dougnterry
florida
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Joined: 11/10/2009
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Can anyone point me in the direction of some education?
My 93 Monaco Dynasty has a Heart Interface 10 inverter/charger that has been diagnosed as "failing to charge" on a preliminary inspection of my new purchase.
My house batteries charge fine of the engine alternator.
I am preparing to plug in tomorrow and will also check if gen is charging.
Does the gen send it's 120 AC through a seperate charger?
Will it be worthwhile to spend the money on "true sine wave" inv/charger? Is my shore power filtered through this unit?
I will be running a computer, new tv, audio and want clean power.
How best to diagnose charger?
Have heard that inverter can be left on to power all, even while hooked.
Thanks all,
Doug
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2oldman
Indio CA
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Joined: 04/15/2001
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inverter thread
MSW v. pure sine
Don Rowe site Inverter FAQ
Inverters by Phred
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Nor'Wester
Northwest
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Joined: 10/06/2009
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Can anyone point me in the direction of some education?
--I can make some guesses, but I don't know your specific coach or the Heart inverter.
My house batteries charge fine of the engine alternator.
-- Engine alternators are designed to quickly replace the energy the starter used. If they have to do that and charge a large and drained house battery bank at the same time they will get very hot and die early.
Does the gen send it's 120 AC through a seperate charger?
-- No. The genset should provide power as a replacement to shore power. It will need the inverter to charge batteries.
Will it be worthwhile to spend the money on "true sine wave"
inv/charger?
-- For most of us, no.
Is my shore power filtered through this unit?
-- No, there is a circuit that "by-passes" the inverter in a way that those appliances and outlets powered by the inverter will be powered by shore power instead.
How best to diagnose charger?
-- I don't know. But, I would start with the owner's manual and find the trouble shooting section. I would "re-boot" it by removing all power to it, as it has control computer in it. Then I would look for authorized repair centers. Google "heart inverter".
Have heard that inverter can be left on to power all, even while hooked.
-- Not true. Air conditioners, washer-dryers, engine block heaters and things like them are not likely to be in the inverter circuit. The microwave, TV and some or all outlets will be. Some rigs have a mix of 12 volt and 110 volt lights. The 110 lights are likely to be hooked up. You're not likely to have enough battery to cook a chicken in the microwave, but you will be able to re-heat your coffee.
Get you're inverter working. As a backup (until you get it fixed), use any standard automotive battery charger from an autoparts store to keep the batteries up. Relying on the engine alternator is over working it. And, when a coach has low batteries, lots of things start acting screwy.
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pianotuna
Regina, SK, Canada
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Joined: 12/18/2004
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Hi dougnterry,
The heart inverter you have is no longer a production model.
heart fm10
Here is an owners manual online:
manual for inverter/charger
I prefer "stand alone" components--i.e. an inverter and a converter rather than an "all in one" unit.
Good luck!
dougnterry wrote:Can anyone point me in the direction of some education?
My 93 Monaco Dynasty has a Heart Interface 10 inverter/charger that has been diagnosed as "failing to charge" on a preliminary inspection of my new purchase.
My house batteries charge fine of the engine alternator.
I am preparing to plug in tomorrow and will also check if gen is charging.
Does the gen send it's 120 AC through a seperate charger?
Will it be worthwhile to spend the money on "true sine wave" inv/charger? Is my shore power filtered through this unit?
I will be running a computer, new tv, audio and want clean power.
How best to diagnose charger?
Have heard that inverter can be left on to power all, even while hooked.
Thanks all,
Doug
Regards, Don
Kustom Koach Class C 28'5" 256 watts solar, 875 amp hours in two battery banks 12 volt batteries 2500 watt inverter.
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Golden_HVAC
Fulltime, CA, USA
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Joined: 08/19/2003
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HI,
I think the 1993 Heart inverter is based on 1970's technology, and is not really anything to brag about.
You will find another brand inverter/charger to be much more energy efficient when making 120 volt power, faster and adjustable charge setting, and other nice things.
I have a Trace inverter charger that is modified sine wave, and it will run a computer nice, as well as TV, DSS, ect. The only two things you can not run on the modified sine wave is a microwave and laser printer.
