What with the wheelhouse emptied and everything in its place in the garage, it was time to rest and relax. After all that hard labour, we deserved it. But it was not to be. The first night that things were back to ‘normal,’ a red warning light appeared on one of our electrical panels.
We had never had the screen turn red. It indicated a problem with one – or both – of our inverters. France is in lockdown. There is no way a MasterVolt technician will be able to come and have a look. What to do? I got in touch via e-mail with everyone who had any knowledge of MasterVolt inverters. Many suggestions, many things I should try. None worked. Especially not the one that prompted smoke to come pouring out of Inverter #2. And no one could come and sort out the problem.
The smoke did it. Our landlord in Auxonne is H2O. They run a large atelier in St. Jean-de-Losne – and are MasterVolt dealers. When I told them about the smoke – and the possibility of a fire on the pontoon – they said they’d have a technician there the next day.
Both inverters were quickly removed. In a sign of the times, it turns out that MasterVolt does not repair its inverters. (And neither will anyone else.) It will sell you a new one – and give you a discount based on how long you’ve had the old one. Way, way pricier than what a repair job would cost – but we had no choice. One bit of good news, H2O says the #1 Inverter is working and will not have to be replaced. But added those two ominous words – for now.
Without inverters, we still have 240-volts – as long as we are plugged into shore power. Thank god it’s not cruising season. We wouldn’t be able to leave the marina. When cruising and with inverters, we’d get our 240-volts AC from our 24-volt DC batteries. Without inverters, we wouldn’t have 240-volts. No fridge, no stove, and worst of all – no water. Our water pump is 240-volts. No drinking water, no washing, no toilets. At least here in Auxonne, we have electricity from the borne on the pontoon to power our appliances.
But the inverters also charge our domestic batteries which supply power to our 24-volt marine freezer, to the black-water and grey-water pumps, and to much of the lighting onboard Aleau. They would quickly deplete to nothing. Once again, we are lucky to be plugged into the borne. I bought a 24-volt, 28-amp charger and plugged it into our 240-volt source. Voila! As long as we remained plugged into the borne – and as long as it doesn’t trip itself off (which it sometimes does), we have both 240 and 24 volts.
We have no idea when we’ll have our inverters. Until then, we constantly check the voltage of our batteries – and keep our new charger humming away.