Generator Issues

[DBA Forum (B) - David Oare]

Wanderlust, a Piper Boat, was launched in September of last year. Since our launch we’ve had continuous “over voltage” issues with our electrical system while using the Whisper Power “M-SQ6” generator. These problems have resulted in widely fluctuating voltages, error messages, protective circuits on attached equipment being triggered, and generator shut downs. At many times, these issues have rendered our generator useless.

Has anybody else experienced similar problems with their generators? Hopefully this isn’t something we need to get used when using a generator on a barge.

Whisper Power representatives have been out to Wanderlust repeatedly but have been unable to resolve the fluctuating voltage problem. They have demonstrated that the generator will run stably when disconnected from Wanderlust’s electrical system. This is now being used as a criterion to attribute the electrical problem to something else on the boat. Of course we didn’t pay for a generator that works reliably only in isolation but, for the moment, that does not seem to matter.

The generator problems we’ve experience are highly variable. On some occasions the generator works fine and provides the domestic circuits with stable voltage. Other times, particularly when our batteries are near fully charged and the electrical load is low, voltage fluctuations are highly likely. But to every rule there appears to be exceptions.

Below are observations from last nights run, a typical situation when the voltage was acting up:

Definitions:

“Main” refers to the main ring breaker on our consumer unit. This provides power to the salon.

“AC” refers to the consumer unit breaker for the circuit that provides power to our bedroom air conditioning. This unit is in “stand-by” mode for these tests.

“Galley” refers to the 240V circuit that provides power to the kitchen. During the tests, all of the kitchen appliances were off. Indeed, all of the major appliances were off or in standby mode during the tests.

The test:

The generator was started with an indicated SOC around 84%. After start-up, the generator was stable providing low 230’s volts and 5 to 6 amps. After around an hour, with the generator panel now indicating 100% SOC and still near 5 amps, simply changing the speed of the fan on our extractor hood induced voltage oscillations. When the oscillations occur, the inverter box emits repeated clicks and error messages (AC Over Voltage) were repeatedly flashed on the Whisper Power inverter panel.

Once the voltage oscillations were triggered, turning off either the “Main ring” or AC breakers stops the high voltage error message from appearing. With the Main ring breaker off and the AC on, though there were no error messages, the voltage hovered around 255 to 257, just below the error threshold. With the AC breaker off and the Mains on, the voltage initially reached the low to mid 250s and then settled in to the low 230’s. With the AC and Mains breakers off, the voltage is stable in the low 230’s.

Next I then turned off at the plug all of the appliances that function off of the Main ring. (Only the microwave remained on, in standby mode, as there is no easy way to turn this off.) The result did not change. An over voltage error was still triggered when the extractor fan is turned on while the Main and AC breakers are switched on despite disconnecting the devices on the Main ring.

We’ve also experienced voltage oscillations with kitchen extractor switched off. In this case I was able to test the galley ring. Turning this circuit off did not impact the voltage oscillations observed. Consistent with the tests above, turning the main breaker off did stop the oscillations even as the AC circuit remained on.

Does anyone have any suggestions or insight into what is going on? Is there something we should look at? Is there an obvious source for this problem? At this point, Whisper Power seems to have given up leaving us we a generator that, for whatever reason, has not and will never function properly. What options do we have?

[DBA Forum (B) - John Booker]

Dave,

I sympathise with your trying to troubleshoot what is going on with your
particular cocktail of systems. I had recent experience with my Victron
inverter which is very sensitive to voltage fluctuations. On marina
mains power at our new berth we found that putting a load on the
incoming mains dropped the connection, the Victron inverter trips out at
185v and also at 252v. I suspect that the generator control circuit is
not doing it's job properly under light load and is causing a similar
problem with the inverter.
This type of 1500rpm generator doesn't handle light load running very
well because at constant speed it's really producing too much juice.
Whisperpower do an inverter generator which is variable speed and would
handle light load running better I would expect. I would be looking to
get them to switch it on the basis that the machine is not producing the
rated 230v +/- 5%. to their inverter type. Certainly something to get
sorted before you get out of easy reach of Mr Piper's warranty support.

Regards
John

Post by DBA Forum (B) - David Oare
Whisper Power “M-SQ6” generator

[DBA Forum (B) - David Oare]

Interesting.

Hadn't known that Whisper Power has a new (or new to me) product that claims "Outstanding voltage stability". Perhaps I'm reading too much into it but it asks the question whether the voltage stability of WP's other generators in their line, like our M-SQ 6, have less than outstanding voltage stability.

