Victron Multiplus tripping out when the washing machine spins - anyone else had this?

Had this exact problem last summer in the cabin. Multiplus 2000VA kept dropping out the moment the spin cycle kicked in — that inrush current from the motor is brutal, even on a modest machine.

A few things worth checking:

• Transfer switch sensitivity — the Multiplus can be twitchy about what it considers an overload. Dig into VE.Configure and look at your AC Input Current Limit and the overload trip settings. Mine was set far too conservatively from the factory.
• Battery voltage under load — if your bank sags below the low voltage cutoff during that spike, it'll trip on voltage rather than current. I was blaming the inverter for months before I realised a weak cell was dragging the whole bank down under heavy draw.
• PowerAssist — if you're running shore power or a generator alongside, make sure PowerAssist is actually enabled and configured properly. It exists precisely for these surge moments.

My fix ended up being a combination of adjusting the overload trip delay in VE.Configure and replacing a tired AGM with a proper Fogstar Drift lithium cell. Night and day difference once the battery could actually deliver the amps without wobbling.

What inverter size are you running, and what's your battery setup? A 2000VA is genuinely marginal for a washing machine — some spin motors pull 2000W+ at peak inrush, which gives you essentially zero headroom.

Others had similar grief here before — worth hearing whether this is a settings issue or a capacity issue for your particular setup.

@RustyTinker the spin motor inrush is only half the problem — check your DC side too. If your battery cables are undersized or connections are even slightly resistive, the voltage sag under that surge will hit the Multiplus low-voltage cutoff before the overload protection even gets a chance to respond.

Had this exact scenario in my van build. Swapped to 95mm² cable throughout and the dropouts stopped entirely. Also worth checking the PowerAssist settings in VictronConnect — depending on your AC input configuration, it may not be boosting aggressively enough to cover the spike.

One other thing: what's your battery chemistry? LiFePO4 cells with a BMS that has aggressive overcurrent protection will disconnect under inrush independently of the Multiplus, and it looks identical from the outside.

@CamperGeek makes a solid point about the DC side — I'd add that your BMS is likely the silent culprit here. Most lithium packs (Fogstar Drift included, learned this the hard way) have an overcurrent cutoff that's faster than the Multiplus's own protections. That momentary inrush spike trips the BMS before the inverter even has a chance to negotiate with itself.

Two things that sorted mine:

• Pre-spin delay — some machines let you slow the ramp-up; worth checking your washer's settings
• BMS peak current rating — doesn't matter if your Multiplus is rated 2000VA if your BMS cuts at 80A continuous with minimal surge headroom

What battery chemistry are you running? AGM will sag horribly under inrush but rarely disconnect — lithium BMS behaviour is a completely different beast.

Great thread this. @LDVCamper is onto something with the BMS angle — worth checking your BMS overcurrent threshold if you haven't already, as many are set quite conservatively from the factory.

One thing nobody's mentioned yet: have a look at your Multiplus settings in VEConfigure, specifically the AC input current limit and the dynamic current limiter option. Enabling the dynamic current limiter can make a real difference with motor loads — it tells the inverter to expect sudden demand spikes rather than treating them as faults.

Also worth knowing: Victron's own guidance suggests the 2000VA unit can struggle with washing machines over about 7kg drum capacity during spin. If yours is larger, you might just be asking too much of it regardless of settings. A 3000VA might be the longer-term answer.

Interesting thread — this is exactly why I've been nervous about running a washing machine off my Multiplus 2000VA in the motorhome.

@Cerbo_Fan what BMS threshold would you actually look for? My Fogstar cells are running a Daly BMS and I've genuinely no idea what the overcurrent trip point is set to — is that something configurable or fixed from the factory?

Also wondering whether the transfer switch delay in the Multiplus settings plays any role here? I recall reading somewhere that the AC input sensitivity settings can cause nuisance tripping even when the inverter should cope — is that a separate rabbit hole worth going down, or am I overcomplicating this?

Has anyone actually measured the inrush with a clamp meter to see the real spike? Feels like that's the missing data before throwing solutions at it.