Why did my battery and inverter blow the fuses of my appliances?

[joebobaggins]

Hi there, I'm new here. This will become obvious.


Today my band and I intended to go busking with our new battery and inverter, which we used to plug our keyboard and amplifier into using a dual extension cable. Within 2 minutes of playing the keyboard stopped turning on, and after 4 mins, the amplifier went as well. After taking them home and opening them up, the fuses of both pieces of equipment had blown.


I don't know what the reason for this was or what specifications are required to figure out why this happened, but here's the best I can offer.


Battery:


Alphaline, 12V, 115AH, 1000CCA


Inverter:


500W, surge capacity of 1000w for one second, no load draw <0.4A


Keyboard:


40W, 50-60Hz, 220V


Amplifier:


150W, 50-60Hz, 220-240V.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, in order to avoid this happening again!
Thanks,

Joe

 

[telectrix]

the output from these inverters is very rough, not a sine wave. probably that's what's blown the fuses. no doubt some member with a better knowledge of inverters can advise you better than i can.

 

[StuSpiers]

yhea generally if it is a cheap inverter you do not want to be plugging in expensive equipment.

 

[joebobaggins]

Aha thanks guys. So it's something to do with the fluctuating output of the inverter? It's a "Silverline" which I assume is a brand no one has heard of. Could someone point me in the direction of inverters with more of a continuous output? But if there is another way around this without having to buy any new equipment I'd be really grateful. Thanks again for your responses.

 

[telectrix]

silverline sounds like something aldi would do. i would look around for a decent brand of inverter. try cpcfarnell or maplins.

 

[KINKY]

Yeah silverline are a budget brand

 

[Marvo]

If you're using electronic equipment on an inverter you will need to pay a bit more an buy a 'pure sine wave' inverter. Cheap inverters (modified sine wave) have a dirty output waveform with a very squareish shape and poorly regulated voltage, this can cause permanent damage to sensitive electronics. Good luck, I hope your equipment survived the ordeal.

 

[plugsandsparks]

If the amp and keyboard had a power supply based on a traditional wire wound transformer, i would expect it to get very hot using a modified sine wave inverter, which could have been enough to blow the fuses. Hopefully they have survived and just replacing the fuses brings them back. As for to stop it happening again, as already mentioned a "pure sign wave inverter" is the way to go. Having said that i use a Ring 500W inverter in the back of my car to power my chargers and power tools and had no problems but neither use a classic transformer.

 

[joebobaggins]

Thank you both very much! I went into Maplins earlier and they said it was either bad luck or the power surge that occurs when turning on the inverter that caused it, then they sold me some fuses. I'm not sure I believe this. I don't want to risk it with the same inverter again because it's a 1970s Wurlitzer piano with some pretty intricate electronics inside, and we've had to order a specific new fuse from the USA that then has to be soldered in. We still don't know if it is just the fuse or something's gone wrong with the wiring, too, as you say. The amp on the other hand took two minutes to fix so all's good there.

Seems that a pure sine wave inverter is the way to go. I just hope it really is the case! Thanks again everyone.

 

[plugsandsparks]

Once you have got the piano working again. If you look inside it and see something rather big in relation to everything else and looks just like a lump of metal square ish with curved sides on two sides then that is probably the transformer. When you get your new inverter i suggest you turn the inverter on first with nothing connected to it, then plug the amp in and switch it on and lastly plug in the piano and turn it on.
Would shy away from block switching the lot on and off, off is just as bad as on. So switch the piano off first , then the amp then the inverter and then disconnect from battery. this hopefully will reduce the risk of surges, you can also buy an anti-surge extension lead which will help but are not the solution to reducing surges.

 

[BAPSMAN]

Hi.. I know a fair bit about Inverters. I also play in a band!.. STRICTLY speaking, you should use PSW ( Pure Sine Wave) Inverters for delicate electrical equipment such as you have. HOWEVER, from experience, a """GOOD QUALITY""" MSW ( Modified Sine Wave ), will also probably be okay. The problem you have had is probably mainly due to the fact you bought a *Silverline* inverter. They sell Silverline products in Toolstation and also Maplins I believe. Just about EVERYTHING I have ever bought with that brand name has turned out to be useless. If its got ANY moving parts or any components, dont buy Silverline! So far I have returned a ditch pump, pliers, screwdrivers etc.. ALL useless. I no longer buy any of their products.

Like one of the other responders here, I would recommend *RING* Inverters... even their MSW Inverters are pretty good and give a pretty clean sinewave ( htey are Sometimes referred to as "Quasi Sine Wave" as they are fairly clean compared to the cheap MSW affair. I run my Marshall 50W combo amp (through a surge protected plug) on my Ring (3000w) MSW Inverter and its happy as Larry (Whoever he is?).

Good luck with the repairs.

Hi there, I'm new here. This will become obvious.


Today my band and I intended to go busking with our new battery and inverter, which we used to plug our keyboard and amplifier into using a dual extension cable. Within 2 minutes of playing the keyboard stopped turning on, and after 4 mins, the amplifier went as well. After taking them home and opening them up, the fuses of both pieces of equipment had blown.


I don't know what the reason for this was or what specifications are required to figure out why this happened, but here's the best I can offer.


Battery:


Alphaline, 12V, 115AH, 1000CCA


Inverter:


500W, surge capacity of 1000w for one second, no load draw <0.4A


Keyboard:


40W, 50-60Hz, 220V


Amplifier:


150W, 50-60Hz, 220-240V.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, in order to avoid this happening again!
Thanks,

Joe