Not sure that this helps us much, though. Whisper Power has taken the stance that the circuits on Wanderlust are the sole source of the problem. Very difficult for me to believe that an extractor fan and circuits used only by equipment on standby could be outside the range that a generator should be expected to support.

It seems now that we will be forced to replace our Whisper Power generator ASAP. It won't even make its first planned service at 50 hrs. What a waster.

Whisper Power is refusing to do anything. They haven't tried swapping a single part on the generator let alone suggesting that we "upgrade" to a generator in their line with greater voltage stability. (In their defense, they did replace the inverter after it failed soon after delivery.) For us, replacing the nearly new generator will be to be a costly expense.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a reliable generator in the 6 kVA range? Our current generator is raw water cooled.

Anyone have thoughts on how to get a company to honor their warranty or support their product? We've tried repeatedly over the last ten months. I have a friend whose WP batteries failed after about 9 months and is having a nightmare trying to getting them to honor their warranty. We are not alone!

Dave

[DBA Forum (B) - Colin Stone]

Dave,

Not good news.

Clearly not fit for purpose, so reject under Sales of Goods Act. You might to go to the Small Claims Court but max is £5000 which might just cover it.

And to prove it is not vessel wiring, have you connected something directly to gen output before ship's switchboard - if necessary an extension lead wired directly to output connections into which you can plug equipment.

Start with a purely resistive item eg a small elec kettle or heater element, and then inductance item, something with a motor eg a mixer, fan or vacuum cleaner. Increase wattage of items and then mix items.

New - Fischer Panda. Came out well in the Victron gen test. But the simpler the better - I would avoid variable speed and fancy inverter output tech.

I too have a generator issue - completely knackered battery. Wish it had a starting handle!

In fact I would like to convert the starter motor to 240v AC?

Colin Stone
KEI
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[DBA Forum (B) - Colin Stone]

Dave,
Another thought - earth bonding.

All are DC negatives, AC earths, AC kit chassis grounds and any other earths - such a prop shaft - all connected together at a single point with an excellent elec connection to the hull?

If there are individual earth/grounding points on the hull, then this could be setting up stray currents that are confusing the WP's brain. Eg a forepeak battery charger that has its chassis bonding to a convenient bolt in the forepeak, rather than a dedicated earth cable back to the main ground point.

And with earthing/bonding cables the bigger the better. I use 10mm2 multi stranded throughout.

I also completely separated AC from DC. Port side for DC wiring, Stbd side for AC and never shall the twain meet apart from the inverters. Difficult to do now on a built vessel. Again DC and AC cables running in close proximity can induce currents in the other which sensitive controllers may detect.

Colin Stone
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[DBA Forum (B) - David Oare]

The generator will run stably if individual breakers are switched off. It also works fine for single circuits. If I have the "wrong" two circuits on at the same time, with the attached appliances in standby mode, and turn then turn on our kitchen extractor fan we can see rapid voltage swings from the low 220's to over 260 and the concomitant over voltage errors. It seems that our Whisper Power generator cannot cope with even minimally complex loads when the amp output is low. Is that "normal"?

[quote="Colin Stone" post=56280]Dave,

And to prove it is not vessel wiring, have you connected something directly to gen output before ship's switchboard - if necessary an extension lead wired directly to output connections into which you can plug equipment.

Start with a purely resistive item eg a small elec kettle or heater element, and then inductance item, something with a motor eg a mixer, fan or vacuum cleaner. Increase wattage of items and then mix items.


Colin Stone
KEI
Sent via BlackBerry® BIS[/quote]

[DBA Forum (B) - Colin Stone]

Dave,

Definitely not normal. Our FP gen runs anything from max load to 0 and reacts to load changes instantly with only the engine note changing.

I am not an electronic engineer, but can only think there is a feedback loop interfering with the WP control circuit.

I have seen this before with a large expensive video projector where there was an earth loop hum caused by the projector and source being on different earths, resulting in the projector control circuit throwing a wobbly. Disconnecting the projector earth solved the problem, but the MoD engineers didn't like - but they wouldn't spend the dosh to fix!

Hence my Q about earth and grounding points.

Try disconnecting the earth on one of the offending circuits in the AC breaker box and see what happens.
And switch on the kit with a normal earth. A lot of modern stuff is double insulated and does not have an earth connection. Will be perfectly safe for a short test.

