Inexpensive inverters with 1 year warranty

There is nothing in the owners manual about the need to leave the inverter on. I like the product--and they did replace it under warranty. However, it would have cost them very little to do dc fans and dc controls.

That's when I used my 1000 watt back up pure sine inverter.

pianotuna wrote:

2oldman wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
I recommend Victron and Outback now.

I really don't know if my Outback gets hot. Guess I'll go check, but I'm thinking since it's 48v I may be a bit safer not pumping hundreds of amps through it, since that's where heat usually comes from. Resistance.

The Magnum is fine. That is until after a heavy load for an hour or two. Then the cooling fans are running, flat out. As soon as the fans, which are 120 volt, no longer receive power from the inverter, they stop. No fans, no cooling. End result extreme heat inside the case.

If they had used dc fans, or dc control circuits to dc fans it would be a superior design.

The unit I have weighs 47 lbs.

But the scorch marks/ cooked inverter happened because you turned it off before it cooled down not realizing the fans would stop not having 120v power. Poor design possibly but I believe it wasn't designed to be used like a light bulb.

I've been using the exact Magnum inverter as you with the only difference is I never have turned it off except 2 times in over 5.5 years and I do pull heavy loads at times for hours, no scorch marks or cooked unit yet. It does throw some heat. ;)

pianotuna wrote:
It doesn't matter much what the voltage is. Watts are watts.

So you're saying it doesn't matter what the amperage is?

2oldman wrote:
I really don't know if my Outback gets hot.

Unless it is 100% efficient it will get warm--and cooling fans will cut in. It doesn't matter much what the voltage is. Watts are watts.

If a 3000 watt inverter is 88% efficient, then there are 360 watts of heat to dissipate when it is running flat out.

2oldman wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
I recommend Victron and Outback now.

I really don't know if my Outback gets hot. Guess I'll go check, but I'm thinking since it's 48v I may be a bit safer not pumping hundreds of amps through it, since that's where heat usually comes from. Resistance.

The Magnum is fine. That is until after a heavy load for an hour or two. Then the cooling fans are running, flat out. As soon as the fans, which are 120 volt, no longer receive power from the inverter, they stop. No fans, no cooling. End result extreme heat inside the case.

If they had used dc fans, or dc control circuits to dc fans it would be a superior design.

The unit I have weighs 47 lbs.

pianotuna wrote:

Michelle.S wrote:
You need to be careful with small cheap Inverters as the voltage produced probably won't be clean (not a sine wave) and can harm sensitive electronics.

There is a place for modified sine wave inverters. Some are even rated to run motors.

Correct you are!

Ones like this industrial brute..



Are designed for use with heavy highly inductive 120V loads and never break a sweat..

TRIPPLITE PV1250

I will put this one up against any cheapo "pure sine" any day and win when it comes to not only starting a fridge compressor but not falling apart in doing so.

Yes, that unit costs MORE than most "pure sines" of that same power level, but it does something that cheap pure sines can't..

From link above..

"
Extended Peak Surge Power

Many tools, appliances and printers require extra power for start-up. Others, such as refrigerators and pumps, have fluctuating power demands. The PV1250FC accommodates these peak surge demands by providing up to 200% more output power than its continuous rating of 1250 watts. In OverPower mode, the PV1250FC can deliver 1875 watts for up to an hour, providing ample reserve power to keep tools and equipment running longer. In DoubleBoost mode, it can deliver 2500 watts for up to 10 seconds to support power-hungry equipment start-ups and motor cycling requirements."


Cheapo PSW or even MSW inverters do not have a surge capability more than MICROSECONDS and often even so much less than that they do not publish that specification.

Something else that irritates me, there is very little "sensitive" electronics.. Especially now days with the advent of switching power supplies. Pretty much every device you own now days uses a switching power supply, they are not "sensitive". Switching power supplies have a very large voltage range often from 100-250V for multirange and are able to easily handle not only 60hz but 50hz systems making them a multi system capable power supply that can be used around the world.

Desktop PCs are a fine example that folks love to claim as "sensitive", they exclusively use switching powers supplies and the first UPS units ever built were exclusively SQUARE WAVE and were meant for the PC industry..

I have used squarewave and MSW UPS units for yrs on PCs, have not had one PC powersupply die a death from being on MSW.. Die from age? Yep, I have wornout a lot of PC power supplies from age, typically 10 or 15 yrs the caps age out and fail.

Stop painting all MSW inverters with a broad brush.. Yes there are junkers out there in MSW, but so is there PSW junkers.

pianotuna wrote:
I recommend Victron and Outback now.

I really don't know if my Outback gets hot. Guess I'll go check, but I'm thinking since it's 48v I may be a bit safer not pumping hundreds of amps through it, since that's where heat usually comes from. Resistance.

2oldman,

There were scorch marks on the wall above the inverter. I'm lucky the whole RV did not catch on fire. I recommend Victron and Outback now.

pianotuna wrote:
So much so that mine caught on fire. Poor design is the cause. The unit is a Magnum hybrid 3000 watt unit.

Can't say I've ever heard of that before.

2oldman,

So do pure sine wave. So much so that mine caught on fire. Poor design is the cause. The unit is a Magnum hybrid 3000 watt unit.

The typical numbers are 88% efficient. So when pushing to 3000 watts 360 watts of heat are being produced. That's about what my coffee pot draws.