bought a dc to ac inverter

[bigdee]

I have been carrying a little 1000 watt generator to remote areas to power some landscaping tools, weed eater,chain saw,pruner,leaf blower and hedge trimmer. Never really thought about an alternative power source until I ran across this 1200 watt inverter for only 41 bucks. So much better than toting that smelly generator in the back of my SUV! It has 2400 watt peak power so it starts my tools just fine plus that generator was getting a bit heavy for this old man.

 

[fhhuber]

They work... but they drain batteries fast.

 

[bruceb58]

I have an inverter I carry in my truck that I use for charging my MTB light batteries. It's not a true sinewave model so I wouldn't use it on anything that is sensitive to using a modified sinewave. Anything that has a micocontroller in it is usually a no no with the cheap inverters. This includes some power tools that have variable speed controllers in them.

And like Fhhuber said, if you are using just half the capacity of that inverter, you will drawing over 45A so your battery will get discharged fast.

 

[fhhuber]

Yep... 4 amps of AC = 45 to 60 (depending on inverter efficiency) amps demand from the battery.

You can smoke a very fat wire by demanding that inverter's max rating.

 

[bigdee]

They work... but they drain batteries fast.

The way I use it that is not an issue. I ran it several hours on my refrigerator (just as a test) before it shutdown and sounded the low battery voltage alarm. There was still plenty of reserve in the battery to start the car. But using it out in the wild running my tools shouldn't be a problem....I can leave the engine running if I have to. I have a 165 amp alternator so I would think the charge rate should stay ahead of it. Also powers a boombox/cd player just fine....won't work on am because of noise but fm is fine. Have to have music to work by.

 

[gm280]

bigdee, like previously stated, be careful what you use with that converter. Ulless you know for certain is is out-puting 115VAC 60Hz, things can get iffy real quick. JMHO

 

[bigdee]

bigdee, like previously stated, be careful what you use with that converter. Ulless you know for certain is is out-puting 115VAC 60Hz, things can get iffy real quick. JMHO

Modified sine wave, 114 volts at 61.5 hz with fluke scope. Looks pretty decent with and without load. This was an ebay auction item.

 

[Sprig]

My truck came New with a built in inverter. I don't use it that much but when I do it's quite handy. Since I don't use it that much I just leave the truck running, never a problem with draining the battery.

 

[MTboatguy]

I picked up a 5000 Watt sine wave off ebay from a Chinese seller last summer for the Motor Home and I am surprised, it is a nice unit, took about a month to get here, but got it wired in and it runs the TV, Dish, Computers, Kindles without a glitch, I run the generator for a couple of hours during the day to bring the batts back up and it goes all evening, one of the best investments I have made for dry camping.