Mecer 1200VA. Fault.

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Ashdk

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Hi all. I purchased a Mecer 720w inverter in March 2021. It worked perfectly over the last few days of load shedding. Yesterday we had 2 sessions of load shedding. When I powered off the unit last night, it was still busy charging. When I powered it back on this morning, the red light stayed on and the beeper continued beeping permanently. The only items I plug into the inverter is the TV, decoder and bedside light. I removed the inverter plug from the wall and all the output units plugs. I switched the inverter on again and the same fault occurred. The Quick Guide for the unit just informs me that there is a fault. Unfortunately I am not electronically minded so any advice would be helpful. What could be the problem?
 
Ashdk said:
Hi all. I purchased a Mecer 720w inverter in March 2021. It worked perfectly over the last few days of load shedding. Yesterday we had 2 sessions of load shedding. When I powered off the unit last night, it was still busy charging. When I powered it back on this morning, the red light stayed on and the beeper continued beeping permanently. The only items I plug into the inverter is the TV, decoder and bedside light. I removed the inverter plug from the wall and all the output units plugs. I switched the inverter on again and the same fault occurred. The Quick Guide for the unit just informs me that there is a fault. Unfortunately I am not electronically minded so any advice would be helpful. What could be the problem?
Click to expand...

Do you drain the batteries? That will kill it.
 
Ashdk said:
Hi all. I purchased a Mecer 720w inverter in March 2021. It worked perfectly over the last few days of load shedding. Yesterday we had 2 sessions of load shedding. When I powered off the unit last night, it was still busy charging. When I powered it back on this morning, the red light stayed on and the beeper continued beeping permanently. The only items I plug into the inverter is the TV, decoder and bedside light. I removed the inverter plug from the wall and all the output units plugs. I switched the inverter on again and the same fault occurred. The Quick Guide for the unit just informs me that there is a fault. Unfortunately I am not electronically minded so any advice would be helpful. What could be the problem?
Click to expand...
why did you power it off and not let it charge the batteries?

as for the fault check your connections maybe a lose wire from the battery terminals causing a short.
 
Why did you switch it off? It’s supposed to stay on between supply and load, let it do what it’s designed to do…
 
Unfortunately I do not have a multimeter.
The connections are all firmly attached. I like to power off all electrical units before going to bed. Should I leave the inverter on permanently even when all the output units are powered off? Should I power off the inverter when I am going away for a few weeks?
 
Ashdk said:
Unfortunately I do not have a multimeter.
The connections are all firmly attached. I like to power off all electrical units before going to bed. Should I leave the inverter on permanently even when all the output units are powered off? Should I power off the inverter when I am going away for a few weeks?
Click to expand...
did you switch it off other times when it was busy charging the batteries in the last few months?
if so then you probably killed the batteries, not sure if this is covered under the guarantee - you will need to check with the place you bought it from.
as for switching it off, you can but not if its charging the batteries (as above) , same with holidays you can unplug and switch it off.
 
Is there any way I can charge the battery without it being connected to the inverter?
Unfortunately no where in the documentation does it say not to power the unit off at any stage. I hope the battery is not dead, as it's almost brand new.
 
Ashdk said:
Is there any way I can charge the battery without it being connected to the inverter?
Unfortunately no where in the documentation does it say not to power the unit off at any stage. I hope the battery is not dead, as it's almost brand new.
Click to expand...
No there is no way to charge a battery without it being connected to a power source.
What happens to your phone when it is not connected to a charger?
The best bet would be to take the battery to a battery place so that they can check it for you and establish if it can be brought back to life.
Very expensive school fees.
Did you do any science at school? Nothing?
 
Rickster said:
Do you drain the batteries? That will kill it.
Click to expand...
I have not used mine as yet, but I purchased under my own assumption that I would not have to manage the batteries and that it would have shut down when it reached the preprogrammed voltage threshold, knowing that 50% DoD is the suggested usage - does it keep running past that?
 
Vis1/0N said:
I have not used mine as yet, but I purchased under my own assumption that I would not have to manage the batteries and that it would have shut down when it reached the preprogrammed voltage threshold, knowing that 50% DoD is the suggested usage - does it keep running past that?
Click to expand...

They run till they dead, to like 10.5v

RIP batteries.
 
Vis1/0N said:
I have not used mine as yet, but I purchased under my own assumption that I would not have to manage the batteries and that it would have shut down when it reached the preprogrammed voltage threshold, knowing that 50% DoD is the suggested usage - does it keep running past that?
Click to expand...
It runs to 10% remaining, it's a cheap inverter not really smart. You've got to do some battery maintenance.
 
Vis1/0N said:
I have not used mine as yet, but I purchased under my own assumption that I would not have to manage the batteries and that it would have shut down when it reached the preprogrammed voltage threshold, knowing that 50% DoD is the suggested usage - does it keep running past that?
Click to expand...
This is the problem with many of these "el cheapo" off the shelf systems that do not allow you to set the DoD values. They all tend to run all the way down to 10,5 V which most times means the end of the battery --- it hardly ever recovers from there.
Especially in winter!

All the battery specs are done at about 25 deg C
 
Ashdk said:
Is there any way I can charge the battery without it being connected to the inverter?
Unfortunately no where in the documentation does it say not to power the unit off at any stage. I hope the battery is not dead, as it's almost brand new.
Click to expand...
Any car battery will help you eliminate the inverter being broken, if the Mecer powers up and is normal, your battery is likely dead, some battery places can do desulfation but you'll be lucky to get half the capacity back.
 
I have the same, but with a 2400VA inverter. Have installed 13 of these. The red light is "overload". One, in a house in Pinelands has a measured 220V output of 1.2 amps. 1 x PC, monitor, router, ONT and some lights are attached

Without fail, it will go into overload mode in 10-15 mins

It went back to Mustek, they just returned it with no comment. It still does it. I fitted another, this one is 100%

The faulty one has been at the supplier's premises for 6 weeks waiting for Mustek to take some action
 
Ashdk said:
Is there any way I can charge the battery without it being connected to the inverter?
Click to expand...
If you know someone with a 12V car battery charger you could try that.

Without access to other chargers and/or multimeters to test the battery and/or other batteries to test the inverter. I would try the following and hope for the best:

Completely disconnect all loads from the inverter output.

Disconnect the inverter completely from the wall input.

Physically disconnect the negative battery terminal from the inverter.

Wait a couple of hours.

Reconnect the negative battery terminal.

Plug in the inverter and switch on that input plug. Tomorrow some time see what happens when switching on the inverter and/or connecting a small load (only the the lamp).
 
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Vis1/0N said:
I have not used mine as yet,
Click to expand...

Bad news already. Lead acid start degrading (crystalline growth) the moment they not @ 100% and that growth increase the deeper you go into its charge.

PS: Lead Acid self discharge over time (Some as much as 5% per month) so should be connected and at float even if you not using em.

Vis1/0N said:
but I purchased under my own assumption that I would not have to manage the batteries and that it would have shut down when it reached the preprogrammed voltage threshold, knowing that 50% DoD is the suggested usage - does it keep running past that?
Click to expand...

Its a cheap/dumb unit, it has no way to know the chemical make-up of the batteries you using so it uses normal rule of alarm at 25% off at 10%, which is fine for lithium not so much for Lead acid or AGM for that matter.
 
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