powerstream and you can contact Ian on 0427 648 726 and tell them you are off the AULRO forum.

My van is my site base when working away so I spend around 120 days per year in it. The cheapie inverter has proved it's worth this summer as I run the aircon while we travel between sites so that when we stop & are unpowered, the aircon doesn't murder the batteries as the van is already cool.

Time for a Victron Multiplus Inverter Charger. MultiPlus - Victron Energy

I especially like the feature where it can combine a generator with batteries if the generator cannot supply enough power on its own. I should be able to downsize my generator to a 1000VA & a much quieter model.