True Induction Stove Top will not turn on

[DanielBoondock]

12 hours ago, jd1923 said:

It's rated at 1800W which is listed on the Amazon title and on the product label underneath. Wattage spec should also be listed in product literature and user manuals.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KSNTSVR/?th=1

Great minds think alike - I have this one for cooking outside

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G9YKPQC

Stainless is nice but most is I like that its fine if it rains, don’t ask me how I know. Also it’s got .5 increments so is finer grained control than the interior stove 

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I do not get this statement either, "the stove itself." How can an appliance possibly know what it's wired to, or know whether you're on inverter or shore power?

We run our induction cooktop often at the full #10 setting, for example to boil water for pasta. Everything always on our Victron Multiplus II, no problem. 😎

 

Hm? Not sure what you mean either … I’m just saying that the cooktops have a specified input power they can spend however they want. For the home Bosch the electrician used the wire gauge and breaker size required for installation and obviously same here. So the induction is sized to that, but they can use that power however it wants. The Bosch has a boost mode which is super crazy fast for boiling water, less than a minute for a full pot. I forget how much it is, 6-9kW I think? Anyhow that can only be used with the other burners at a much lower power, so it basically hogs the input. 

The Oliver induction is much the same. I can use the main burner on 10, and the secondary on 1 or 2 IIRC. Or I can use the secondary on 8 (max), and the main on 3. So clearly, 11 is the maximum level (the engineer must have seen Spinal Tap), and the onboard PLC lets you spread that across two burners in this way. Now the burner could be sized bigger, say 2.5 kW, and (without doing the math) say that allows both burners on full. OK fine, but now that would only sell to RV’s with 3k inverters which isn’t as common as 2k. Even on shore power we only have a 30A input which still limits. 

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Everything always on our Victron Multiplus II, no problem.

Don’t know what this means, everybody is limited to 30A on shore, and on battery are limited by the inverter and battery. With my stock dual Lithionics 9kWh batteries and the Xantrex 3k I always have to be mindful of power while cooking. On battery I can do two things at once usually, but no AC. On shore I can do AC and cook, one or two things but still have to be careful. 

From the factory they incorrectly set the low voltage cutoff of the Xantrex at 11.3 IIRC. By accident I found that out, it’s supposed to be 12.1. At the previous value I could easily run two things at once on battery. At the correct 12.1 I have to be much more careful and run more like 1.5 appliances simultaneously. 

Making it more interesting I’ve got 10 kW off my truck if you can believe that. 7kW off the bed power sockets, and I have a ~3kW dongle which goes off the charge port in a ‘reverse power’ configuration. I think it’s using the onboard Level II AC inverter backwards for that. Anyhow this dongle has a TT-30 socket - they must have done it for the campers, so I can plug the trailer into mobile ‘shore power’. But it’s limited to 25A not 30A, so have to be a bit more careful. Buuuuuuut, if it really mattered, I could also go off the bed power (using an adapter for 240V), or just run the outdoor induction off one of the 120V, or whatever. tl/dr …

 

Edited yesterday at 03:15 PM by DanielBoondock

[Ollie-Haus]

Interesting thread indeed, and it will definitely be interesting to know how Oliver resolves the issue with @Lamar’s cooktop/inverter. It definitely appears that unique design considerations were required with the LE and its more limited power capabilities compared to the LE2 and it’s larger inverter and battery capacity. Depending on the outcome, this experience may initiate design changes for future LE  builds.

Regarding comments by @jd1923 and @DanielBoondock about induction appliances in their Oliver travels, after more than two seasons in our LE2 we definitely prefer induction for all cooking needs. Whether cooking outside or inside, the quickest, cleanest, simplest and in my opinion safest cooking option in an LE2 with large lithium system and 3k inverter is induction. And for us that includes both with utility connections and boondocking disconnected. 
 

Like any electrical system it requires a mind for managing capacity and demand. We actually have two of the induction cooktops @jd1923 mentioned above, and use them simultaneously when needed. The beauty of two separate units is they can be positioned side by side and used like a two burner and not be limited by the settings on the opposite unit. We even have a nice non-stick griddle we place on the dual burner arrangement, with separate controls for each half just like you can on a double burner single unit.

