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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Candy Chapman and Gary Bell
It bears pointing out in this context that Xantrex is a fairly new
> corporate entity, which resulted from the merger of several old lines of
> charger and inverter makers under a new corporate identity, and that my
> opinion, and that of several others was that they were placing corporate
> success ahead of customer support
REPLY
Outback was started by former Trace engineers. Magnum was founded by former
Heart Interface engineers.
Both companies therefore have excellent insight into Xantrex product
antecedents. Furthermore they hear the comments from users having encounters
with Xantrex customer service.
Both companies had the opportunity to start with a fresh sheet of paper when
designing their product.
I suspect the designers saw an opportunity to implement new design ideas
they had wanted to develop while at the old companies. The end result is a
bonus for customers.
AS long as these companies also heed the lessons provided by Xantrex policy
regarding how customer issues are resolved, they are bound to do better.
Victron has some very interesting technical features not normally found in
domestic North American products. Unfortunately they have not done a great
job in promoting these features in their advertising or even in the user
manual. Gary mentioned the lack of a genset start signal in the Victron. The
feature is there but you have to dig into the manual to find it and then its
called something else (a virtual switch). The virtual switch is even better
than just a genset start signal but Victron fails to highlight the
versatility. This switch is programmable and can control ventilation fans or
do other things. But its very difficult to see this benefit from a once over
read of the manual.
Victron uses the same high frequency switch mode concept as the original
Statpower Prosine.
The resultant weight is half as much as a traditional iron core transformer
based design such as Outback and Magnum now uses. Where weight is critical
this is significant.
Lately the exchange rate for international currency has made the Victron
even more expensive. For global voyaging it is a better product but Outback
and Magnum has better pricing for domestic use. The Magnum dual shore cord
input is an outgrowth of a similar but less elegant solution found in the
older Heart Interface models. This makes it easier to repower older boat
systems often found on the GB, Marine trader boats and similar Asian
electrical designs of the '80s and '90s era.
regards
Arild
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