12 volt inverters

I've had a Dick Smith 300W inverter for 3 or 4 years. It has always performed well. They are a square wave unit so have some disadvantages but are a _lot_ cheaper than sine wave units. I would suggest a 300W rather than 150W, more versatile.

Mike Harding

Eric,

I had a DS 150 watter. Near useless. Would not run items at anywhere near 150 watts eg a small vacuum cleaner I have that draws 120 watts would run for about 5 secons before the inverter beeped and switched off.

I ended up with a 600 watt job from K Mart $169 less 15% on a sale day, $144.

Like Mike suggested, far more versatile.

Cheers,

Jim.

Eric

I have a Powertech Pure Sinewave 150W inverter from Jaycar. Cost $290 at the time. On one of my trips it had a meltdown and blew a capacitor. My leccy mate repaired it for $1.30 (cost of capacitor) and it has performed well ever since. I mainly run the laptop or my camp fluoro from it or use it to charge camera batteries.

Eric,

I have a Bushranger,600watt.

This unit is 600watt contiouns and 1200watt surge, with all the protection built in.I have it mounted high on the cargo barrier with 6mm cables going to the second battery. It gets used while I am driving to charge camera batteries, and run the lap top. I have even used it to run a electric drill(500watt) with out any trouble.I have had it now for about 4 years and has not let me own.

Wayne

Eric, in this case I'd say you get what you pay for. The cheap inverters are square wave suitable for drills and coffee blenders. The more expensive sine wave inverters produce power cleaner than the grid and are more suitable for powering sensitive electronics but will also power drills etc. Just be aware of your intended purpose and what you are purchasing.

Eric,

Check out Jaycar's website, you will find an inverter at a good price to suit what you want, I am sure.
They are also good to deal with.

Geoff.

Gday Eric,used to have a D/S 300w jobbie but only lasted less than a year and blew up.Purchased a Power Tech pure sine 300w to replace it and what a great unit it is,highly recomended.From memory it cost about $350.

I own one of these Sinergex Purewatts 300

Picked it up from Battery World and it hasnt let me down wherever ive travelled. Good quality solid unit in my mind.

Cheers,

Glenn.

Eric, Jughead (Cairns) I have the latest Altronics Catalogue and here are the prices of inverters 130w $85.00 laptops
250w $109.00 battery charger portable appliances
350w $129.00 small power tools portable appliances
750w $245.00 for power tools, lighting,small pumps drills and angle grinders
Prices are slashed by 30% prices, sale is on till the 10 Jan2005

you can buy in Cairns from Pentacom 40321710 if you want more information contact me om mobile 0419700603

hi eric,
trust you and the family had a merry xmas & happy new year,did santa forget the inverter. give steve a call im sure he can obtain one the same as you used up the cape (if yours needs are still the same).

cheers rob

Eric,
It really depends on your intended application. Just before Christmas I bought a $79 150w unit from Jaycar to run my son's laptop whilst travelling. It's purpose was so the kids could watch DVD's while we did the long run from Melbourne to Sydney and back.

I estimated that the Laptop would draw about 70 - 80 watt max. (Charging and with the DVD playing) Imagine my surprise and annoyance when after 45 minutes, the inverter started beeping and was too hot to touch.

I double checked every thing and tried again, and the experince was repeated.

Having an electrical bent, I did some tests to find out how much current the unit was drawing and whether the Laptop was "pulling" more than 150w.

With the Laptop, it was 5.2 amps at 12 volt hence 62.4 watt.

I tried a 40 watt light and it was drawing (at 12 Volt) approx 60 watt. No problems, cool to touch, no alarms, not even after 2+ hours.

I took the unit back to Jaycar, after all, it states in the catalogue, that the unit I bought was suitable for Laptops.

I explained the problem, and gentleman behind the counter agreed, and he stated that any devices which use a switch mode power supply, will cause the modified square wave invertors to overheat well below the stated power output. He even suggested that the modified square wave invertor could potentially damage the power supply for the Laptop.

It was suggested that a pure sine wave convertor is the only way to go when using devices with switch mode power supplies. The big disadvantage is the price. The equivalent 150w invertor in pure sinewave was approx $230. Much more than what I wanted to pay.

But to keep the kids happy .........

Hope this helps.
Cheers, Mal58

PS : Jaycar gave me cedit for the invertor I originally bought and reduced the price correspondingly for the new one.