Colin Stone
KEI

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[DBA Forum (B) - Pete Clark]

I know nothing about electrics but a little about the law. One thing is not clear from your descriptions i.e. why you have persevered for so long without recourse to law? Going to law is not bad, or just for wimps or grumblies: you've paid probably a couple of hundred thousand smackers for a boat with equipment that should work. If not (and if not given prompt satisfaction), claim. I agree with Colin: for starters simply check out the Sale of Goods Act 1979 e.g. on the Consumers Association (Which) site, it tells you all you need to know. Not wishing Simon Piper ill - when I met him years ago he seemed a thoroughly decent bloke - your first port of call should surely be the seller of the boat (with its equipment?) i.e. Simon Piper. Or did you specify and/or purchase the generator separatel
y? If so, claim against that seller - but for heaven's sake claim, before your warranty runs out. You do have 6 years in which to pursue your claim under law but your burden of proof becomes ever
harder. With the time that has already elapsed (why?) a claim to reject is getting very long in the tooth, but instead you could pursue and recover adequate damages in compensation, with which to buy and instal a new generator. None of this solves your technical problem - but it will certainly help your financial one! And remember (to bend an old saying into new shape): nine tenths of the law is facts, and only one tenth is the law. So get your facts absolutely straight, and if you are right, you will win hands down.
Pete Clark
Nooit Gedacht

[DBA Forum (B) - Pete Clark]

As usual when talking about the law, I seem to have managed to send everyone to sleep on this thread. However, 2 additional points for good measure:
1. Depending on the circumstances (the facts), if you do decide to go down the legal path, you need to consider claiming against both Piper Boats and the seller of the generator (if different). It seems as if there may be boat wiring or other technical interfaces, so you need both (?) sellers in one boat, so to speak.
2. If you do go the legal route you will need competent legal representaion. I have never used them, nor do I have any connection with them, but there is a firm of solicitors who advertise in Blue Flag, Yachting Lawyers, who would, I imagine, give you at least an initial broad overview (i.e. whether you even have a case or not) free of charge or for a minimal fee.
Pete Clark
Nooit Gedacht

[DBA Forum (B) - Peter Cawson]

I would just add that my dealings with suing people, one MUST claim from the supplier (to you) not necessarily the manufacturer unless you bought directly from them. Your contract is with the person you paid to supply the faulty equipment, not with the manufacturer. It would be up to your supplier to counter-claim from HIS supplier - probably the manufacturer.

Also, there is nothing more likely to get the matter settled quickly than a summons arriving on your supplier's desk! He won't want to contend it if you have a good chance of winning and will almost certainly settle pre-trial.

I've udsed this tactick on a number of occasions (Small Claims Court) and only once has the other party not settled before the hearing. The last time was because my Samsung mobile phone packed up after a walk on a wet day. The phone had been in a wax jacket pocket the entire time, but its inadaquate weatherproofing rendered it not fit for purpose as a mobile phone. My claim was contested by Samsung, but I had to sue Carphone Warehouse (not Samsung) to get my £300 back. Sucessfully done, although it took far too long. Best to send a letter demanding satisfaction within 14 days (it may be 28) otherwise you will sue - and you then go straight to the Court - no messing about.

Hope this helps

Peter

[DBA Forum (B) - David Oare]

An update on our situation:

Simon Piper paid for a Whisper Power selected engineer Paul to come in today to take a new look at our system. Simon himself came down, as did David Payne from Whisper Power. At this point I had collected more data on the generator over voltage failure mode discovered by Becky when she triggered an over voltage warning by switching our extractor fan level from 2 to 1. Now I knew how to reliably get the system to generate an over voltage error. (AC ring on and AC in standby, Main Ring on with all attached units off at the switch, and the extractor set to level one resulted, reproducibly, in an over voltage error if the batteries are fully charged.) I did have to keep reminding David Payne that the over voltage error had been seen when he was last on board without the extractor fan bein
g on.

After confirming my observations and noting that the amperage and voltages were inexplicably high when the failure mode occurs Simon and Paul rechecked the wiring. Where was the "extra" power going? They corrected/rationalized the wiring on he consumer unit searching for a possible grounding issue but this didn't have an impact. They then figured that the problem comes from the batteries adding in power at the low amp and voltage region of operation. Basically, Whisper Power's system, like many others, is designed to pull power out of the batteries if the demands on the AC circuit exceeds what the shore main or generator can supply. What they found was that the power was still being pulled out of the batteries at the low power end of the operation window. This, it seems, results in th
e voltage oscillations and overload. When the power supplement function is turned off, the voltage oscillations ended, at least for now.

