"All in one, inverter/charger/BtoB/solar controller"

[booster]

I got a popup ad recently that mentioned a product that is allegedly able to replace essentially all the equipment in an RV, off grid cabin, etc. Yeah they must monitor and sell information about what articles I read

This is the unit at Don Rowe who is a very reputable place so no problem there. I looked it up separately as I never click ad links and it didn't say where it would go.

All in one unit

Size is quite small at 19.7 x 12.2 x 6.2 in and weight only 33#.

3K PSW inverter

100 amp charger

Two MPPT 50 amp inputs for solar or alternator charging that could be paired for 100amps in from one source or maybe 80 alternator and 20 solar, I think.

All controlled on single provided remote panel, it appears.

Reasonably priced compared to good quality individual parts.

It certainly would violate my desires for no single failure points, but could be very useful for those doing a moderately sized lithium conversion if the inputs are all handled properly in the unit. I have not had time to scour the instructions so see exactly how it works at this point.

Anybody got any opinions on if this might be useful for some people looking for an easy, simple, upgrade with low space used and weight probably saved?

 

[booster]

I did find some time to go over the manual, which is 56 pages so fairly detailed but nowhere near the 240ish pages for our Samlex unit we got last year.

It has some interesting features if you were looking for an all in unit, for sure. Good power for charging and inverting, reasonable size, quite low weight. As with all this kind of thing, it has stuff I am not thrilled about, but that pretty normal.

For the charging section it is the kind of typical profile of the more modern AGM era charging. Bulk, absorption, float, rebulk on a timer at 7 days, repeat. Not great for lithium, especially with the probably required rebulk to full all the time while in storage if plugged in.

Transition to float is amp and voltage based, but done internally so the amps control will be influenced by any loads that are on and would need to be compensated for during setup. Voltage does not seem to have a remote reference for the battery which I think every charger should have, especially with lithium.

3000 watt inverter with typical settings and does have easy on/off if you don't want to use a standby setup. Should have enough reserve capacity to start things like AC even though it is a high frequency design which don't start stuff as well as low frequency, very heavy, low frequency transformer designs.

It has an automatic transfer switch internally and said it prioritizes power to van by reducing charging to prevent breaker trips.

It didn't explain the exact system, but seemed to be saying it does automatic neutral to ground bonding, which is a bit plus and safety feature.

So the charging and inverting pretty much cover those well for most users.

The two DC inputs it has are really what sets it apart, but again the system wasn't detailed completely in the manual.

It has two 50 amp inputs on the unit. Each one can have a solar and alternator attached on separate contacts which it can prioritize. The two outlets can be paralleled also so you could get 100 amps of alternator charging for instance, and I think that solar could also be hooked up the same time. You would probably prioritize alternator as first choice and solar second and I assume it would shut off the solar input and run only the alternator until the alternator charging went to zero when it would turn on the solar. It also seemed to be saying that those inputs are able to take higher amp availability and limit it to 50 on each so no BtoB or other current limiting needed. It didn't specifically say it, but implied that the output from those two DC inputs would then charge to same profile as the charger. If it the is done that way it is very nice, as our Samlex has a 12v input for solar, but it is just a pass through. This unit is an MPPT charger for both solar and alternator I think.

As I mentioned earlier, this would not be the right unit for us as our system is too large in battery capacity and charging rate and set for midrange charging for the lithium.

But if I had a class b with the typical 2 AGMs at 200ah, a Tripplite, a generator or not, and solar or not that had not been modernized yet, it could be a very good and easy, near drop in way to go to 300ah or so of lithium with a big charger and inverter and much easier than piecing together a compatible bunch of independent devices.