Power Inverters: What's a Good Brand to Buy?

[gv11cc]

I have been doing a lot of research on various brands: Aims, Wagen, Power Bright etc. In reading the reviews, they all have good ones and all have some horror stories as to service and replacement issues. Any suggestions?

[rossboyer]

What size inverter do you think you need or the purpose? If you just want to run a laptop computer, would be one issue; and if you want to power a refrigerator, would another story.

[shields]

In addition to the information requested in the post above, please let us know whether you are looking for an inverter only, or will the unit also be a converter and battery charger? If you can provide further details, it will help everyone offer better suggestions.

Best wishes,

Tim

[desertdeals69]

Of the 3 brands you listed Wagen is probably the best one. I presume you are speaking of one that plugs into a cigarette lighter socket. At the other end of the scale is Xantrex sine wave with 3 stage battery charging.

[gv11cc]

in response to both mrboyer and shield, I'm looking for a minimum of a 2kw unit, charger is not necessary-- already have a 60Amp converter, float charger.

I want to be able to run the coffee maker, micro and TV system. I have considered going up to a 3kw and putting the charging system on as well,

but not sure if the load would out way any advantage.

[gv11cc]

probbibly should have added that I want a hard wired unit,th only ones I can find start at 3kw .I have read that they don't preform well if at a minimum load

[wolfe10]

The other part of the equation is to have a battery bank of sufficient size (expressed in amp-hrs) to "power" the inverter.

Location of the inverter is also critical-- it needs to be as close to the house battery bank as possible, but NOT in the same compartment.

[rossboyer]

On my motor home, I have a 3-kw Xantrex inverter that also has the 3 stage charger. My battery bank is four 6 volt golf cart batteries. Two batteries each in series and then the two sets of series batteries are wired in parallel to have 12 volts at twice the current rating of one battery. The wiring is 4-0 welding cable. I like welding cable because it is very flexible. Do not use house wiring cable. Each conductor within the cable is heavy duty and does not flex well. You can buy custom length cables from Interstate or other battery shops. You can make your own. To make your own the cable is about $4.00/foot for 4-0 welding cable and the connectors vary depending on the type you need and range $10 to $22 each. The cables from Interstate will cost you less. In either case do not make them just long enough. Allow about 6 or 8 inches extra. You may need to replace the cable connectors on the end that connect to the batteries. A 3-KW inverrter will possibly pull 275 amps allowing a 10% loss. So be sure to use 4-0 wire. If you find that you can use a smaller inverter then smaller wire can be used. You will also need a 250 - 300 amp fuse inline on the positive feed to the inverter. These fuses are about $25 plus the mounting/holder. With the exception of the cables and batteries, as Brett said, all other items must be in another bin to prevent accidental explosions.

[gv11cc]

I have 3 maintance free heavy duty deep cycle 95 AH @ 285 total and room for 1 more if if needed. I plan to mount the inverter in a seto perate compartment adjcent to the batteries , 3 foot cables will reach from my research it looks like enough to brew coffee and make toast ,and bacon in the microwave ,seperatly of course.Running the TV alone looks to be about 16 hr .I have concerns about putting my charger in the equasion I know it won't be a prepetual motion machine ,but would the supplement converter be of advantage

[rossboyer]

The only advantage of having a built in charger with the inverter is at least for Xantrex the charger is 3 stage to decrease the charge as the battery gets near full charge and the wiring does not need to be duplicated. A 200 amp fuse should be enough to protect, but I would have to check a chart for the correct size wire.

[desertdeals69]

I would recommend golf cart batteries because they are a little taller and have more clearance between the bottom of the plates and the case. They seem to perform better over the long haul. I would stick with the 3 stage charger in the inverter. The charger you have would be marginal in output as most with 60 amp output do so only when batteries are low and taper off quite a bit as the batteries come up. It would take a long time to bring the batteries to full charge.

[jimm68]

Ours is a Magnum, 2000 watt MSW with 100 watt 3 stage charger, factory installed. Battery bank is 4 6 volts batteries.

Unit works nice. It doesn't boil the batteries keeps em charged good. Inverter powers most of the outlets in the coach, and can handle the microwave and a hairdryer together, though I tend to freak out when I see the panel show it is pulling 100 amps from the batteries...

[desertdeals69]

I have seen up to 205 amps but I have six golf cart batteries.

[desertdeals69]

The only advantage of having a built in charger with the inverter is at least for Xantrex the charger is 3 stage to decrease the charge as the battery gets near full charge and the wiring does not need to be duplicated. A 200 amp fuse should be enough to protect, but I would have to check a chart for the correct size wire.

I use a T250 amp fuse and 3/0 welding cable 6 feet long on a Xantrex 2000 watt.