600w or 1000/1500w Inverter?

Good to know that some no-name stuff actually works.

You can easily avoid those odd few minutes of generator run, if this is only for microwave. Most common task is meals reheating, and you can use a stove for reheating liquid items like soup, and a double boiler aka Baine Marie for everything else. Top up the battery in the morning, and forget about that stinky contraption for the rest of the day. Though, with only one battery you might have to run a genny for another 30-50 minutes in the evening, to prevent the charge from dropping too much. One battery will be stressed a bit if you run 120V items daily.

Appreciate everybody's helpful inputs! I ended up purchasing the Power Bright APS600-12 600 watt pure sine wave (PSW) inverter a few weeks ago from Amazon. Decided against a larger inverter because I had no need to power larger appliances like a microwave and really didn't want to invest in or maintain a second battery. If I need to use the microwave, I'll just power-up my inverter generator for a few minutes. Anyhow, inverter size aside, thought I'd comment on my experience with this inverter so far.

First off, the APS600-12 seems to be one of the highest rated 300-600 PSW inverters on Amazon. The three areas of concern for most reviewers appear to be reliability, fan noise, and power handling. During the last week or so I've been subjecting this unit to loads at its rated output for extended periods of time. The heat sinks get pretty warm, but zero issues so far. The fan turns on and off consistent with load. Heard a lot of complaints on Amazon about some inverter fans turning on randomly under low or no load conditions. As for the level of fan noise, it's not loud for my tastes, but I'm sure there are some who might find it irritating. Lastly, where this inverter really shines is power handling. The APS600-12 is rated at 600 watts continous and 650 watts for 20 minutes. Amazingly, I'm able to power my small 650 watt coffee maker with this thing! Even more amazing, I'm also able to power a Shop-Vac Hang-Up Mini wet/dry vacuum cleaner which is rated at 6.2 amps (744 watts)!! Pretty darn amazing considering this is an inductive load with high start-up surge current. I even switched the vacuum off and on quickly to try and purposely overload the inverter, but it still hung in there like a champ!

Bottom line, I think this is one heck of a 600 watt PSW inverter for $165-$170.

otrfun wrote:
Definitely get the impression a lower wattage inverter will work just fine for my needs. I do have one 280 watt, black-box device that I may have to use occasionally. So, I've decided to purchase the 600 watt Power Bright PSW inverter just in case I use it, my TV, and laptop at the same time...

...and even if you have to use bedroom-size LCD TV and laptop at the same time - don't know why would I :) - it is still less than 200W. As long as inverter can handle 250W continuous output - not peak output - 250W is all you need. But it should be able to handle 250. Inverter ratings are not to be trusted, I've seen 170W rated going up in smoke when charging a working laptop.

Roy makes a good point though - people often can't control themselves. The recipe to avoid running "one more 120V item" (the proverbial last straw) is not to carry one. You are only there "few days at a time" as you said.

I started out with a 300WATT PSW Inverter and that only lasted about two trips out. You always think of just one more 120VAC item you want to have running when camping off the power grid.

I ended up with a 600WATT AIMS PSW Inverter ($149). This one has remote ON/OFF controls.. This is connected to my battery bank right at the main battery switch locations just inside my trailer in a cabinet compartment. The two 120VAC outputs are heavy duty extension cords that have multi-port outlets on them and one is located at the home entertainment center location and the other extension cord is located near the bed area. These two 120VAC EMERGENCY power locations are "on" all the time even when I am at shore power locations. Provides a great UPS like isolation for my home entertainment center units and of course never misses a beat when the Camp Ground power jumps around...

I use this Battery Monitor Panel when camping off the power grid to tell me when my batteries are approaching their 50% charge state and also monitors the current drain when being used. My battery bank is 255AH capacity using three each standard issue Interstate GP24 12VDC batteries...


When camping off the power grid and running all of the 1120VAC things we want to run from the 600WATT Inverter and all the 12VDC items we want to run from direct connected to the 12VDC batteries I see my biggest battery drain of around 20AMPS DC Current from 8PM to 11PM when we are running the home entertainment items, lights, computer, fans, sometimes Mommabear uses an electric blanket in her lap, outside lights, cell phone chargers, NOAH WX alert radio, motion detector, trailer parasitic draws for monitors etc.., to list a few of the items. The rest of the times during the day and after 11PM the DC current drain is around 1AMP until 8AM the next morning. This is when we re-charge our batteries back up using smart-mode charging technology by running our 2KW generator for three hours. Then we are good for the next day/night run off the batteries. I make my fresh ground bean coffee for the day with the 8AM generator run time.

