Maybe someone can shed some light on this one.

Yesterday the street muni transformer blew (IMHO due to no oil change in 8 years and very hot weather) leaving us with no grid electricity. So after a 6 hours I decided to start the three phase generator (with each phase servicing a specific single phase section of the house) to get the fridge and freezer cold again. The fridge (which is a brand new Bosch KGN36XI32 with power demand of 160W) simply refused to start up on the generator supply. That I could understand as the wave form on the phase is a bit dirty.

So I switched the fridge supply to the standby 400W Victron sine wave inverter with a 2,5mm2 lead. Now the fridge's internal light came on, the touch control panel worked but the compressor did not start. At full load demand the fridge should start up ... not the case. So I pulled a spare 1,5kW Meanwell sine wave inverter out. Now the fridge's internal light works, but the touch control panel only randomly and the compressor refused to start.

OK, my logical deduction is the fridge went with the transformer to electrical heaven. A nice way to start Christmas.

After 12,5 hours a new transformer was installed and grid supply was reinstated. Let me try again I told the Boss, and she just laughed.

Low and behold, plug Mrs Fridge in and there she starts up and purrs away ....

Can anyone shed some light on the reason why the grid supply works, but two pure sine inverters do not?