Trace has a really handy feature in their inverters, a remote control panel that allows programming things, including charge rate, setting the input maximum amperage, and other neat things, some have a optional generator start function that can start it if the battery voltage drops below a given level.
I was going to replace my 15 year old Trace modified sine inverter with a 2,000 watt inverter charger that is pure sine wave, but then decided to save my money for another year. I still want one!
You might want to check prices here.
SolaronSale.com
RvSolarElectric.com
BestConverter.com
I have not priced one lately, and forgot who was advertising it for about $1,200. The modified sine wave inverter charger with built in transfer switch and remote control panel should be about $400 - $750.
I would much rather have a pure sine wave Trace inverter, even at double the cost of the MSW inverter.
Good Luck,
Fred.
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sundancer268
Charlevoix
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Joined: 01/27/2006
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Check E-Bay, I just bought a Magnum ME2012 used for $516 to replace my Heart Interface Freedom 10 which I fried in October. It is three years old and hardly used. I am now in the process of installing it in a new location as I did not like the place Gulf Stream originally used.
When I checked on Repairing my old unit I was quoted a minimum of $300.00 to start.
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dougnterry
florida
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Joined: 11/10/2009
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Thanks all for the help.
It appears that previous owners rigged up a trickle charger for the chassis batteries. It has a 120 V plug in the engine compartment that appears to be powered by shore power, runs to converter, then to the chassis battery. ??
On the other side,
Mmonitor panel shows 14 volts from the generator charging the house batteries.
Can I trust this monitor panel?
If the gen is charging the batteries, can I assume the shore power will also? Could this be a ghost reading of some kind, showing that it is trying to charge the batteries, but not really?
Batteries are very new, filled, clean contacts, 12.5 V, no problems yet.
When I plug into shore power, and want to confirm a charge to the batteries, do I test at the batteries with my multimeter?
Am I gonna fry myself? :-)
thanks for the links.
By the way, as part of my ongoing nightmare with the monolithic Lazy Days, they want to charge me $2500 to replace this item with a similar. They have also billed me for work that they have not done, and wired up my exhaust brakes wrong.
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Golden_HVAC
Fulltime, CA, USA
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Hi,
I would not recommend going back to Lazy Days, they just don't seem to have it together.
$2,500 is what I wish I could charge to install a inverter. I did charge a guy about this amount, but most of the money went to 4 - 110 watt solar panels, the inverter, two new batteries, wiring, charge controller, and more!
You can get a modified sine wave inverter that is much more efficient than the Heart for about $750 - $1,000. Or get a sine wave Prosine 2,000 watt for about $2,000 or so.
Shop around.
I would rather recommend new instead of E-bay, because you never know what you will get, and no refund in most cases if the thing is not working. Most important is the dealer will be there to answer questions.
Good Luck,
Fred.
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The Beave
Georgetown TX USA
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Joined: 08/07/2002
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We have the Heart 20 charger/inverter which I think is a modified sine wave or sq wave inverter. There is no problem running the microwave, TV or computer.
You can leave the inverter on when on shore power because the inverter is bypassed. The problem is if shore power fails the inverter comes on and your battery's can be drained.
The Beave
30' 1997 Beaver Monterey
(The shortest DP we could find)
2005 Honda CR-V
Remco surge brake
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Jim@HiTek
Gresham, OR, USA
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Joined: 07/17/2004
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While plugged into shore power, using your digital voltmeter, measure the voltage across the house batteries. Usually, 6 volt batteries wired in series.
If you measure between 13.2 volt & 14.2 volt, your converter is working correctly. If you've been boondocking for a while, the voltage could be lower then that as the converter tries to bring the battery voltage up without blowing a fuse. If it's much higher then that, that's not good either, as it could boil out the water and ruin your batteries.
As a side note, a well designed AC device (read - not the cheapest model) will have no problem running on modified sine wave from an inverter.
 Jim@HiTek
Have shop, will travel!
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Fleetwood Bounder, '94
Cummins Diesel, 190HP, 36.5'
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