'Exploding' Kisae Charger/Inverter

Last night, I plugged into the podium and immediately tripped the main ELCI breaker. That has never happened to me before. I heard the faintest click when I flipped the breaker on the podium, which led to removing the cockpit table and flipping up the aft seat to see the breaker had tripped.

Before this event, I had been running the inverter for 6+ hours, with my Starlink going at the dock, without any issues.

After turning everything back off, resetting the breaker, and trying again, I immediately here "pop pop pop pop pop" and flip the breaker off manually this time - for some reason it didn't trip itself. I immediately started to smell electric burning. I unplugged the shore cable entirely and turned off all my AC breakers. I tried to turn the inverter on via battery power to see how bad of a situation this was or what side of the system was gone (my fiance had the fire extinguisher out by this point). The meter on my AC panel immediately jumped to 'redline,' which is 150V, and after shutting the inverter back off, it very slowly came back to 0V (over 10-15 seconds - way longer than usual).

At this point, I realized our trip would be cut short, I fired up all the DC systems (engine, dash, radio, etc.), ensured things were working, and jetted back to our home marina just before sunset.

I picked up and installed a new Victron MultiPlus II 2x120V unit today, so less than 24 hours later, I'm back in business, hopeful to head back out for the rest of the week tomorrow. This evening I took apart the Kisae and found a portion of the PCB with black char and a few tiny metal shards nearby.

PHOTOS
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B14G9Gd2NGyJcSk

ouch. I'm struggling with getting Kisae to call/email me back on an issue. The control panel says it is charging, but no fan going on the Kisae and the voltage continues to drop. Running my engine to keep the batteries charged.

that said, nothing has blown up yet!

I would have preferred a benign failure, so you're lucky there. I'm surprised that none of my AC devices had an issue with the overvoltage.

You and I aren't the first to have issues with Kisae here, there are many other threads with problems with these chargers. They are on the cheaper side, so maybe you get what you pay for. I hope that Victron lives up to it's name.

I have the Victron (12/3000 Multiplus). Coupled with progressive "Victronization" of the good ship I'm extremely impressed, though I have three beefs:
- installer decided to mount the entire power center including batteries on the port side, exaggerating the native list-to-port.
- Victron manuals & alarms lingo are not amateur-friendly. Like reading a quantum physics primer in Czech.
- Despite the robust build, the Multiplus main switch is a small 3-way rocker switch that feels like something out of a Barbie easy-bake oven. On the bright side, the Cerbo GX (via GX touch panel or remote access) permits soft control of the switch functions.

/tmm

I have had nothing but excellent support from the folks at Kisae.
Also the products that I have on the boat , 2021 R27OB , have performed as advertised except when abused by me.
AC 1260 charger , DMT 1250 solar controller/charger , MW 1230 inverter
I have talked to a gentleman named Ricarcdo who was knowledgeable and helpful.
604-630-8680 Hopefully he won't mind me publishing his contact information.
Chris

This was enough to get me to preemptively ditch my Kisae for a Victron. I’m going the simple route with the basic controller and adding a dongle so I can see it in VictronConnect. InvertersRUs programmed it for me so it should be plug and play.

My experience with Kisae: I also talked and worked with Ricardo. He was great! But the product gave out and wasn't reliable.

My experience with Victron: I also bought a replacement inverter from InvertersRUs. They programmed it and were good to deal with. The charger/inverter has been rock solid. Love it. Although programming it, etc., is more complicated. Mostly because it is so flexible and modifieable. When the time comes to have to change settings out (like when I expect to replace the batteries sometime in the next year or so), I think it will be manageable. Until then, although the settings are more complicated, I have no need to change them and the inverter/charger keeps purring like a cat.

Gini

My Kisae died today, 2 days before going on a long planned 10 day trip..... the dreaded "r2.0" code.... tried every fix suggested on this blog (Very helpful.. thank you all.... helps me not feel too stupid!)... I have a 2018 R31CB, so it's only 5 years old... gee... don't they make 'em well!!! (The Inverter, not the boat..)
Oh well... "Everything on your boat is broken... you just don't know it yet!!!"
Pete S.

Ricardo is pretty awesome tech support: ricardo.kisae@gmail.com They offer:
"If that is your case and since your unit is out of our one-year warranty period, what we can do is sell you a brand-new unit of IC122055 for $ 405 US (including shipping costs inside the continental USA). We do not offer repair services for these units.
Their suggested retail prices are $759.99 US (without shipping costs), so it is a good discount."

My unit only lasted a little over 3 years. After watching my buddy change out, like for like, it is quick and easy to do. I've no idea how long other brands last compared to Kisae, however, I usually want to replace with identical products if possible.

Good luck!