Inverter recommendations

tv and small items puts you in the 150 to 300 watt zone. This also makes the wiring far easier as you can just tap into the main battery feed on the 12v side and a small transfer switch to connect on the 120v side. No pulling fat wire, just make connections behind your breaker/fuse panel.

2oldman wrote:
There will be plenty of upcoming responses informing you of 50 other ways to make coffee.

You betcha! We use a Melitta drip coffee maker:



Works just like a Mr Coffee, except you heat the water in a tea kettle or pot on the stove, and pour the water through the grinds yourself. Takes a few minutes but is very quiet! $11 at Bed Bath and Beyond, click picture for link.

Back on topic, I have a 150W Samlex PSW inverter on a 15a transfer switch so it powers the outlet string that powers the TV's, etc. Both TVs are 24" LCD, and I have enough power to watch TV/DVD, power a laptop and charge the cell phones at the same time. I was thinking of a larger one like a 600W but all that does is drain the batteries faster...LOL....like you, we also have a pair of 6V GC batteries.

I agree that 2 batteries won't be sufficient for a power hog. Anything that produces heat as its primary purpose, like a space heater or coffee maker needs a LOT of battery to supply it. If you can find a way to get 6 of the batteries in your bank, you will stand a better chance to get the coffee maker to work on an inverter.

When you find the watts of the coffee maker, divide by 10.9 to get the amps you need for the batteries to provide. That is 12v minus 10% for inefficiency in the battery/inverter system. E.G. a 1250 watt space heater would pull about 115 amps from the battery. That is huge. What size wire would you need to safely carry 115 amps? Is yours big enough?

Most folks make do with an old fashioned coffee pot on their propane stove top when not hooked up to a power pedestal.

OK thanks for the heads up on the my limitations with two batters. I don't have room to move to four batteries so will look at downsizing the inverter (300-600W range)and just having the wife wake me with the genny (right under our bed) in the mornings to make coffee:)

We do have a French press so maybe I can convince her to use that in the mornings.

Need to know the exact draw for coffee so you can get just what is needed.
Otherwise I recommend GoPower 2000 watt sine wave but your battery and solar is a bit weak.

ALMOT - I only do it twice a day. 8AM in the morning and around 6PM in the early evening hehe... We all need our coffee fix... My 2KW Honda generator sits secured in the tail gate corner of my covered truck bed. It needs to be exercised a couple times aday right?

Roy Ken

Xantex, Gopower, samlex. You're going to struggle with hi-draw devices like coffee makers with just 2 batteries.

There will be plenty of upcoming responses informing you of 50 other ways to make coffee.

Coffeemaker can be too much pain with your setup.

With nothing else but TV and lights 160W panel is enough to charge your batts by the evening, on a clear summer day. On a cloudy day - depends how cloudy.

Beside inability of your panel to provide enough amp-hours daily, there is a matter of very high current drawn by those kitchen gadgets. Roy is right - with mere 2 batteries it's better not to exceed 70-80A, so with inverter losses this translates to max 900W device. Your batts won't die instantly if you run 120A, but they won't like it either.

For TV/CD alone, no kitchen gadgets - 300W inverter is enough, and 600W is plenty. Get PSW inverter, some electronics don't work well with MSW type.

Running a generator few times a day to make a coffee - well, I won't comment on that.

I suspect your 220AH Dual 6VDC battery setup for 12VDC is not going to like a good 100AMP PLUS DC CURRENT demand even for a short period of time.

I use a 600WATT PSW INVERTER for my home entertainment and other emergency ops items and can live with a 20AMPS power drain off my battery setup for hours...

Most of the time we use around 20AMPS of DC CURRENT DEMAND from 6PM to 11PM and then things drop back to the parasitic 1-2AMPs DC current demand after that.

When we want to brew up some coffee I always pull out the generator and it only takes around 5 minutes of generator run time to grind and brew our fresh made bean coffee brew. This pours up into a thermos server and stays hot for many hours...

In my case we are usually running the generator each day at 8AM in the mornings when allowed to run one to let the on-board converter/charger re-charge our 255AH battery bank to a 90% charge state in a quick three hour generator run time. This is usually the time we make our coffee for the day.

Adding solar would just help me not have to run the generator as much each morning. I would need a pretty large SOLAR array to overcome the initial HIGH DC CURRENT demand when the batteries first see the 14.4VDC bulk charge. After an hour of running the generator I could then revert to SOLAR PANEL to finish my battery charge to at least a 90% charge state before losing HIGH SUN.

In my case I have to start each day living off the batteries with at least a 90% charge state otherwise my batteries won't make it until 8AM the next morning when I am allowed to run my generator here on the East side of the US. Everyone seems to have generator run time restrictions in place here just about everywhere we camp at. Not many DISPERSED places here on the East side of the US like there is out West. When my 255AH Battery bank drops to around 12.0VDC then I have to stop using them until they get re-charged again.

We get by just fine using our 600WATT PSW AIMS Inverter for LED lights and Home Entertainment and emergency items.

Roy Ken

Use the "times 10 rule" That is, if the appliance says it wants 1500 watts, then the inverter will draw 150 amps from the battery to run that appliance.

I use a 1000w PSW Xantrex type inverter to run a "700w" microwave (wants 1050w input) or a toaster or a kettle. Each draws between 90 and 100 amps. The other stuff the inverter does is easy like the television and laptop.