In the end, this was a Whisper Power problem not a boat equipment or a wiring issue. I am not happy that Whisper Power abandoned us basically saying that their equipment was working perfectly and it wasn't their problem and refusing to do anything. And even now I would not consider our issue solved. Disabling the ability of the system to draw power from the battery bank to cover peak surges will be limiting when we are on the 16 A service like at T&K. I've already observed the battery power being drawn on several high use occasions. If we are on 8 A shore service as is sometimes found it France it could well be crippling. I might chose to live with the generator surges instead! If Whisper Power does not come up with a solution to this problem we will look to swap over to Mastervolt.


I two observations about this whole fiasco. First, this issue would might have been solved if Becky hadn't noticed the association between changing the extractor fan setting and the error message. It allowed me to understand the dynamics and reproduce the problem on demand. Second, Simon Piper at every step was an advocate in this process and, in the end, took extraordinary measures at the end to make sure it was resolved.

In the end I don't think I will ever be happy with how Whisper Power has handled this issue. But at least I will not have to picket their booth at the Southampton Boat Show.

[DBA Forum (B) - David Oare]

[quote="Pete Clark" post=56332]As usual when talking about the law, I seem to have managed to send everyone to sleep on this thread. However, 2 additional points for good measure:
1. Depending on the circumstances (the facts), if you do decide to go down the legal path, you need to consider claiming against both Piper Boats and the seller of the generator (if different). It seems as if there may be boat wiring or other technical interfaces, so you need both (?) sellers in one boat, so to speak.
2. If you do go the legal route you will need competent legal representaion. I have never used them, nor do I have any connection with them, but there is a firm of solicitors who advertise in Blue Flag, Yachting Lawyers, who would, I imagine, give you at least an initial broad overview (i.e. whether you even have a case or not) free of charge or for a minimal fee.
Pete Clark
Nooit Gedacht[/quote]

Thanks for this. I'm hopeful that it won't come to this for this issue now (see my update).

Some more background: Though these problems started last fall, we were away from the boat for 6 months. Whisper Power had been on the boat repeatedly, until recently, continued to seek advice from the "master ship" back in The Netherlands at the end of each visit so there always seemed to be a hope of a resolution. It is also hard to want to sue Piper Boats when they had been the best advocate in the process, as they should be. Yes, I know that's how it works, but still....

Dave

[DBA Forum (B) - Colin Stone]

Dave,
Glad you've found the problem.

But from what you say it seems that WP aren't doing joined up electrickery with their units - genset and I assume a matching inverter.

I have a Victron Multi Plus Combi inverter charger and I noticed once with generator running, 12kw, and oven on, 3kw, that a huge amount of Amps was being drawn from the battery. I quickly realised that the Victron shore power limiter (SPL) was set too low and the battery was being used. Upped SPL to 30A and order restored with healthy charge and oven getting hot.

I would push for Piper's to remove all WP kit, it still is not fit for purpose, and replace with Victron and a simple genset.

Colin Stone
KEI

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[DBA Forum (B) - David Oare]

Colin,

Whisper Power was started by people who split from Mastervolt. They definitely have "electrickery" as an updated version of Mastervolt. Indeed, that seems to be the source of the problem. Thankfully the genset seems to be working fine. It is the "Combi-Inverter" equivalent where the problems were/are and then it is most likely a configuration issue.

All of these systems, Victron, Mastervolt, and Whisper Power, are very complex. The customers depend on factory configurations and customer support. This is where WP has fallen down perhaps in part because they are newer to the game. What really irks me is that they just abandoned us and labeled our problems as issues with our boat.

Our most likely swap, if we need to, is to a Mastervolt inverter. It is a set that has worked well in many other Piper Boats.

Thanks again for the support!

Dave

[quote="Colin Stone" post=56348]Dave,
Glad you've found the problem.

But from what you say it seems that WP aren't doing joined up electrickery with their units - genset and I assume a matching inverter.

I have a Victron Multi Plus Combi inverter charger and I noticed once with generator running, 12kw, and oven on, 3kw, that a huge amount of Amps was being drawn from the battery. I quickly realised that the Victron shore power limiter (SPL) was set too low and the battery was being used. Upped SPL to 30A and order restored with healthy charge and oven getting hot.

I would push for Piper's to remove all WP kit, it still is not fit for purpose, and replace with Victron and a simple genset.

