Xentrex 3012 Freedom Series Charger, Humming

Alaska Man

So the Xentrex 150A charger started to hum on me. I upgraded the wire from a standard extension chord to 8 ga wire and stuck a 110 three prong plug on the end of it to charge off the Yamaha. I also shortened the wire run from 50' down to about 15'. It's buzzing when charging now. Is this something I should be concerned over?

The only time it ever did it in the past was when I had run a solid 8ga wire from the genny to the Xentrex. Then it would buzz at -30° and colder. It seemed to me at the time because everything was frozen so stiff, like it was just picking up vibrations from the generator transferring it through the wire into charger..

Would upgrading the size of the wire allow the charger to pull that much more AC to cause a buzz?

The local Tech told me to turn down my charge rate. He told me 2,800w genny is too small and those 3012's are meant to run off 6Kw units. I think he's full of it.
The Yamaha run's just fine and throws the 150Amps with no great strain that I can see. I did turn down the charge rate and the buzzing decreased but that's just because the amperage coming in decreased, It's still buzzing, never did before on that old extension chord no matter how much power it was pulling in.

Brlux

Well it has been a while and no one has replied. I am not familiar with your specific inverter but I have never seen a large inverter that didn't make an addable buzzing sound especially when working hard. Does it also buzz when acting as an inverter and being pushed near it's limit? Your new cable sounds like a better , lower resistance connection to the generator. Perhaps this is allowing the inverter to charge at a higher rate. In theory a 2800W should be able to charge 14V at 150A but the inverter probably has a poor power factor and draws power non linearly thus making it still a struggle. I know my SW4048 has this problem only being able to charge about 1600W off my old 2400W Brigs and Stratton engine generator before popping the 20A AC breaker, the engine was also not near full loasd. If the power coming from your generator is being loaded to the point is is no longer a nice sine wave that could defiantly manifest as an audible buzzing sound. Perhaps try borrowing a larger generator and seeing if the sound is reduced with a genny that has more output?

Alaska Man

Thank you for the reply. It only makes the humming when it's pulling power from the genny. Even when I run my table saw off the inverter it is quiet. I do have a bigger generator I could drag over and try.

Thanks again for the info.

Brlux

Is the generator that causes the noise a traditional brushed or brush less gen head. Or is it an inverter generator?

Edit- just saw in your setup description that it was an inverter generator. Have you seen if there is a point at which you can turn down the charge rate and have the noise nearly go away? I noticed you said you turned it down some and the noise reduced.