Inverter installation on top battery box?

[Kerschbaumer]

Am looking for a place to install new inverter and best place I can see is on the lid of the battery box. Any reason why I should not install it here?

Instruction say not to install near batter but thinking is this - battery is an AGM battery which I believe is sealed, batter compartment has vent to outside and the lid has a neoprene gasket. The space on top of the lid (and below the seat) is perfect location and has ok vent space into cab of camper. Was going to cut hole in front of cabnet to access the outlets and kill switch. But I admittedly dont know much about these thing and thought to ask the group before I bust out the jigsaw. I wont be running any massive loads - mainly just charging laptops etc.

Thanks in advance

 

[Vic Harder]

re: installing close to the battery... look at all the other electronics parked in basically that same space. Looks like any additional risk -- fi any -- would be minor. YMMV

 

[CreekRob]

AGMs are still lead acid and can still produce the same gases so yeah, they need a vent. Could that gas rise and kaboom off some hot bit on an inverter? unlikely. I'd guess a short would be more likely as long as the AGMs are decent.

The concern I would have is the amount of venting for the inverter. Some generate considerable heat, so you'd want to make sure its fan can exhaust out of the compartment somehow, and maybe pointing it to the side gap would be enough as long as it doesn't get blocked.

 

[Vic Harder]

Another option, router a hole in the cabinet front and mount the inverter so you have access to the plugs and switches from outside the cabinet. The fan is mounted on that surface too it looks like, so the inverter would be able to move air.