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 hi everyone uh we've got a fellow question from a boater named mark mark asks jeff should i install switches so i can leave the short power bypass my inverter charger or should i just rely on the auto switch of the victron multi-plus okay without actually having this question be brand specific let's let's recap a little bit uh what inverter chargers do inverter chargers um many of them especially the more expensive one and certainly the ones that are for marine and in this case a multi-plus of course but this applies to magnum and it applies to zantrax it applies to victron or master volt really good inverter chargers on boats have an ability to sense ac input on their ac input side and if they sense an ac input what they're going to do is they're going to have a pass through that means that even if your inverter is enabled it's going to let all the ac go through the inverter and go on the output side and that's called an inverter bypass now that means that your inverter cannot really be isolated from the circuit in many installs the inverter is in line on many important circuits on your boat right so these circuits could be galley outlet circuits it could be your cabin outlets it could be your entertainment system and this is where it gets complicated if ever your inverter charger failed in many cases that failure will cause no ac either from shore nor generator to go through an inverter and to power the loads so you're not even asking your inverter to be an inverter but if it fails it often takes down the ac inputs as well which can come from shore or generator and so the question mark asks is well how do i prepare for that and there are ways of installing bypass switches right it's basically an a source selector switch that allows you to isolate your inverter charger meaning to take it out of the equation so that all ac input simply goes directly to your ac loads so of course in that mode your inverter and your charger function cannot work because ac coming in is simply bypass and going directly to the out it's something that we see not every boater is willing to pay to have that feature done on their boat it really depends what type of boater you are the further you go away from service areas the more important this is right some of us go away from service areas places where you can readily have service and some of us are days away weeks away from a place and for example here in the pacific northwest once you leave you know the top end of Vancouver island there are a few towns here and there but you're mostly on your own and so an inverter bypass might be a good way to isolate a failed inverter charger now the decision to do that really depends also on is my inverter charger relatively new is it relatively old how important are my ac loads on my boat do i absolutely need ac loads i.e. for example is your refrigeration running off ac and ac only right all those questions are things to consider and then maybe it's worthwhile for you to install a manual bypass of your inverter charger so that if ever it does fail you simply flip the switch and your inverter and your charger are completely isolated and taken out of the circuit so not crazy we do see it but i'd say here in the pacific northwest we probably see only about  or  percent of the borders going that route most of us have inverter chargers on our boat and most of us don't have a bypass a manual bypass switch so there you go pros and cons of an inverter bypass switch thanks for asking the question mark and i hope this response answers your question and thanks for all of you for tuning in if you're curious we've written whole articles about this go on our website search it out and we've got a lot of other tech talks about this very topic if you haven't subscribed to this channel please do it actually it really does make a difference it encourages us to keep posting so if you're watching this video and haven't had a chance to subscribe we really do care because the more of you that are watching the more of us over here are willing to spend more time in creating content so thanks again