modified sine wave and espresso machines

[dbsea]

My 2016 C-30CB has the promariner 2500 "quasi sine wave" inverter charger. My nespresso machine is not a fan. It will work, but I wonder how long it will be until it burns out from the modified sine wave. Is there some sort of device I could use to condition or transform the sine wave at the outlet, rather than having to replace my inverter charger? The nespresso machine draws about 1200w. I tried to use this as an argument to upgrade to a pure sine wave inverter charger, but that didn't fly with the significant other. :-D

 

[HookedUp]

I can't claim to be an expert with your particular question, but prior to retirement I did work on ground loops and ups harmonics affecting computers and communication equipment. IMHO I would not think a modified sine wave inverter would be a problem.

From a Livewire article:
There are only two types of electronics that you need to be concerned about when using a modified sine wave inverter: appliances that use AC motors and certain classes of delicate medical equipment.

If your electronics don’t fall into either of those two categories, then it's extremely unlikely that a modified sine wave inverter will do any damage.

 

[Magnet Engineer]

Some electronics depend on the time it takes for the frequency to change. In others word a nice sine wave. A step wave while it changes the polarity of the wave does not provide that time. In other word it goes from plus to minus too fast. A modified sine wave or step breaks the abrupt change up into smaller abrupt changes. Some electronics handle it better than others. Pure sine wave is the best way to go.

 

[gsc3]

The heating element of the unit should be fine, but electronics for timing the brew may not be happy. I have seen capacitors in the electronics of a coffee maker with electronic clock-controlled turn-on and turn-off fail when powered by a modified-sine wave inverter, probably from voltage spikes resulting from the rapid voltage rise/drop in the modified sine wave inverter output. A simple coffee maker with manual on-off switch and no built-in timer should work fine.

Slade Cargill, 2018 Cutwater 24, Sojourner, Longboat Key, FL

 

[YukonRon]

We had a Pro Mariner Quasi Sine wave inverter in our R25. We found that even boiling a cup of water in the microwave while under way was impossible. The inverter would alarm and kick out. We replaced the inverter with a Xantrex full sine wave inverter and all our problems went away.
Most of these boats have an assortment of 110 volt equipment or appliances on board, not to mention chargers for phones, laptops, electric outboards etc. Most of which are not happy with quasi sine wave power. You really won't know until something doesn't run properly, or suffers damage.
In my opinion, they should have stopped installing the QS inverters a long time ago and put Full Sine inverters in all the boats right from the factory.

 

[Martin610]

I'm surprised the Nespresso would work at all.

"Quasi sine wave" is a new term for me, I worked with electronic equipment for 40 years. MSW inverters had a few iterations, some were three step, a few were five step. All are "square wave". They basically mimic the sine wave with a switching process, turning on and off rapidly enough to mimic the 60 cycle wave form you would get from commercial power. You can actually see the steps on an oscilloscope. MSW's are fine for resistive loads, something that just heats up like a hot plate, or a basic coffee pot.

Any inductance load, anything with capacitors, will not work well or at all with an MSW inverter. Even something like an LED light bulb won't work on an MSW inverter. Integrated circuits are built into even the simplest things now as costs have fallen.

A good pure sine wave inverter, like Xantrex, produces power just as clean as you would get from your outlet at home.

As to potential damage, I can't comment without seeing the schematic from Nespresso, which is probably proprietary. If you call their tech support you might get specific information that could help.

-martin610

 

[Captmike]

My wife loves her Nespresso. We replaced the promariner with a 2000w pure sine wave promariner and all is good. Had I though about it more than reacting I would likely have found a small independent pure sine wave unit to run just the Nespresso. Ours draw about 1600w.

 

[dbsea]

My wife loves her Nespresso. We replaced the promariner with a 2000w pure sine wave promariner and all is good. Had I though about it more than reacting I would likely have found a small independent pure sine wave unit to run just the Nespresso. Ours draw about 1600w.

I wish i could find the 2000w PS version of the promariner still, it would be the easiest swap. The location of the I/C in the C30 is in the exterior starboard lazarrette and its side mounted, with a very limited space. There aren't many I/C's in that size profile, so it will require substantial work to change it and reorganize things...

 

[Submariner]

I wish i could find the 2000w PS version of the promariner still, it would be the easiest swap. The location of the I/C in the C30 is in the exterior starboard lazarrette and its side mounted, with a very limited space. There aren't many I/C's in that size profile, so it will require substantial work to change it and reorganize things...

The biggest challenge I face doing upgrades on the boat is Tetris. Making it all fit, some where, some how, some way. Sometimes it's buy the component and figure out how to make it fit. Other times it's trying to find a component that'll fit.