For outside cooking, if we have utilities at the site, one gets plugged into the curbside outlet and the other run off the pedestal via a short 12ga extension cord. My eventual plans are to run a separate circuit from an added breaker in the 120v panel to a plug above the galley to facilitate using both induction units simultaneously without overloading a single circuit, keeping in mind the inverter capacity. Simultaneous use of one hot plate and the hot induction kettle would also become an option. 
 

As mentioned by @DanielBoondock we always must take into consideration any other appliances such as AC, microwave, induction kettle, and the notorious hairdryer!😉 But once you understand the capabilities of the LE2 and its electrical capacities, induction appliances really open up a lot of options. We love the propane system for unlimited and instant hot water and it’s excellent heating capabilities with the furnace, but for us, the convenience of instant and precise cooking with induction is something we’ve learned to love at home, and now very happy to have while traveling. 
 

 

[jd1923]

20 hours ago, jd1923 said:

Everything always on our Victron Multiplus II, no problem. 😎

7 hours ago, DanielBoondock said:

Don’t know what this means, everybody is limited to 30A on shore, and on battery are limited by the inverter and battery. With my stock dual Lithionics 9kWh batteries and the Xantrex 3k I always have to be mindful of power while cooking. On battery I can do two things at once usually, but no AC. On shore I can do AC and cook, one or two things but still have to be careful. 

From the factory they incorrectly set the low voltage cutoff of the Xantrex at 11.3 IIRC. By accident I found that out, it’s supposed to be 12.1. At the previous value I could easily run two things at once on battery. At the correct 12.1 I have to be much more careful and run more like 1.5 appliances simultaneously. 

What I mean is as follows...

We run our appliances on battery/inverter just as we would on shore power. I don't even like to hookup when hookups are available, not pulling out cables and hoses unless truly needed. I'll charge batteries, fill fresh water and dump tanks when leaving a campsite, given we are boondocking next. Often, I do not charge at all since as we drive away we average +40 Ah per hour towing with the Victron Orion 50A DC-DC charger! 😎

Our system can handle running our Chill Cube A/C, plus the induction cooktop at the #10 setting, while watching TV with soundbar, and if I wanted to push the system I could boil water with our 1100W tea kettle! 

Although running ALL of these appliances does add up to 3,000W! The Victron Multiplus II can handle it at default settings. It's rated at 3KVA and can run that in continuous mode. One time, I had our hot water heater running on AC, TV and normal stuff running and forgetting the HWH was heating I turned on the old dog Dometic P2 A/C (TG that beast is gone)! In a few minutes after the Easy Start got done with it's lame on-n-off routine, full power to the compressor, the Victron sounded an alarm!

When I checked the app it was providing over 280A (3400W). But it didn't shut down, it just warned us, and it ran at that level for a few minutes. Looking at the amperage numbers, I remembered I had the HWH on electric (vs. propane). I hit the breaker to turn off the HWH and the Victron alarm stopped sounding. We did not lose our TV streaming, not even a hiccup in Internet connection of any other electrical need. 

Sorry, the Xantrex product will not do this. You can search for keyword 'Xantrex' on this forum to find dozens of posts re Xantrex inverters failing, or at least shutting down, error codes present. Yes, perhaps the default low voltage cutoff is set too high, but that's not all of it.

The Victron MP2 also has the PowerAssist mode where if connected to 15A source, it will use that and add inverted battery power to carry higher loads like an inefficient A/C unit. So consider this. When connected to 30A shore power (3600W) the Victron can pass through that power and add another 3000W for 6600W total. Of course nobody would need that or do that, but you could run 3 of the worse A/C systems, like the Dometic P2 on that power.

We run our Victron inverter 24x7x360! We run 5 Victron devices in the Oliver (MPPT SC, DC-DC, Shunts, etc.) and two more in the truck which can read from the VictronConnect app.

BTW, most of us state battery capacity in Ah units vs KWH. Your batteries are 9KWH (750 Ah)? I thought the max OTT Lithionics installation is 640 Ah. It is standard to use Watts for appliance specs, like the 1800W (150A DC) induction cooktop. I'm always translating into 12VDC Amps since the Victron and Epoch apps show +/- Amps.

