Yep, we are "real" newbies, we finally bit the bullet and purchased our first TT. With it, I now find come a ton-o-questions. I fear I will be a frequent visitor to the forums but not much of a contributor. First question: The inverter, are there problems with running "normal" household appliances off the inverter, e.g. my wife attempted to run her hairdryer and although the plug remained "live/hot", (I'm sure there is an electrical term for this), the hairdryer's internal GFI kept tripping, disallowing its use, yet things like the cellphone charger work? I thought the inverter functions exactly like being plugged in at home... No? Second question: The microwave, we were told by the dealer that in order to use the microwave (not the AC) -we primarily boondock- that we should purchase a generator; we did, a Yamaha 2000iS. Although the thing powers up the microwave, it still takes >3 minutes to warm an already half-warmed cup of coffee (think what it would take to cook a TV dinner?) Is this the normal or do we need a second generator.Question three (sorry): We're not too much on perked coffee, has anyone found a small drip coffee maker that works well off an inverter?

When ever you are changing 12v to 120v unless you have a huge battery bank things like hair dryers or toasters or drip coffee pots anything that generates heat from the electricity produced is going to be hard to do. Unless you have a huge battery bank you can pretty much forget anything that produces heat. You can run your TV as long as its not a 48in plasma or something you can run radio or cell phone chargers. but you are always going to have a hard time with items that change the electricity into heat source. Or any appliance that takes a large amount of electricity. Electric heaters are certainly out with a 12v to 120 volt inverter. Your 2000 watt generator should run the Microwave as long as you don't have anything else drawing the power away from the oven. Like a water heater element being run at the same time or an AC running at the same time. Some times water heaters have an electric heating element along with LP you need to make sure the heater is turned to LP. A water heater can draw as much as 30 amps and you don't even know it's on. By the way welcome to the RVing club.

Yea, running the inverter from battery, you would need a lot of battery and a large inverter. As stated, anything that creates heat takes lots of power.As far as the microwave running on generator. As long as both remained on-line, it should have worked fine. Could be something wrong with the microwave taking that long to heat. How does it work plugged into shore power?Since you have the generator, I would recommend using it when running things like the coffee maker or hair dryer as well as microwave. Just not all at once. Pick one......

Oh, I don't know why the hair dryer GFI would be tripping on the inverter. I guess it might be a modified sine wave (MSW) inverter. Some electronics don't like those. Pure Sine Wave (PSW) is much better. But also more expensive.

Thanks for all the input, this really helps...more to follow as we learn the ropes...Thanks again

it would help if you posted info on the inverter, brand/model.many of us that dry camp or boondock, don't use electric coffee makers.i been using a Coleman stovetop drip coffee maker for over 6 years now and still love it.since we camp at Calif. state parks mainly, dry camping is a way of life for us and i refuse to use the generator just to make a cup of coffee.though we haven't boondocked yet, we wouldn't do anything different from dry camping.many other use a French Press. and i just say a French Press style coffee maker for Keurig cups.by the way, we used to live in Ventura County and loved visiting Avila Beach, SLO and Pismo.great place to live.:B

Electrical Questions from a "real" newbie | Good Sam Community

Larryect
Explorer
May 04, 2014
Yea, running the inverter from battery, you would need a lot of battery and a large inverter. As stated, anything that creates heat takes lots of power.

As far as the microwave running on generator. As long as both remained on-line, it should have worked fine. Could be something wrong with the microwave taking that long to heat. How does it work plugged into shore power?

Since you have the generator, I would recommend using it when running things like the coffee maker or hair dryer as well as microwave. Just not all at once. Pick one......
diazr2
Explorer
May 04, 2014
When ever you are changing 12v to 120v unless you have a huge battery bank things like hair dryers or toasters or drip coffee pots anything that generates heat from the electricity produced is going to be hard to do. Unless you have a huge battery bank you can pretty much forget anything that produces heat. You can run your TV as long as its not a 48in plasma or something you can run radio or cell phone chargers. but you are always going to have a hard time with items that change the electricity into heat source. Or any appliance that takes a large amount of electricity. Electric heaters are certainly out with a 12v to 120 volt inverter. Your 2000 watt generator should run the Microwave as long as you don't have anything else drawing the power away from the oven. Like a water heater element being run at the same time or an AC running at the same time. Some times water heaters have an electric heating element along with LP you need to make sure the heater is turned to LP. A water heater can draw as much as 30 amps and you don't even know it's on. By the way welcome to the RVing club.

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