Advice on picking a power inverter!

[Jp90Talon]

To sum it up I am looking to pick up a 3000 watt power inverter and really dont know where to start. I have been searching through amazon and there are huge diferences in prices. Is there anything I should be looking at to help decide? Any advice on what brands to look at for around the $300 level?

Thanks in advance.

 

[sctracker]

What do you plan on running off of it? Is space an issue? Also can your alternator put out enough amperage to run an inverter that big?

 

[Northern Explorer]

First of all, make sure you need something that big (power wise). Higher wattage inverters are going to be physically larger and more expensive.

The huge difference in prices that you are seeing probably comes from the pure sine wave inverter being a lot more expensive then a modified sine wave.

In my opinion the output of your alternator come second to the size (amp hours) of the battery bank that you have the inverter hooked up to.

I can only speak from my personal experience. I have had good luck with my Xpower 1750 watt inverter. See post #40 for more information on this. I have it hooked up to a 150 amp hour battery bank which holds up well for a few minutes of high power usage (wife’s hairdryer) and a lot of low power usage.

X power also makes a 3000 watt inverter but it’s a little more expensive than your $300 budget.

 

[dwh]

x2 on do you really need that much inverter.

3000 watts / 12 volts = 250 amps

250a is a huge load. More than a Warn M8000 winch pulling a 2000 lb. load. What are you planning to use that monster for?

Also be aware that cheap inverters are...well, cheap...and possibly outright dangerous:

http://ludens.cl/Electron/chinverter/chinverter.html

 

[Jp90Talon]

Well space isnt all that much a concern. I was hoping to get one that could manage things such as a coffee pot, small microwave, and the occasional power tool on the trail.

 

[Fish]

Well space isnt all that much a concern. I was hoping to get one that could manage things such as a coffee pot, small microwave, and the occasional power tool on the trail.

You might fill out your profile, so that we know what type of vehicle you're going to stick this in. Truck? RV? Trailer? SUV?

Look at the wattage chart on this page. Most of what you want to run is around the 1200 watt range, so unless you intend to run it at the same time you could get a better, smaller inverter for the same amount of cash.

Oops. Forgot to include the link. Wattage chart

 

[dwh]

Well, microwaves are usually rated by the output power of the magnetron (the "cooking power"), rather than by how much power they draw. An "800w" microwave will generally draw at least 1200w. The exception is the WaveCube which the marketing says is a "600w" microwave, but that's how much it draws - it only has a 300w magnetron.

Coffee pot...I actually have no idea how much they draw, I make coffee on the stove.

Power tools...

Most won't draw over 15a of 120v, which is 1800w. However they usually have a pretty hefty surge load needed to start them. Something like a 1500w inverter with a 2500w-3500w surge rating will run most of them. A few, like some Skil saws and chop saws, need a bit more.

Some battery tool chargers will have problems with Modified Square Wave inverters. I have a Ryobi kit, which came originally with 1 charger. The guy I bought it from gave me two regular (120v) chargers and also the one that plugs in the cigar lighter. I suspect he toasted the first charger with a MSW inverter, then bought another one and toasted it before he finally bought the lighter plug charger, but I can't say for sure since he didn't tell me when I bought the kit that the 120v chargers were burnt out...

As far as I know, the newer DeWalts and Milwaukees (and some of the older ones), and all the Makitas ever made will work fine with MSW. You should definitely check into it before you try it.


For the most part, just about everything will work fine on Modified Square Wave, but a few things won't and you usually don't know exactly which things won't until you try them and burn them out...

Some microwaves and washing machines will burn out their control boards on MSW. Motors, like power tools and fans, will work fine, but will usually hum a bit.

Cheap MSW inverters will have a truly square wave, while better quality ones will have a wave that looks like stair steps. The really high quality ones will usually have a bunch of steps. The ones with a bunch of steps are sometimes referred to by the marketing monkeys as "quasi sine wave".

 

[Jp90Talon]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Does Whistler make a deent product?
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004CW90UI/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=A21C4U5X700J66"]Amazon.com: New WHISTLER PRO-2500W Pro 2500-Watt Power Inverter Mountable Thermostat-Controlled Cooling Fan: ADVENTURER'S BAG[/ame]

 

[dwh]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Does Whistler make a deent product?
Amazon.com: New WHISTLER PRO-2500W Pro 2500-Watt Power Inverter Mountable Thermostat-Controlled Cooling Fan: ADVENTURER'S BAG

Dunno. It's almost certain to be Chinese, and possibly made by one factory and marketed with many different brand name decals. If so, quality will be a crapshoot. You might try looking for reviews of other Whistler products as service and support might be very important if the thing doesn't work right.

 

[dzzz]

Don't forget the 0000 cable and large capacity batteries.

 

[keezer37]

I've been running a 1000W Tripplite ($300) for about three years now for my four cup coffee pot (750W) & tool chargers and occasionally the phone and laptop. Don't own an oscope to see how pretty the AC is but so far so good.

http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/product-series.cfm?txtSeriesID=816

 

[Maximus Ram]

More info here


http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28571&highlight=inverter