Power Inverters

There are modified sinewave inverters. There is no inverter that is exactly the same as 60 Hz household electricity. They don't put out a true 60Hz but are close enough to run everything but a clock. Most digital clocks use the 60Hz thing to maintain accurate time. Hook one up and watch it lose 10-20 minutes while you sleep.

CPAP's run fine off of modified sinewave inverters like Cobra has. Anything with a motor you want a modified sinewave inverter to prolong brush life.

 

I had a modified sine wave inverter that would not charge my Li-Ion cordless batteries. Once I stepped up to the cleaner pure sine wave it was no longer a problem.

The cheaper inverters you find in truck stops are just about all modified sine wave.

 

I bought a 200A reset-style 12V breaker on eBay for $12.
Put the breaker on the inside wall of the battery box (1 or 2 self tapping screws) maybe 8-12" from your positive terminal.
If you're running a 2500W inverter, you can forget that puny ### 4ga wire though.

 

I wanted to know what drivers think is the best inverter to get ,as i would like to add a microwave to my truck along with my other plug-ins .. Ur Input is appreciated..

 

I am completely confused. I read somewhere that cig lighter fuses are usually set at 10 amps. Let's say that is true and it's 10 amps. 12 volts * 10 amps = 120 watts. So the most you can get out of any cig lighter inverter would be 120 watts? This would mean if you bought a 300 or 400 cig lighter inverter and used it in a cig lighter that is running a 10 amp fuse then you are only going to get 120 watts. Is this true? Is this how it works?

 

Nope.

It'll work as long as whatever is plugged into the inverter doesn't cause you to pull more than 120% of the rated fuse current - they should carry about that much. Above that (and probably close to it) will cause the fuse to blow. Anything that has a high, but short term current draw (something like a laptop disk drive) may blow it well below the rated steady-state current draw as well.

Put a 300W load (say a laptop charger) on an inverter plugged into circuit that's rated for 120W - and that fuse will go right quick. I'd buy a batch of extra fuses if I were you.

 

I think mine had 30 amp fuses in it. Ran an 800w inverter with a high power laptop for over a year without blowing.

 

I have used both 300 and my 1500 in the truck the 300 in the documentation says if plugged into the cig liter that it produces 150 not 300 for the higher power you need to wire it to the battery like I have the 1500.

 

yeah this is what I am getting very confused at. I am reading that the ps3 slim (the one I have) runs at 96 watts. However in the user manual is says for power consumption "approximately 230 watts".

Now I am assuming that the 230 watts is just the peak watts it takes to start up. So basically my situation is I want to be able to run a ps3 and a nice 19 inch lcd hdtv. This is in case of down time waiting on a load or waiting at a dock.

I'm curious if any drivers successfully ran a ps3 through a cig light inverter. If so, would they be so kind to state the make/model of the inverter, the watts the inverter is rated for, and the cig light fuse size.

I don't know how you could fire up a ps3 if it's using 230 watts peak through a cig lighter with a 10 amp fuse that is maxed out at 120 watts.

 

It depends on what the inverter is powering - most laptop power supplies don't need 800W. The fact that an inverter is capable of supplying 800W doesn't mean that's what it's supplying to a given load, and necessarily drawing say 30A from the battery. Without anything plugged into the AC output, an inverter draws very little current... just enough to keep the supervisory circuits running.

That would depend on the product...