EasySolar 2 toggle switch at the bottom of the unit. All on, off, charger only

Has anyone else had issues with the toggle switch on their EasySolar 2 not behaving as described in the manual?

I've been setting up my shepherd's hut system and was planning to run the unit in charger-only mode during the day when I'm connected to a small generator — basically just topping up my Fogstar lithium bank without the inverter drawing unnecessary power. According to the docs, that's exactly what the three-position toggle on the bottom is for.

Except... it doesn't seem to work that way in practice. When I switch to what should be charger-only, the inverter still appears to be active. I've checked the VictronConnect app and the behaviour doesn't match what the toggle is supposedly telling the unit to do.

A few questions for those who've gone down this road:

• Is this a firmware issue, or is the hardware just not doing what it says on the tin?
• Has anyone found a reliable workaround — perhaps forcing charger-only mode through VRM or directly via VictronConnect?
• Could it be related to the MultiGrid vs MultiPlus firmware variants? I'm never entirely sure which build is loaded on these units out of the box.

It's a bit frustrating given the EasySolar 2 isn't cheap, and for off-grid shepherd's hut use cases, being able to properly isolate the inverter is fairly important — especially when generator runtime costs money.

Would love to hear from anyone who's actually got this working correctly, or whether Victron have acknowledged it as a known issue.

@TQ_Builds the toggle on the EasySolar 2 can be a bit misleading until you get your head around it. Worth noting that the switch positions interact with whatever you've configured in VictronConnect — so if you've set up a scheduled charge or shore power settings, "charger only" won't necessarily behave the way you'd expect straight out of the box.

In my static caravan setup I initially had the same confusion. The key thing is:

• All on = inverter + charger active
• Charger only = inverter disabled, useful when on hookup
• Off = everything off except the unit stays in standby drawing a small parasitic load

Double-check your AC input assistant settings in VictronConnect too — that's often where the real behaviour is actually being controlled rather than the physical switch itself.

Got a shepherds hut setup myself so following this closely.

One thing I'd add — that toggle switch tripped me up badly during my initial commissioning. I had mine stuck in charger only mode for two days wondering why my inverter wasn't responding to anything. Completely missed it.

Worth double-checking your VE.Configure settings aren't conflicting with whatever the physical switch is doing too, because I found the software state and the physical toggle can apparently disagree with each other in confusing ways.

@TQ_Builds what firmware version are you running? There were some quirks in earlier versions from what I've read on the Victron community forums. Might be worth cross-posting there if you're not getting answers — Victron's own support people do occasionally chip in on threads.

Had this exact head-scratcher on my narrowboat when I first wired up the EasySolar 2. The "charger only" position was the one that confused me most — I kept expecting it to behave like a straight passthrough, but there's nuance around how the VE.Bus handles load prioritisation that the manual glosses over completely.

Worth connecting it up to VictronConnect via the built-in Bluetooth and watching what each toggle position actually does in real time rather than trusting the printed labels. Seeing the live data made it click for me immediately.

@TQ_Builds what's your battery setup? On a shepherd's hut I'd imagine you're either on lithium or AGM — the behaviour can feel slightly different depending on what the charger thinks it's talking to, especially if battery type isn't configured properly in the settings first.

Good point from @PeteJames on the narrowboat setup — one thing nobody's mentioned yet is that the toggle position interacts with whatever you've configured in VictronConnect. If you've set an ESS or inverter profile via the app, the physical switch effectively becomes subordinate to those settings in certain modes.

Worth checking your AC-in configuration too. If the grid/shore input isn't properly defined, "charger only" can behave unexpectedly even with the switch in the correct position.

On my van build I had a similar head-scratcher — turned out I'd not set the input current limit correctly, which was causing the unit to drop back to inverter mode seemingly at random, making me think the switch wasn't working.

Pull up VictronConnect and screenshot your current settings — that'd help diagnose whether this is switch-mechanical or configuration-related.

Worth adding to what @PeteJames and @CamperGeek are saying — on my shepherd's hut build I found the toggle position also matters when you're configuring the unit via VictronConnect. If the switch is in the wrong position when you connect, some settings appear greyed out or simply don't stick after you disconnect.

Also double-check your ESS vs standalone configuration in the MPPT settings. The EasySolar 2 essentially bundles a MultiPlus-II and SmartSolar together, so they interact. "Charger only" on the toggle doesn't necessarily override what the inverter side thinks it should be doing if the software isn't aligned.

Quick practical tip: physically label each switch position the moment you commission it. Sounds obvious but you'll thank yourself at 11pm when something trips.

Ran into this on my boat — turns out the switch behaviour also changes depending on whether you've got any custom settings pushed via VE.Configure, so what the manual describes assumes a completely factory-fresh unit with no profile tweaks. If you've been fiddling with the assistant settings in VictronConnect, that can make the "charger only" position do some genuinely unexpected things. Worth doing a full settings reset before you assume the hardware is misbehaving.