Colin Stone
KEI

Sent via BlackBerry® BIS[/quote]

[DBA Forum (B) - Bruce Bosworth]

David

I agree with the opinions of others who have replied to your problem. I get the impression that you are setting yourself up as project manager in this fiasco. Keep things simple. It is not your problem; it is the boat builder's. You may like and respect them and if you can deal with it wisely and amicably that is fine. But if niceness doesn't work you need to show the nasty side of your nature. Do not be diverted by acting as arbiter between the makers of different equipment. Your boat should work and if it doesn't lean on the boat builder. You can get problems for nothing. You do not have to pay tens of thousands of pounds for them.

Bruce Bosworth

[DBA Forum (B) - David Oare]

I believe your impressions are wrong. All of the interactions with Whisper Power have been through or with Piper Boats. I'd hardly say we are trying to manage the interaction with WP! Perhaps it seems that was as I've relayed the messages from Whisper Power.

If you've ever met Simon you'd realize that he has the force of a hurricane. He tends to get what he wants and always seems to find a way to get there. As a consequence the impasse with Whisper Power and the implications for us were all the more surprising.

Dave

[quote="Bruce Bosworth" post=56352]David

I agree with the opinions of others who have replied to your problem. I get the impression that you are setting yourself up as project manager in this fiasco. Keep things simple. It is not your problem; it is the boat builder's. You may like and respect them and if you can deal with it wisely and amicably that is fine. But if niceness doesn't work you need to show the nasty side of your nature. Do not be diverted by acting as arbiter between the makers of different equipment. Your boat should work and if it doesn't lean on the boat builder. You can get problems for nothing. You do not have to pay tens of thousands of pounds for them.

Bruce Bosworth[/quote]

[DBA Forum (B) - Peter Cawson]

Our most likely swap, if we need to, is to a Mastervolt inverter. It is a set that has worked well in many other Piper Boats.

I'd tend to agree if you can't get the problems resolved. Just because the guys who started Whisper Power used to work for Mastervolt doesn't mean they have the wherewithal (financially if not technically) to create and market these complex devices. Mastervolt Whisper Gen generators are excellent and match well with their combi units. Both my present and previous boats were MV equipped and I've had no problems apart from a strange (but not serious) generator anomaly that I'll raise on the forum separately!

[DBA Forum (B) - Colin Stone]

Dave,
And was Mastervolt a split off from Victron? Wouldn't be surprised!

Agree, these items are getting very complex but I don't think it helps with this increasingly fully integrated approach to make it all appear as simple as living in a house.

Colin Stone
KEI
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[DBA Forum (B) - Peter Cawson]

Post by DBA Forum (B) - Colin Stone
I don't think it helps with this increasingly fully integrated approach to make it all appear as simple as living in a house.

Couldn't disagree more! If only boats were as simple as living in a house - or a car.

Boats are far too complex and someone on board really needs to be an engineer to continually turn on this, turn off that, adjust or measure whatever. Wouldn't it be great that a non-technical owner could expect his boat to just simply "work" without faffing around all the time worrying about batteries getting flat, etc, etc, etc. One day, perhaps?

Peter

[DBA Forum (B) - David Oare]

Actually I believe I heard that Whisper Power produced the generators for Mastervolt after they split off. They are "Mastervolt Whisper Generators" after all.

Clearly there are a lot of interconnects and commonality between the suppliers. In the end, the differences can come down to how well products are supported.

From what I've taken from other boat's who've had Mastervolt issues, the people on the ground from WP in the UK have been more diligent, responsive, and professional than those from MV. The problem, at least in our case, is that the WP service management ignored data and arbitrarily decided that Wanderlust's problem were not caused by a Whisper Power fault. They then pulled the service people case off of our case. This left Piper Boats and ourselves high and dry to try to deal with a complex issue that turned out to be from day one a Whisper Power problem. Even if Wanderlust's voltage surges didn't turn out to be a Whisper Power problem, the electrical systems are sufficiently complex that Piper needs the assistance from Whisper Power to help sort things out. In the end, WP deciding t

o cut out of the process left open few options. It did not matter to Whisper Power whether we had a useable electrical environment on board Wanderlust. It only mattered whether they perceived the
issue to be their problem or not. I don't think I'll forget this.

[DBA Forum (B) - Colin Stone]

Post by DBA Forum (B) - Peter Cawson
Wouldn't it be great that a non-technical owner could expect his boat to just simply "work" without faffing around all the time

In which case employ a liveaboard engineer. Many vessels of our sort of size have a full time crew for their owner!

You may want such a simple approach, but the tech behind the panel shows it ain't always reliable - hence Dave's problems.

