phillysteakandcheese
Nov 14, 2012, 01:39 PM
I bought a house in the summer and it came with a sump pump connected via a heavy duty extension cord to a 1000 watt power inverter. The inverter was connected to a battery and the battery connected to an automatic charger.
Last week I found that the fuse (connected between the positive battery terminal and the inverter) had blown. Without thinking too much, I turned the inverter off and unplugged the charger, and started to replace the fuse. As soon as I had screwed the plastic assembly together, the inverter popped and fried itself.
I didn't unplug the extension cord from the inverter going to the sump pump. The pump is also fried (now if I plugin the pump into regular house power, the breaker on the circuit immediately trips).
So...
I don't understand why the inverter blew up. There's only an on/off switch, and it was turned off. It wasn't grounded, unless the ground from the charger to the battery was supposed to take care of that. Could the inverter have been bad already (causing the fuse to blow), or am I missing something obvious?
If enough power went down the extension cord to damage the sump pump's motor, should I assume the extension cord itself is also likely damaged and replace it?
I am having a new pump put in on Friday, but I don't want to redo the battery/inverter setup like the guy had before me. Since the pump is regular household power, am I safe to run it from a UPS - like I use on my computer?
Thanks for the help!
Last week I found that the fuse (connected between the positive battery terminal and the inverter) had blown. Without thinking too much, I turned the inverter off and unplugged the charger, and started to replace the fuse. As soon as I had screwed the plastic assembly together, the inverter popped and fried itself.
I didn't unplug the extension cord from the inverter going to the sump pump. The pump is also fried (now if I plugin the pump into regular house power, the breaker on the circuit immediately trips).
So...
I don't understand why the inverter blew up. There's only an on/off switch, and it was turned off. It wasn't grounded, unless the ground from the charger to the battery was supposed to take care of that. Could the inverter have been bad already (causing the fuse to blow), or am I missing something obvious?
If enough power went down the extension cord to damage the sump pump's motor, should I assume the extension cord itself is also likely damaged and replace it?
I am having a new pump put in on Friday, but I don't want to redo the battery/inverter setup like the guy had before me. Since the pump is regular household power, am I safe to run it from a UPS - like I use on my computer?
Thanks for the help!