We have both Ancor marine-grade 4/0 and Cobra X-Flex 4/0 welding cable (though I don't think we list the welding cable, it's more for us to play with) and I can confirm that the welding cable is significantly more flexible than the Ancor.
That being said, the flexibility has nothing to do with...
I gotta say... the Bussman Series 285 surface-mount 40A breaker (of which the T Tocas is a knockoff) is only $38.00. I know the T Tocas is half the price (or more? I didn't see a price in that screenshot), but I very strongly feel that reliability and trustworthiness in a fuse or breaker that's...
As a distributor for Battle Born, I'll mention here that our cost for Battle Borns have actually gone up by $90 per battery in the past 4 months. The price increase from Battle Born is due to the tariffs against China (where about 73% of the world's lithium cell manufacturing is performed)...
Can confirm that they don't actually care, and in fact require a fuse or breaker between the SCC and the battery. Technically the wording is in there because of a conceptual problem on paper that they wanted to make sure would never happen, but this was written before the days of LFP and BMS...
...because when you tighten a high-current terminal clamp down onto the wire insulation rather than the wire, this is what can happen. It's fortunate that Sterling units are flame-proof.
Ah! Fair enough! Bussman (or Buss or Eaton Cooper Bussman) is the name to look for in quality breakers/fuses/etc. They're OEM for all of Blue Sea's fuses and breakers (ie, the Blue Sea 7182 = the Bussman CB285F-40 in Blue Sea's packaging) as well as OEM for a vast number of automakers and home...
Here is one of many perfect examples of how these knockoff breakers can cause a system to malfunction:
https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/45444/smartsolar-mppt-10050-output-dropping-off-and-on.html
Y'all can do what you want out there, but maybe -just maybe- give some thought to...
The problem is that you're fried your BatteryProtect. I'm the Technical Support Manager for the largest stocking Victron distributor in the western US, and this is a problem I've seen countless times because Victron doesn't make one thing clear in their documentation: The BatteryProtect is...
Will, please see my reply to DKlude regarding the connection limitations of the BatteryProtect. Just this morning I filed another RMA with Victron for a customer who connected her BatteryProtect as is described in various diagrams on this forum and discovered that it malfunctioned. The...
Victron presents the following 4 acceptable methods of paralleling multiple batteries in their free Wiring Unlimited book, which I recommend everyone download just for reference for things like this... a lot of it's pretty basic, but there's a lot of good information and covers things like this...
For the record, we offer 4/0 lugs with a 5/16" hole, and generally speaking anything smaller than a 5/16" connection post isn't going to be rated to handle the current that you'll (presumably) be carrying with a 4/0 cable... dunno if that helps, it depends on what size holes you're needing, I...
@MrWegas , Xantrex is known for dramatically over-rating their inverters, so although I don't know anything about the GoWise, if it's a choice between those two I second others in saying you should try the GoWise.
Ten to 15 years ago, Xantrex was a decent brand, but their ownership has been...
The fusing on the panel side isn't to protect the controller, it's to protect the wiring of the panels. Code says any time there are 3 or more parallel panels or parallel strings of panels, each panel or string must be individually protected by a fuse. This is so that if one panel or string of...
I see your point @Craig; being an industry professional I literally cannot recommend that anyone use off-brand breakers or fuses for anything, ever, particularly given the failures I've seen of a number of off-brand breakers and fuses. Same thing with a lot of other components... I can say that...
Bussman Series 187 or 285 (the breaker posted is a chinese knockoff of a Series 285) go to 200A and 48vDC. Worth noting that "Blue Sea" Series 187 and 285 breakers are just the Bussman breakers in a Blue Sea retail package.
I strongly second @tictag's comments: never trust the knockoff...
Hi Rob (thanks @Steve_S for the tag) I have a couple of thoughts on the diagram:
Be aware, when spec'ing your solar panels and MPPT that there's no such thing as a 12v panel; panels that say "12v" are actually putting out between 18 and 22vDC, so whether or not you can use a 75/15 with them...
Hi @Dorothea, I thought I'd chime in here since that's our MRBF listing that you linked to; @MisterSandals has it correct, though - for your application, you should have a 250A fuse if you're running a 12v nominal system. These MRBFs are perfectly appropriate for that. Please bear in mind...
As a Victron LFP and Battle Born distributor, I can certainly attest that the tariffs caused multiple price increases last year - Battle Born raised our prices twice in the last quarter of '19, though they encouraged us and all their distributors to hold our retail pricing steady regardless...
Blue Sea/Bussman (Bussman is OEM for all Blue Sea's fuses and circuit breakers). Just double-check that everything is ignition-protected; the MRBF fuses referenced above are, as well as almost all (up to 500A) of the Bussman ANL fuses and also the series 187 circuit breakers and... well, the...
My pleasure in regards to sharing information; incorrect usage of otherwise quality components is a big pet peeve of mine (right up there with connecting high-quality components with knockoff breakers and cables in between).
Regarding the need for a low-voltage disconnect between batteries and...
Yeah Outback is pretty awesome. We don't distribute them, but I've had the opportunity to test Outback vs MidNite Solar vs Victron SCCs side by side and Outback beat the MidNite Solar and was only marginally behind the Victron in terms of total harvest in a day. Outback is a solid choice.
It's worth noting here (I'm ignoring the battery choices and a bunch of other things, y'all seem to have that discussion well in hand) that the chassis NEG from your house battery needs to come off the "loads and chargers" side of the BMV shunt, it can't come off the battery as shown. See my...
You shouldn't be getting any swivel in your lug; if it's still swiveling, you haven't tightened the nut enough - and you're tightening it onto the center metal sleeve that runs through the MRBF fuse, not the plastic of the fuse itself. These are rock-solid up to their max 300A rating, and all...
Well, I'm a Victron Product Expert (currently ranked #7 in the world) and a moderator/key contributor to the Victron Technical Support Community, so, like... I'd better be pretty close to the money at least, if not directly on it, if I want to keep my paycheck :-P
@orangeminnie a number of our customers are RV/vanlifers who are using BBs or other drop-ins and, like most of us, found the official BB solution annoyingly expensive and so have used self-adhesive snowmobile handgrip warmers like these in conjunction with digital programmable thermostats with...
Oh hell, I'm right there with you... plus I spend all this time on a soapbox about name-brand components and then our own listing doesn't have the name on them :rolleyes: Ah well, some days go like that! For your reference, however, here is an Amazon link to the breaker I'm talking about (not...