Minimum inverter?

[stickbowjoe]

I've been spoiled by shore power for most of the last 2 years. Just keeping an eye on things on a lovely little 2811 acre ranch in west Texas.

Cool gig, btw, and not hard to find. But that's for another day...

Anyway, I just bought this new Lance 850, had it on the truck 2 weeks, got the bugs worked out, and I'm feeling frisky.

As in boondock fishing frisky. As in 8# redfish from my kayak frisky.

New rig has no generator, though. Will probably cough up the grand for the 2k Honda, but not just yet.

No solar yet either, although that is likely coming as well. Had 90w on my 1010, and it was useful. I'm thinking 140-150w would allow me unlimited boondocking in good weather.

I have grown quite attached to my little coffee grinder and my Waterpic, though. Both 120AC.

I use each every morning, and would purely hate to give them up.

They are the only 120AC devices I require, though.

So...could an inverter supply the power needed to run them every morning?

The coffee grinder runs about 30 seconds, the Waterpic about 90.

I only have one group 27 battery.

Oh, and could an entirely electrically ignorant man like myself install it without electrocuting himself, or frying the camper wiring?

Thanks.

Joe

[joeshmoe]

Joe,

indeed a small 100-200 watt cig. plug-in inverter and a 6' light duty extension cord will serve you fine for what you need at the moment.

You'll definitely want to look into more battery capacity in the future. Preferably a couple 6volts wired in series. They have the advantage of being able to be discharged many, many more times over the 12volt deeps.

[stickbowjoe]

Thanks all!

Yep, the Honda and the 100-150w solar are coming soon; my experience is similar to yours, Wayne.

I only had 90w solar on my 1010, and could go 3 days without firing up the Generac in sunny weather which didn't require climate control. I'm thinking 50% more would be plenty.

I don't do TV, my iphone is my only computer, and I can tolerate a pretty wide range of temperatures, so don't use much power.

But for quick and dirty, to solve the problem at hand, the $25 plug-in Cobra sounds like the ticket, and a handy thing to have in any case.

I see Amazon has it for $25 too. I flat love Amazon.

Again, thanks to all. Helpful bunch of folks here.

Joe

[Reddog1]

I think your solution is very simple. Buy the Honda 2000, and run it when you need it. After buying an inverter ($200), you will discover your battery is too small. After upgrading your battery/ies ($200 - $400), you will discover you must charge them. Then you will discover you need a smart converter/charger ($150) for the battery/ies. Could go with solar (about $800-$1000) which works great with the sun shinning, but will not run your microwave or A/C.

I have an AGM battery, smart charger, solar and a Honda 2000. If I could only have the Honda or solar, I would take the Honda. The biggest Inverter I use is 200 watt, that plugs into a cig socket. The $1000 Honda will do everything you need, and more.

With one 100 AH AGM, and 130 watts of solar, I only need to start my honda to run the microwave or A/C. The solar does everything else, without an inverter over 200 watts.

Wayne

[dadwolf2]

Until you decide if you want to go BIG I would keep it simple for now. By Big I mean another battery, solar/generator, and built in inverter. Here's what you can easily do quickly.

A coffee grinder is ~ 75 watts and our waterpik shows 34 watts. I doubt you'll use both at the same time!! : ) Walmart sells a 400 watt Cobra inverter with cigarette plug for $25 that you can simply plug into one of the 12vdc plugs in your camper. Then just plug your small devices into that.

Sears/Kmart sells a 120 watt travel inverter with built-in USB for $27. Another one is 150 watt with 2 120VAC outlets and 2 USB ports for $30. They are easy to find and pretty cheap.

I wouldn't spend the money for a pure sine wave inverter for a coffee grinder!! But that's just me.

[time2roll]

Cordless WP would probably charge fine on 150w sine wave.

I have and recommend Go Power brand.
http://www.amazon.com/Go-Power-GP-SW150-12-150-Watt-Inverter/dp/B00153EYX0

[2oldman]

stickbowjoe wrote:
I can plug into a 12v receptacle just like a big dog.

If that means big inverters, they do not use 12v receptacles.

[okan-star]

MSW= modified sine wave

[stickbowjoe]

Naturist-

That sounds like the ticket.

I can plug into a 12v receptacle just like a big dog. 🙂

MSW? Is that a brand?

And are they generic, or do brands matter?

Walmart? Radio Shack? Amazon?

Needy, clueless Joe

[okan-star]

Shop for price and dont be shy about having to much inverter
You can get 1000-2000 watt inverters for 200.00
You cant add more power to a small one the day you decide to bring a larger appliance with you
Look at how much power the inverter uses by itself when its on , thats the only draw back to having a 2000 watt vs a 200 watt inverter that I can see, as long as you have battery power to go with it

[RoyB]

Noel and Betty - I havent been over to Westmorleand to camp in awhile now. We are sort of doing a hunkerdown mode since retirement and do see some daylight coming up. Hopefully we will get back in camping mode soon. I heard they lifted the fees for pets.

Westmoreland got hit pretty hard over the past two years from high winds and bad weather. Seems like every wind storm we had last year headed for the park...

I need to wander over that way and check out my favorite spot in the B -Section...

Roy and Carolyn

[naturist]

Neither coffee grinder nor waterpic would need a true sine wave inverter, and I'd think you could find a MSW 400 watt inverter for maybe $35 or so. I have such a device I got for about that amount, and it does fine plugged into the 12 volt cigarette lighter outlet in the TT. I've powered a waterpic myself from it just fine. Such a set up does not drain the house battery enough to worry about, as it's only going to be on for a couple minutes. Where you'd get in trouble would be trying to run your AC or MAKE a pot of coffee off that battery. (Obviously with a much larger inverter.)

[Johno02]

All we are worrying about with our coffee is whether to take our new Kurig in the rig next time we go out. Probably not, as it takes a lot of space, and we have a new drip type in there now. I'm not picky enough about mine to grind beans. I ruin good coffee anyway with sweetner, but have been doing it so long, it doesn't taste right without it.
BTW Royb, now that the pet fee has been lifted, we might be able to come to Westmoreland and visit our daughter there in King George this summer.

[2oldman]

stickbowjoe wrote:
I also have a cordless Waterpic, with charger. The charger also requires 120AC, though. Does this change things?

Hard to find the specs on that. By comparison, my Sonic cordless toothbrush charger is 0.8w. Watts, not amps, unless that's mislabled. I needed a magnifying glass to read it.

[Old_Days]

I would think a 400 watt inverter would run a Waterpic. The one I have will run a 3 amp battery charger with the truck running. PS I love coffee too.