And I'd wager that the WP problem with low energy consumption/generation is an electronic feed back issue which is not being adequately filtered out.

If you cannot be your own engineer, you'd better have deep pockets.

When I started out on this caper, I didn't have much of a clue about boat engineering. I just about knew that VHF radios were 12v.

It was a question of digging around and learning. For my own AC/DC system I was going to have all sorts of integrated auto this that and the other with rows of indicator lights to tell me what is where.

Most of all that is not even installed.
Simple generator, although dual wound 400v and 240v AC, combi, and simple home made panels simply wired. Looking inside a modern boat's wiring system is an over complicated nightmare with way too many connections just for the sake of having connections. All to make sure than an owner can't figure it out and has to get a specialist electrician onboard!


Colin Stone
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[DBA Forum (B) - David Oare]

[quote="Colin Stone" post=56367]>snipped

And I'd wager that the WP problem with low energy consumption/generation is an electronic feed back issue which is not being adequately filtered out.

Colin Stone
KEI
Sent via BlackBerry® BIS[/quote]

No matter the underlying issue, Wanderlust's problems should be fundamentally be solvable at the control level. We have/had stable voltage on shore main, the place where the ability of the system to pull power for peak loads from the batteries matters most. Our instability occurs from the battery boost coming in at low loads while running the generator. The management system needs to be able know not to add power in when the loads are low. Doesn't seem like it should be too hard to do. Even easier would be for the the system to disable the battery assistance while the generator is running as the generator provides more amps than most shore connections. The basic ability to do this exists within the software, it just hasn't been implemented.

Dave

[DBA Forum (B) - Colin Stone]

Dave,

I've just reread the Victron Energy genset report - well worth downloading.

They had an interesting comment in para 3.2.1 - which may have some relevance to your issue.

Of note, Mastervolt declined to supply gensets, so VE went and bought some!

Colin Stone
KEI
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[DBA Forum (B) - David Oare]

Colin,

Where would I find this?

Dave

[quote="Colin Stone" post=56374]Dave,

I've just reread the Victron Energy genset report - well worth downloading.

They had an interesting comment in para 3.2.1 - which may have some relevance to your issue.

Of note, Mastervolt declined to supply gensets, so VE went and bought some!

Colin Stone
KEI
Sent via BlackBerry® BIS[/quote]

[DBA Forum (B) - Pete Milne]

The Victron generator report is in the DBA library, technical section (and somewhere on the Victron site).

Log onto the DBA website (barges.org) and visit http://www.barges.org/library?view=category&id=23

Pete

[DBA Forum (B) - David Oare]

[quote="Colin Stone" post=56374]Dave,

I've just reread the Victron Energy genset report - well worth downloading.

They had an interesting comment in para 3.2.1 - which may have some relevance to your issue.

Of note, Mastervolt declined to supply gensets, so VE went and bought some!

Colin Stone
KEI
Sent via BlackBerry® BIS[/quote]

It might well be a related phenomenon.

Whisper Power doesn't regard settings like this as user adjustable so they are not easy to find and we are possibly even locked out from changing them. Indeed, the WP rep on board on Wednesday could figure out how to turn the battery power supplement feature off for the whole system but not for the generator only.

Dave

[DBA Forum (B) - David Oare]

Whisper Power just called to say that they have been unable to reproduce Wanderlust's issues at the home office so they figure that our Whisper Power Center (the inverter/charger/etc) is flaky and they will replace it. It will be Wanderlust's third WPC.

Must admit that I'm little concerned about this. I don't think that Whisper Power has the ability to test with a real-life complex load. How could they? So the fact that they could not reproduce the problem in house means little. It also seems like their decision is based mostly on the belief that the software is too smart to allow this sort of voltage fluctuations on its own. Thus, it must be the hardware. Hoping that my fears are not founded!

[DBA Forum (B) - Colin Stone]

Post by DBA Forum (B) - David Oare
Whisper Power doesn't regard settings like this as user adjustable so they are not easy to find and we are possibly even locked out from changing them.

Probably a good reason to use Victron. It is clear in the report that Victron added a user setting to cater for a generator issue they uncovered during the tests.

Colin Stone
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[DBA Forum (B) - Charles Briggs]

I guess I got lucky then! No idea how these systems worked when I had the boat built so took builder's advice.
Victron Multiplus and Travelpower Generator running off the engine. Bog standard batteries 6 x 110. No problems in 5 years, living aboard, and for long periods without any shore power. Replaced batteries once so far after 3 years. Just flick 2 switches when I want the generator on, otherwise I have left well alone!