Pure Sine Wave Inverters best quality manufacturers?

[JoeChiOhki]

I'm almost to the point where I need to frame in the spaces for the Inverter and its related breaker box on my Amerigo restoration, and I need to start looking into 400-600 watt Pure Sine wave inverters for the one that's going to go in the camper.

It's been several years since I last researched into the product quality and Ms. Merry's predecessor had a Modified Sine Wave unit from Schumacher when they still made units in US.

I need to narrow down what model I'm going to get so I can get the dimensions and rough in space needed for it so I can design the space that its going to go in and the decorative wooden louvered face that will cover the access, as well as do the final location placement for its breaker box for the same (though that will have a cabinet door for it.)

Ideally ones with a built in remote on-off switch option would be the best, but if the units available use a basic single pole on-off switch, I can do what I did with the Schumacher and wire in a remote switch to the wires going into the existing switch.

[ticki2]

No personal experience but I see Renogy is marketing their own psw inverters , looks like good reviews .

[JoeChiOhki]

DWeikert wrote:

DWeikert wrote:
I use a Xantrex ProWatt 600 and added their remote panel to turn it on or off from the bed.

PS: Xantrex also makes a nice transfer switch which I also use. Not that this couldn't be used with any inverter...

Thank you! That would actually be a rather nice upgrade from the original manual switch I used :).

[JoeChiOhki]

JimK-NY wrote:
Joe, sorry if I sounded critical. I merely want to suggest looking at using an inverter as little as possible and getting the smallest inverter that will work. As I am sure you know, inverters can waste a lot of battery power but it seems that is not an issue for you.

Quite alright :). Generally, the inverter only gets used while we're driving, as I detailed earlier, or in cases where we either don't have shore power or its outside of generator hours to drive small electronics.

The Going Merry currently has two Group 31 Deep Cycles as her main power bank plus a Group 27 that lives under the hood on the truck and is available when the two are mated.

I designed the current setup after having recurrent problems on a trip I took through eastern oregon where I had difficulty keeping the fridge cold because the winds that would race across the open scrub lands would constantly blow the burner out while we drove down the road.

So, I used the guide from forum member MatthewB's write up on a heavy duty charge circuit and redid the whole base 12volt system in Mr. KIT, my original traveling camper so that it had #4 base wiring and a 100 amp lift gate plug that connected the 12volt charge system straight into the camper.

I originally drove this on a 300watt inverter, but the unit was being run close to its max continuous rating in this setup (And I accidentally later fried it when I failed to notice the feed wires had gotten shorted on the camper), so its replacement was the 500 Peak/400 Continuous Schumacher MSW inverter that's still in the old camper today, which ran much cooler because less of its total capacity was being used.

So, the current sizing was simply based around what we'd already been using to have adequate spare capacity on the unit to prolong its longevity and provide the power requirements we had and this time around cleaning up the power because the draw back on the original setup was the power bricks on a lot of stuff on MSW got hot after running for a while due to the bad sinewave.

[DWeikert]

DWeikert wrote:
I use a Xantrex ProWatt 600 and added their remote panel to turn it on or off from the bed.

PS: Xantrex also makes a nice transfer switch which I also use. Not that this couldn't be used with any inverter...

[Kayteg1]

theoldwizard1 wrote:

Kayteg1 wrote:
Funny part, inverter come with factory cables about 2 ft long. They are #8 wire.

I have noticed that also ! You would be better off getting rid of those cables and getting some larger cables. If you think you would ever be close to pulling 4000W that would be be over 300A ! Even a more realistic 3000W would be well over 200A !! For that load, I would want at least a #2 wire .

I did put #2 wires and having 2 batteries in different location, each battery has separate #2 wire.
But I tested the inverter on factory cables and my 3.5HP shopvac.
When I think 3.5 HP rating is bogus, the vacuum run on the inverter just fine, although the inverter display show big voltage drop.
The test done on single battery and just for few seconds.

[time2roll]

My 300 watt GoPower has powered my fridge just fine in transit. I used a transfer switch on the branch circuit needed instead of powering up the entire panel.

https://www.donrowe.com/KISAE-TS15A-Automatic-Transfer-Switch-p/ts15a.htm

I prefer separate components. Easier to bypass and replace when something fails.

[theoldwizard1]

Kayteg1 wrote:
Funny part, inverter come with factory cables about 2 ft long. They are #8 wire.

I have noticed that also ! You would be better off getting rid of those cables and getting some larger cables. If you think you would ever be close to pulling 4000W that would be be over 300A ! Even a more realistic 3000W would be well over 200A !! For that load, I would want at least a #2 wire .

Kayteg1 wrote:
I am also observing inverter/chargers as those would simplify converter and transfer switch setup, but those still keep high prices.

True ! Converter no longer required. They are easier to install and with a built in automatic transfer switch there is nothing to "switch on".

