Quality Question about Small Inverters

[SpeakEasy]

I'm shopping for a small, pure sine wave inverter. I'm interested in one that provides about 300 watts. Prices vary wildly, from around $40 to over $150 for a seemingly similar product. I'm not naive. I know you generally get what you pay for. But why this wide range of prices for similar-sounding items? What are the factors that determine quality in a small inverter like the one I'm shopping for?

Thanks,
-Speak

[pianotuna]

Victron Energy Phoenix True Sine Wave Inverter 12/375 120V VE.Direct NEMA 5-15R

$121 but sometimes on sale for $75.

I love mine. It weighs 7 lbs. Can you say "transformer"?

[BFL13]

If your converter shares its breaker with the outlets, then you can't use the breaker to turn off the converter and still have working outlets. That was the case with the 7355 in our 5er, eg.

In that case you have to find another way to turn off the converter. If it is plugged in, unplug it. If it is hardwired, you add a switch to the positive wire going to the breaker. Now you can open the switch to turn the converter off and leave the breaker on for the outlets.

A friend has a Citation 5er, where his 7355 converter is on the same breaker as his TV's outlet, but not the other outlets. So we turned off his converter with the breaker, with his shore cord in his big inverter up front, but then stuck a small inverter into the Winegard's 12v socket, and then plugged the TV into the small inverter.

[Ron3rd]

SpeakEasy,
That Victron should work nicely for your needs, and yes, hard wire it for sure. I have a 300w Samlex psw inverter that I only use it for the TVs in the front and bedroom of our trailer and it's more than enough wattage for that.

As to the 120 v outlet side, what some of us on this forum have done is to run the 120 v wiring to an outlet box outside the trailer and plug your shore cord into the outlet box. This makes all your outlets inside the trailer live. Of course you must turn off all other breakers such as your converter/charger, microwave, etc. I turn off all breakers except my 15a breaker that's for the outlets.

You can also use extension cords, a transfer switch, etc if you like.

[SpeakEasy]

Chum lee wrote:
At 300 watts I would say that how you plan to connect the inverter to the RV electrical is just as important as the inverter that you buy. If you plan on plugging into a dash mounted cigarette lighter type socket, you'll generally find that the wiring to the socket is sizes/fused for 10 amps DC at 12 volts. (it may be more but you should check that) Many RV's have 1 or more auxiliary sockets (provided by the coach builder) that is/are wired for 20 amps at 12 volts DC. If you buy a 300 watt inverter and load it up, it will try to draw up to 25 amps. Even more as the batteries discharge. See the problem? With lots of use at high loads, the socket will eventually overheat.

IMO, at more than 240 watts continuous, it's better to hard wire the inverter directly to the battery posts with terminals or at least use temporary spring loaded compression clamps rather than the cigarette lighter type battery socket if provided with the inverter.

Chum lee

Excellent point. While I was initially only interested in getting a device that could be plugged in to the 12V outlets, I changed my mind after I learned more. I plan to hard-wire this. This one doesn't even come with a cigarette-lighter cord, which seems to me to be a wise decision on the part of Victron, since that method of powering it seems to be less-than-adequate in the first place.

Always more to learn!

-Speak

[Chum_lee]

At 300 watts I would say that how you plan to connect the inverter to the RV electrical is just as important as the inverter that you buy. If you plan on plugging into a dash mounted cigarette lighter type socket, you'll generally find that the wiring to the socket is sizes/fused for 10 amps DC at 12 volts. (it may be more but you should check that) Many RV's have 1 or more auxiliary sockets (provided by the coach builder) that is/are wired for 20 amps at 12 volts DC. If you buy a 300 watt inverter and load it up, it will try to draw up to 25 amps. Even more as the batteries discharge. See the problem? With lots of use at high loads, the socket will eventually overheat.

IMO, at more than 240 watts continuous, it's better to hard wire the inverter directly to the battery posts with terminals or at least use temporary spring loaded compression clamps rather than the cigarette lighter type battery socket if provided with the inverter.

Chum lee

[2oldman]

SpeakEasy wrote:
Yup. I ordered the Victron one.

excellent. You're likely to never have to replace it.

[SpeakEasy]

Yup. I ordered the Victron one. Glad I asked for your opinions, and feeling pretty satisfied that I made the best choice for my needs.

-Speak

[2oldman]

mapguy wrote:
I am in the cry once crowd..

x2.We're only talking about $100 here.

[mapguy]

I am in the cry once crowd. Would look hard at GO Power, Morningstar and Victron in this inverter size class. Victron would probably be my choice. This company is customer focused, innovative, and not excessively expensive.

[theoldwizard1]

Lwiddis wrote:
I’ve been happy with the Bestex brand but I don’t push their rated limits.

Most of the Bestex brand inverters are modified sine wave and the one that are pure sine wave do NOT maintain that sine wave as the load increases.

[BFL13]

Some have plastic casings and some have metal casings that affect their weights, but it is still what is inside that counts.

[SpeakEasy]

Made an interesting discovery as I've been researching this and following suggestions made by you guys. If you look at weight as an indicator of quality...

Bestek 300w......... 1.54 lb ($46)
Giandel 300w.........1.61 lb ($46)
Victron 375w..........6.6lb ($122)
GoPower 300w.......7.7lb. ($146)

So even though the GoPower is the "most expensive," it only costs $19 per pound, as compared to $30 per pound for the Bestek.

I do believe weight correlates with quality in this kind of product. Don't you?

-Speak

[RoyB]

I have the 600W AIMS PSW in my off-road POPUP. It has two 120VAC outlets on it and I run an extension cord to two different locations in my POPUP, This unit is always ON...

Google image

Here is a drawing of my floor plan showing where this is located...


Roy's image

Having these two multi-socket drop cords does just fine for us when camping off grid and not having the regular 120VAC sockets activated...

Having the PURE SINE WAVE model eliminates the possibility of burning something up.. Some items will not run on MODIFIED SIGN WAVE types.

Roy Ken

[SpeakEasy]

dieseltruckdriver wrote:
I bought one of these Victron PSW inverters.

It has a remote switch that I wired to a switch near our tv and have been happy with it.

Interesting. Sort of priced midway between the bottom and the top. I'm looking into this more. They also have a 250 watt model for under $100.

-Speak