[DanielBoondock]

23 minutes ago, jd1923 said:

BTW, most of us state battery capacity in Ah units vs KWH. Your batteries are 9KWH (750 Ah)? I thought the max OTT Lithionics installation is 640 Ah. It is standard to use Watts for appliance specs, like the 1800W (150A DC) induction cooktop. I'm always translating into 12VDC Amps since the Victron and Epoch apps show +/- Amps.

I know - I’m an EV guy so my brain thinks in kWh. I do continue it here since the truck is the main power source off park, so for example “if I’m at 79 SOC (State of Charge) of 220 kWh, then taking 8kWh for the trailer leaves me 169 kWh or 75% of the battery, which is at 1.3 mi/kWh 219 miles which is fine to get back to civilization …

Yeah your right it’s 640 Ah I was misremembering, 7ish or 9ish kWh or something …

[jd1923]

40 minutes ago, DanielBoondock said:

I know - I’m an EV guy so my brain thinks in kWh...

Yeah your right it’s 640 Ah I was misremembering, 7ish or 9ish kWh or something …

You know, I've been worried about RV battery SOC ever since our first in 2018. But the Class A and then the Class C both had generators. I was adamant from day 1 with the Oliver that we would not run a generator. Battery and inverter/charger technology is here! You even got me thinking in a new way that an EV truck can be a proper TV! 😎 (Though no way we could afford one, and the old Dodge now with upgrades including exhaust brake is a joy!)

I pulled out lead acid and a 2KW Xantrex, 2 years ago, and upgraded to the 3KW inverter/charger and 600 Ah LiFePO4. It took me a while to know what I can run and how long the SOC will last. Then last Black Friday we up'd to 900 Ah.

In all our winter travels, I finally stopped worrying and I learned to use 3KW and 900 Ah to the fullest. Chris still worries some. After a week of travel, I remembered seeing 67% SOC and Chris asked could she use the Emeril (replaced the microwave with an air fryer). My reply was 67% of 900 Ah is equal to 100% of 600 Ah! Sure bake all afternoon of you need to! Love it.

Our Chill Cube runs on ridiculous low power, consuming <30% of what the old Dometic pulled, and I estimate <50% of the power requirements of the Truma, Tosot, or any ON/OFF compressor model! This is amazing and sure helps the worry factor.  

We had 450 Ah in LA and that means 225 usable which would be our current battery bank at 25% SOC. I don't worry anymore! 😎 (When under 20% SOC, Victron and Epoch apps will warn us.)

I believe that many of you with 600 - 640 Ah and 3KW inverter should think to worry less. Run your A/C and that Induction cooker, at least one burner! 🤣

Edited 21 hours ago by jd1923

[DanielBoondock]

20 hours ago, jd1923 said:

You know, I've been worried about RV battery SOC ever since our first in 2018. But the Class A and then the Class C both had generators. I was adamant from day 1 with the Oliver that we would not run a generator. Battery and inverter/charger technology is here! You even got me thinking in a new way that an EV truck can be a proper TV! 😎 (Though no way we could afford one, and the old Dodge now with upgrades including exhaust brake is a joy!)

If you like that you gotta try regenerative braking at 0.5 trailer gain! I’ll pull 130 kW silently on the regen and bring you to a full stop, it’s nuts. I have to lower the regen to the moderate level as the high level is too much. Big batter == more regen capability basically. 

Anyhow yeah the first gen trucks like Lightning, CT and Rivian aren’t for towing, but these second gen Sierra + Silverado are pretty hard to beat as a camping companion. Power is the one thing I don’t worry about boondocking. I’ve talked about it before but I haven’t mapped a trip yet that doesn’t have charging close enough for these trucks. 

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Our Chill Cube runs on ridiculous low power, consuming <30% of what the old Dometic pulled, and I estimate <50% of the power requirements of the Truma, Tosot, or any ON/OFF compressor model! This is amazing and sure helps the worry facto

The only vampire I notice is the WIFI (TP-Link travel router), slowly but surely it’ll eat at the battery and heat up the attic, even on Eco. Not a problem with all these kWh really but its’ annoying, I turn it off at night. I wifi hotspot mooching and tether my unlimited plan phone for the family otherwise.