[Kayteg1]

Almost a year ago I bought cheap, pure sine inverter on ebay.
It is rated at 4000W peak and I am using it to power my refrigerator while driving and coffeemaker or ovens whenever I need them.
So far I put ca 100 hr on it and it does the job. Since I have long cables, running oven will trigger alarm after few minutes and that is the moment I have to start the engine for extra power.
So the only benefit of spending more than $96 for higher-end inverter I could see is slightly better efficiency, but then there is no easy way to measure it.
Funny part, inverter come with factory cables about 2 ft long. They are #8 wire.
I am also observing inverter/chargers as those would simplify converter and transfer switch setup, but those still keep high prices.

[JimK-NY]

Joe, sorry if I sounded critical. I merely want to suggest looking at using an inverter as little as possible and getting the smallest inverter that will work. As I am sure you know, inverters can waste a lot of battery power but it seems that is not an issue for you.

[theoldwizard1]

Quick addition to my previous technical discussion.

A 24V inverter should cost significantly less than a 12V inverter because the transformer is smaller, or at least has less copper.

[JoeChiOhki]

JimK-NY wrote:

JoeChiOhki wrote:

JimK-NY wrote:
What are you planning on running with this pure sine wave inverter?

Mostly the same stuff we were running off the Modified, small electronics (TV, roku, laptops, low load stuff) and the 2-way fridge while driving (We have a whole change over circuit that switches a block of outlets between the short power outlet and the inverter circuit.

I fail to see the need. My TV runs on 12volts. I have laptop and cellphone chargers that are 12 volt. My wife's CPAP runs on 12 volt. The refrigerator is 12 volts. About all that remains are camera and flashgun battery chargers and I have a small, cheapie, non-sine wave inverter for charging them.

Your refrigerator may be 12 volts, mine is thermo-mechanical and 40+ years old (Its a 1974 Swedish made electrolux Ammonia Absorption Fridge that uses a flint striker to light the burner), as this is going in a 1975 Camper that I've been restoring. The fridge has no control circuit like new units, and if it blows out, its out. It only has a 110volt electrical element and a gas burner and there's no provision to add a 12volt element.

At this point I'm simply replicating the solution I'd used for about six years in my 1974 KIT that the 1975 Amerigo is replacing and moving the very dependable electrolux into the Amerigo. For optimal cooling, I setup my rig with a lift gate 100amp 12 volt system for the charge circuit and created a two switchable system that allowed me to swap part of the camper (one circuit) between the inverter feed and the shore power feed, which allowed me to drive the 110volt heating element off my 400 watt modified sinewave inverter in the KIT.

Since I had this nice switching circuit, it enabled me to purchase better quality standard electronics, such as the mini-Nas/Plex server, plus the Roku and a decent LED flat screen TV for the bed room (Which gave us a nice tidy and tiny digital movie library for watching when we wanted to chill in bed or for my wife to watch if the area we're driving through doesn't really interest her as she can connect to it wirelessly and stream movies or TV without needing the internet). All of which will be going into the Amerigo as I swap the extra tech from the KIT in.

We use our camper for more than camping, as well. It gets used as a portable dressing room for when we do costume performances at different conventions, and the extra niceties are good for when the camper is parked on the side of a street near a convention center.

[JoeChiOhki]

Thanks everyone, I've narrowed it down to the 700 watt Go Power, the 600 Watt Samlex, and the 600 watt Xantrex. I looked at the 600 watt Bestek Pure, but it looked rather diminutive compared to its competitors, so I'm not sure it would have the same longevity as the other three.

My only dislike is all of the nicer units use GFCI outlets directly on the inverters and GFCIs tend to fail over time. I usually prefer to have the GFCI as an independent component that can be readily replaced if it fails.

All three have remote control switches, with the Samlex one displaying some other info aside from on/off.

They all appear to use the same phone cable type connection for linking the remote switch to the unit, I just need to confirm if the pin out on that phone cable is just stock phone line or something unique to their devices.

As, the cables listed on the remote switches are 15' long and I will need a longer one due to the route the wire will need to take to get from the inverter up into the cabover bedroom wall above the sink (Most of the camper controls are on this wall so that they're easily visible and accessible).

[JimK-NY]

JoeChiOhki wrote:

JimK-NY wrote:
What are you planning on running with this pure sine wave inverter?

Mostly the same stuff we were running off the Modified, small electronics (TV, roku, laptops, low load stuff) and the 2-way fridge while driving (We have a whole change over circuit that switches a block of outlets between the short power outlet and the inverter circuit.

I fail to see the need. My TV runs on 12volts. I have laptop and cellphone chargers that are 12 volt. My wife's CPAP runs on 12 volt. The refrigerator is 12 volts. About all that remains are camera and flashgun battery chargers and I have a small, cheapie, non-sine wave inverter for charging them.

[DWeikert]

I use a Xantrex ProWatt 600 and added their remote panel to turn it on or off from the bed.

Edit: Spelling