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โNov-15-2019 09:21 PM
โNov-15-2019 07:29 PM
doughere wrote:
I have a unit with 1500 watt microwave and would like to be able to use it occasionally when dry camping (10 min or less at a time). I plan to use a 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter. ... Anyone have any experience with this setup?
Thanks,
Doug
โNov-15-2019 05:41 PM
otrfun wrote:crosscheck wrote:Unfortunately, no. Thanks though!
Got any room under the dinette seating? we had 4 AGM batts under the seating in our TC for 5 years. The 4 batts in a square did not take up that much room.
Dave
โNov-13-2019 07:29 AM
crosscheck wrote:Unfortunately, no. Thanks though!
Got any room under the dinette seating? we had 4 AGM batts under the seating in our TC for 5 years. The 4 batts in a square did not take up that much room.
Dave
โNov-13-2019 06:59 AM
doughere wrote:Me too, and I have 3 of them, and I'm sure not starting one up in the morning for coffee. Your idea is fine as long as you have at least 4 gc batteries, and preferably a pure sine inverter.
I have a 2 K Honda; I HATE running generators.
โNov-13-2019 06:03 AM
doughere wrote:You don't say how many or what type of batteries you have, which will make a big difference in the answer to your question. I doubt you will get 10mins of MW use on one 12v battery. Also it depends on how it is wired and the gauge of the wire. I have a 1500 watt MSW inverter with 2 6 volt CG batteries. I can use the microwave when traveling down the road just fine. When stopped I can get several mins of use. 5 mins with the microwave will set off the alarm. After 15 years of dry camping I rarely use the inverter any more. Coffee is made on the stove, refer is run from propane no longer from inverter, small electronics like laptops are charged with a 150 watt plugin inverter. I hate to exercise the genset each month as general maintenance so I look for ways to actually use it with out just wasting gas, so microwave use on rare occasion or electric chain saw for campfires is about the only time it actually gets used, never to just recharge the batteries. I know others have more electrical requirements than myself like TV, radio, etc, so larger battery banks and 2000 watt inverters make sense , but for general dry camping, fishing, hiking enjoying nature without electronics I think a large inverter is not necessary. At least that is my experience.
I have a unit with 1500 watt microwave and would like to be able to use it occasionally when dry camping (10 min or less at a time). I plan to use a 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter. Also plan using it on a 900 watt coffee maker (about 15 min a pot). Anyone have any experience with this setup?
Thanks,
Doug
โNov-12-2019 08:22 PM
ktmrfs wrote:doughere wrote:
I have a unit with 1500 watt microwave and would like to be able to use it occasionally when dry camping (10 min or less at a time). I plan to use a 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter. Also plan using it on a 900 watt coffee maker (about 15 min a pot). Anyone have any experience with this setup?
Thanks,
Doug
run our microwave quite often on an inverter. you will need enough battery and big short cables from battery to inverter.
Now one thing to consider, which we did was to toss the original microwave in the donate pile and buy a panasonic true inverter microwave. It's operation is much different than traditional microwaves. when in partial power mode it doesn't cycle between 0% and 100%, it actually runs at the % set. So.... if you set it to 50% that's what it runs at continually. Ours is a 1500watt microwave and I run it easily on a 1000W inverter if power is set to 50% or less. At 50% power it does NOT take twice as long to heat something, more like 25% longer.
I also have a hotel type keurig that draws 900W and we run it off the 1000W inverter with no problems either.
for this type of draw I'd recomend either 4 GC2s or a bank of 12V. GC2's aren't great for large current draw and have high internal resistance compared to a 12V jar. So with only 2 GC2's your inverter may shut down when batteries are below 75%ish SOC. With 4 GC2's it should work down to 50%. I run 4GC2's, with only 2 it only worked with batteries charged above 75% or so. A few others have had similar experiences.
โNov-12-2019 07:43 PM
bid_time wrote:
The batteries are only half of the equation. What do you do so you can run the coffee maker and microwave the next day? And what about the times when the sun doesn't shine for 4 days? And what is the cost of that side of the equation?
Just buy the generator and be done.
โNov-12-2019 07:17 PM
otrfun wrote:
Takes about 110a (12v) to power our microwave with 2 GC2 batteries using a Xantrex 2000w PSW inverter. We can power the microwave for almost 40 minutes before the batteries are down to 12.2v. Our inverter to battery cable run is almost 13 ft. so we used 4/0 cable. Even at 110 amps we only have a .15v (1.2%) drop.
FWIW, the Xantrex low-voltage alarm activates when the load voltage drops below approx. 11.3v. We've had it down to almost 11.0v (with a 110a load) without it shutting down. Output voltage was down to 109vac at that point. The Xantrex has a very low no-load draw--approx. 700ma.
Pretty pleased with the overall performance of everything. Would love to use 4 GC2's, but no room for 'em in our truck camper.
โNov-12-2019 05:48 PM
bid_time wrote:I have a 700 watt Ryobi propane generator for circumstances of several days of no sun or some other near fatal situation. Only puts 40 amps into the battery, not going to run the MW direct.
The batteries are only half of the equation. What do you do so you can run the coffee maker and microwave the next day? And what about the times when the sun doesn't shine for 4 days? And what is the cost of that side of the equation?
Just buy the generator and be done.
โNov-12-2019 05:42 PM