Mppt 250/100 death

So my Victron MPPT 250/100 VE.Can has just thrown Error 80 at me and I'm a bit lost honestly.

Background: I'm on a narrowboat, been running this setup for about 18 months without a peep of trouble. Woke up yesterday morning to find the whole system had basically stopped charging overnight — GX display showing Error 80, which from what I can gather means some kind of internal hardware fault? Possibly a blown internal component?

Few things I've already checked:

• All fusing looks fine
• PV array voltage well within spec
• VE.Can termination resistors seated properly
• Victron Connect shows the unit as basically unresponsive

What I can't figure out is whether this is:

1. Actually dead dead (as in warranty/repair job)
2. Something fixable with a firmware nudge or factory reset

The unit is just outside Victron's 5-year warranty which is incredibly annoying timing. Anyone dealt with a repair through a UK Victron dealer? I'm wondering if Bimble Solar or similar could assess it, or whether it's just a paperweight at this point.

Also — is this a known failure mode on the 250/100 specifically? Seems like a beefy enough unit that I wouldn't expect it to give up so soon, especially on a boat where the loads are fairly modest.

Any experience massively appreciated, feeling a bit stranded (literally, on water 😅).

@BoatLouise Error 80 is an internal fan failure on those units if I recall correctly — is yours actually overheating or just throwing the error without any thermal symptoms? Worth checking whether the fan is physically seized or just the sensor playing up.

Also curious — where is yours mounted? On a narrowboat I'd imagine ventilation could be an issue, especially over summer. Mine's in a fairly confined space and I've been paranoid about exactly this kind of thing happening.

Did you try power cycling it completely? Sometimes these errors can be transient on the Victron kit. If it persists, VictronConnect should give you more detail in the error log — what does the history tab show?

Hey @BoatLouise, sorry to hear this! Just to add to what @RogerJackson is saying — before assuming the worst, it's worth checking whether the fan is physically obstructed or just seized. On some units the fan blades can get gunked up with dust and debris, especially in a boat environment where you've got all sorts floating about.

Try giving the vents a good blow out with compressed air first. Sometimes the fan will spin freely again and the error clears itself on restart.

Also worth checking your VictronConnect app to see if the unit is actually hitting high temperatures or whether it's purely a fan fault being reported without thermal shutdown occurring. That'll tell you a lot about urgency.

If the fan itself has failed completely, Victron authorised service centres can often replace it — doesn't necessarily mean the whole unit is dead.

Hey @BoatLouise, just to add another angle here — on a narrowboat, dust and debris can absolutely clog the fan intake over time, even if the unit looks clean externally. Worth shining a torch into any vents and giving them a gentle blast with compressed air if you can. Also check whether the error is persistent or just appeared once, as a transient Error 80 can sometimes clear itself once temperatures drop. If you're on VE.Can, you should be able to pull up the full history log in VictronConnect and see how often it's triggering — that'll give you a much clearer picture of whether this is an occasional hiccup or a genuine hardware issue before you go down the warranty route.

My shepherd's hut unit threw Error 80 once — turned out the fan bearing had seized, which Victron apparently considers a "critical fault" worthy of a full shutdown rather than just, y'know, running hot and hoping for the best like the rest of us do.

Worth checking whether you're still within the 5-year Victron warranty — 18 months in, you absolutely should be, and they're generally decent about honouring it through your original supplier.