Has anyone considered switching from Mastervolt to Victron please? We have our own thoughts on the subject but we are interested in your thoughts.
Pros and Cons?
Many thanks Ann
When I did the specs for BlueJacket², I had specced Victron. However, I was told that KYC hadn’t done much with Victron, and was primarily a MasterVolt shop. As a result, the first drafts of the schematics were a mixture of MasterVolt and Victron. After going to the Annapolis boat show and talking to various people, I decided that I wanted all Victron, and asked them to redesign the system to be all Victron. Why?
- Victron can provide comprehensive overview of what the entire system is doing in terms of feeds and draws. The Cerbo GX provides a comprehensive interface to this that is very intuitive. The equivalent Mastervolt is like comparing DOS to Windows.
- The Cerbo GX allows you to remotely monitor your system very easily
- When I looked at the cost of the systems, the Victron came out less expensive, especially if you’re looking at using Victron batteries
KYC had the Victron rep at the factory last week, and they reviewed the schematic. As a result, we’re simplifying it and reducing the number of components. I think that it’s turning out great.
– Geoff
MV has good support in SA but not so great in europe. I find victron with much better connectivity and integration. In addition, Victron has 5 year warrantee
Victron is a much better product. Do you homework on the different pricing strategies.
Victron is open and transparent with their pricing, whereas the other companies work through their agents in the countries where they are represented. The agents set their local price. There is no uniform price published on the internet where you can do a price comparison. You are also forced to deal with the agent in the country where you are when you need replacement parts.
Thankyou everyone for your feedback.
We have decided to implement with Victron, there are many reasons but the following are key elements:
• Support. We have seen very few Mastervolt engineers as we travel – we tend to sail outside 1st world countries. The skills available in the islands are primarily Victron based.
• Here in Tahiti the marine electricians are much more conversant with Victron. In my opinion Mastervolt needs professionals that really know the system well followed by remote access by the distributor.
• Victron is accessible and maintainable by us. Mastervolt settings are protected by passwords and even field engineers cannot access everything.
• The five year warranty
• Another big one for us is that it separates our networks – we will no longer have the CZone-Mastervolt link. Victron and CZone do not talk.
• We like the separation of the lithium batteries from the BMS – if there is an issue with the Victron BMS you just replace it and do not have to throw away the entire battery.
• Price is a factor – both for the new install and on-going maintenance. The Victron components are about 50% cheaper than Mastervolt equivalents (that includes some redundancy in Victron BMS and Cerbo units).
The parts are on order and we will update in due course to let you all know how the install goes!