All of this was planned for using my 255AHs battery reserve capacity which you will need to look at if you are planning on running somewhere around 20AMPs of 12VDC power for four hours or so each night.

Doing this with one 85AH capacity in my case would most definitely NOT WORK... This plan with just a couple of items turned off in my list above would work just fine with two GC2 GOLF CART 6VDC batteries in series (220AHs)... Something to think about....

Alot of folks will just head for the woods and turn it all on and it gets dark on them around 10PM at night. With planning and upgrading a few things in the trailer we have been VERY SUCCESFUL camping off the power grid over the past five years... We don't even think much about it anymore...

This is my OFF-ROAD trailer floorplan layout showing where things are located. I do have a 1500WATT PSW Inverter but very seldom use it. It is mainly for backup and would be used to provide power to all of the 120VAC receptacles around the trailer when being used. I don't have enough battery power to run this unit to more than 250-300watts of power otherwise I will run down my battery bank before 8AM the next morning.


The game plan should be to BE SUCCESSFUL

Roy Ken

Hi,

Add up all the loads you intend to use at the same time. Buy an inverter that is 125% of that wattage.

Dusty R wrote:
So why change 12 volt dc into 120 volt ac, then back to 12 volt dc?

My Toshiba brick is 12.4 volts. I get a beep tone as the battery sags a bit combined with the wire losses. PITN to whip out the portable inverter and brick in the middle of a show. Once was enough and now the inverter is wired in. Battery capacity has not been a concern.

Dusty R wrote:

So why change 12 volt dc into 120 volt ac, then back to 12 volt dc?

Dusty

Because if you have a sat TV box and/or a DVD/Bluray player you're gonna need an inverter anyways. I have two TV's, two sat boxes, a DVD, a Bluray player and a surround sound system and only one 12V receptacle located in a very inconvenient location. Since the 12V plugs are typically 8 amps or less, I'd have to either add extra high amp one's or beef up the existing one and run long 12V wires all over the place. Or I can just add ONE inverter and run it all with wiring all tucked neatly out of sight.

Many of the flat screen TV's have a power pack that plugs into the 120 volt wall receptacle. If you look at the output of that power pack/ wall wart, you will see that it puts out 12 volt dc. If so all you need to do is find a cord that will plug into the tv on one end and the other end will plug into one of your 12 outlets.
So why change 12 volt dc into 120 volt ac, then back to 12 volt dc?

Dusty

Definitely get the impression a lower wattage inverter will work just fine for my needs. I do have one 280 watt, black-box device that I may have to use occasionally. So, I've decided to purchase the 600 watt Power Bright PSW inverter just in case I use it, my TV, and laptop at the same time. If it wasn't for this I'd go for the 300 watt'r.

BFL13, good point about the Sunforce 1000 watt PSW inverter only being able to supply 1000 watts via two (2) 500 watt outlets. That's a deal breaker for me. That's like having two (2) 500 watt inverters---what's the point?

In any case, should be a pretty simple inverter install for me. Just installed a winch with #4 cable in the front of my toy hauler. All I need to do is run about 6-8" of #4 cable from the winch relay to my inverter and I'll be good to go. And, no, I'll never run my winch and inverter at the same time. Kinda hard to watch TV, check email, and winch a jetski at the same time :)

Really appreciate everybody's input!

SunForce 1000w PSW inverter a couple years ago came with two 500w receptacles, so you can't get 1000w on any one receptacle.

Many other brand inverters have it so you can get the full rated watts from one of the receptacles. That is what you want/need.It matters! Confirm with their tech support before buying which way they do that.

Big inverters draw more amps to run the same small load like a TV set than a smaller inverter would to run the same load. However not much diff between 600 and 1000 for that. Be a diff from 300 to 1500 though.

IMO get a 300 now to watch TV, and then wait till you need a big one to run the microwave or whatever. You have no installation requirement with a little one to watch TV. Just stick it in the 12v socket provided in the Winegard panel.