Inverters

or get a 1800w unit like Eric has

Hi Squizzy would $305 for a 500w pure sine wave power tech be a good price. What did you pay for your's?

Hi, Jacar cat price 2004 is $329 ... still a good price for pure sine wave ? ?

GeeTee

$305 is a good price.
You can generally say $1 per watt when talking pure sine wave.

Buy it while at that price.

Geoff

hee heee. Ive foudn out a mate runs a jaycar in melb here :)

$220 for the 500w pure sinewave unit...

Hi Truckster, Tootled off to Jaycar yesterday and paid $329 for the 500W Powertech. Looks the goods. Check out the size of the supplied battery cables ! ! Your price sounds pretty good to me ! I have a mod. sine wave 300W unit but will use that for non important items.

GeeTee

Yea pretty much get their buy price :) or so Im told, waiting to have some spare coin, and I'll test out his price...

Hi David, Interested in your post re the 500W powertech inverter (pure sine wave) running your washing machine. Is the inverter cat MI-5085 from Jaycar and is your machine a Lemair ? I guess a normal 90 - 100 AH battery would suffice.

GeeTee

GeeTee yes, my washing machine is a Lemair - and have had it running on a 300w inverter. They take less than 300w - around 280w on spin if my memory serves me correctly and 255w washing.
Around 30.0 amps from a 100aH battery is a tad ouch. The rating on a 100Ah is preferably to keep it around 20 amps or 20% of capacity for battery longevity. I do run mine from the 100Ah battery, but I do have 300w of solar going into the battery while the washing machine is on.
Check your battery specifications and see what they recommend.

A modified sine wave is a sawtooth style square wave and only 'approximates' mains power. Pure sine wave is like you get out of your power outlets at home.

Some devices will not run at all from modified sine wave.

Some power supplies and in particular switching (no transformer) power supplies can run hot to very hot to dangeriously hot

Things like electric drills and generally all power tools with a universal style motor will happily run from modified sine wave, heating elements, incandescent light bulbs.

For example my Makita battery charger gets dangerously hot, and my Remington razor charger will not charge at all modified sine wave.

Generally speaking things like laptop power supplies, video and camera battery chargers, satellite receivers, video and DVD players, TV etc. are far better off running from PURE sine wave.
The pure sine wave inverters are generally substantially more efficient than the modified sine wave. The little Jaycar (PowerTech) 150w pure sine wave I use is approximately 92% efficient. Most of the modified sine wave are only in the order of 80% to 85% efficient.

Excellent!
Thanks Heaps David I’ll be on my way to Jaycar For a Pure Sine Wave Inverter. your Explanation was Excellent.

Can't remember what mine is Willie but it lives in the same spot. Is a plain and ordinary one that runs the laptop and chargers and the occasional trouble light. Thinking I will have to get a Pure Sine Wave soon too in the camper.