Modified sine wave power inverter ?

And your MW complains loudly about it.

I doubt a curling iron is more than 50w so it obviously has nothing to do with loading the inverter.

If it works on shore power/ gen and not the inverter, blame the MSW inverter. Just because it's a resistive load means nothing, the control system isn't. I wiped out a heating pad, neck massage pillow, electric blanket, and fluorescent light before I replaced the inverter. 3 of those 4 devices are arguably resistive loads or motors, but their control systems are not.

It is technically difficult to explain which device will run properly on MSW inverters. It basically boils down to a device's tolerance to harmonic distortion. Most resistive inductive devices, motors or transformers will run ok albeit somewhat inefficient. I use a 3KW MSW inverter on my trailer to run the microwave, TV's, lights and audio system with not problem.

Curling irons pull very little power. My wife's is only 125 watts. With a load that small the batteries should be more than adequate. Most any size wiring would carry that load as well. I feel certain there is some electronic temperature sensing circuitry that does not like the MSW power.
A pure sine wave inverter will fix that problem. I suspect you would only need a 300 or so watt PSW inverter to run a curling iron.

caysea7254 wrote:
we have 2, 12 volt batteries wired in parallel that produce 168 amp hrs and were fully charged. Wire size is correct for application. Thinking we need to go with Psw instead of msw. ok thanks everyone for responses, very appreciated! Tara

Two batteries is very light for 3000w inverter. You should have six or more to drive it anywhere near max power.

Check your wattage on what you run. You may only need 300 to 600 watts for the new sine wave inverter.

CA Traveler wrote:
..ut the controls may not like PSW.

Might be true, but I'm sure you mean MSW. OP needs to verify voltage drop and inverter performance first.

MSW may even destroy the controls.

lynndiwagon wrote:
Highly unlikely it is because of MSW inverter. Resistive load shouldn't care. Good luck.

The heating element is resistive but the controls may not like PSW. That seems consistent with no heat for their unit.

caysea7254 wrote:
we have 2, 12 volt batteries wired in parallel that produce 168 amp hrs

I don't think that's enough. Check your voltage drop. Batteries don't 'produce' 168ah.

lynndiwagon wrote:
Highly unlikely it is because of MSW inverter. Resistive load shouldn't care. Good luck.

x2

Highly unlikely it is because of MSW inverter. Resistive load shouldn't care. Good luck.

we have 2, 12 volt batteries wired in parallel that produce 168 amp hrs and were fully charged. Wire size is correct for application. Thinking we need to go with Psw instead of msw. ok thanks everyone for responses, very appreciated! Tara

Yes SW will run the curling iron. I only recommend SW for this very reason, everything works as designed.