I'll have a look, Brian. I need some education in this area, too, and I just saw that Steve D'Antonio is giving a free webinar about "Advanced charging system, battery bank, and DC wiring design" on Monday:

http://www.proboat.com/proboat-events-online/

As a service tech for over 35 years I can honestly say the the current products from Xantrex are of such poor quality and problematic that I highly recommend to anyone that wants an honest opinion that they consider several other manufacturers that are still building reliable and quality chargers and inverters. My hands down preference is Victron, and I have no affiliation and I only install the equipment, I don't sell any of it. bstrongs comment that his Prosine has been a pain in the butt makes me wonder why he would replace it with another Xantrex model. Simply renaming something does not make it of better quality.

I'd say buy Victron or Mastervolt instead.

Both have a good range of stuff that is technically very sound.

Their head offices are about 20 km from each other here in the Netherlands. As a result they compete fiercely against each other, resulting in better quality products for the consumer.

Kees

(No relationship to either other than a satisfied customer. Although you could say I am geographically biased, I live in the Netherlands.)

I am now looking at Victron and Mastervolt at 3kva. They seem to be priced around $2500 versus around $1500. for the Xantrex Freedom SW 3000.
Are there design, service availability, warranty, features, and/or observable quality differences that will help make the decision?
Thank you, Brian

Brian, The previous comments should answer your question. There is a very good reason the Xantrex is less money and even at $1500.00 you have to ask yourself if you are will to pay that much for a product with a high probability of failure and will require at least returns for service and the cost that entails. Even though there is a warranty you pay the shipping to get it fixed, and add the down time when you will have nothing. It is like buying safety equipment, you can spend a couple of thousand dollars for a life raft or a few dollars at the tire store for an inner tube but which would be the prudent choice. There are still many cases out there where you do indeed get what you pay for. There are some areas where it might make sense to spend less but you still get less and then there are the times when spending less will cost you much more over the long run. Do a search on the Xantrex products and research, then do the same for Victron or Mastervolt. The answers will quickly appear. Beware of comments on a piece of equipment like, "my so an so widget has worked flawlessly for ten years so what is all of the fuss about?" The equipment from many manufacturers today are unfortunately not what that same manufacturer put out ten years ago or even a few years ago, which is why the continuing testing by folks like Ben is so important to the rest of us.

Cap'n Chuck I respect your perception of company quality differences. Look at what is happening to long respected Toyota's quality reputation right now.
I am actually just requesting 2/3kva product information specifics:
"Are there design, service availability, warranty, features, and/or observable quality differences that will help make the decision?"
Thank you, Brian

Victron is a bit more industrial than Mastervolt. For instance, on the low end chargers (20-30A) they let the fan run all the time. Mastervolt makes them temperature controlled. The Victron design choice makes for a more reliable (simpler) but noisier system.

Mastervolt has the edge if you want an extensive system with many devices, check out their 'masterbus'.

I have no clue on most of your other Q's as those depends on how much support & service you can get locally (in your country).

Find an installer or dealer that you trust.

Based on my own advice I've selected Mastervolt for my next boat -- master shunt & battery monitor, three DC/DC converters, battery charger and inverter. All controlled from a simple graphical display with 1 button & touchscreen.

When I discovered that 100 amps was not enough to quickly recharge my 1400 amp hour battery bank I went shopping for a second inverter/charger. If money was no object, I would have selected Victron based on the thought process that goes into their designs. But I could not afford to start over, so I ended up adding another Xantrex 2500 watt inverter for about $600 (refurbished).

Victron is the only product I know about that allows the inverter do more than just load share on a generator. If the generator reaches it's limit, the Victron inverter will stop charging and switch to generating power in tandem with the generator. They have presented several interesting concepts via testing and white papers on load balancing off-grid.

You can search and find these on the internet - or download a copy from my website at:

http://server.ebaugh.net

Click on the Defever link on the left side of the page. I found them very interesting reading.

I think you are right to be concerned about service and support, but my experience with Xantrex is not stellar, so it would not take much to make an improvement.

Although I have no experience with either, I think the Magnum and Outback brands were started by ex-Xantrex people after Xantrex gobbled up Heart and Trace. I've heard from other cruisers, but not experienced myself that they provide better technical support.

I saw the Freedom SW2000 and SW3000 at the Miami show. Both look the same but completely different from the family of inverter/chargers of Xantrex. I am guessing this to be a new platform design. Don't know much about the reliability of this one, its a fresh product. The SW3000 is more feature rich than the SW2000 and has support for the AGS and SCP. Xantrex makes another product called XW for renewable market, which uses the same AGS and SCP. I am hoping the SW3000 to be well designed using experience of other products. bstrong, for rice/watt, features and tech-support, go with Xantrex. My 2 cents on engineering perspective. Feel the weight of unit.. if its too light its a high-frequency design more prone to failures like the prosine. If the unit feels heavy, its a low-frequency design less prone to failures like the RVGS or XWs.

I will be installing the sw3000 and scp soon and will report.
Brian