Tuesday, January 31, 2023

More inverters to review

 Here are a couple more inverters I can review.

Harbor Freight Jupiter 2000 watt modified sine wave inverter. I highly recommend this inverter. I used one of these for almost a year with zero problems. If you get one and it's a lemon, let me know and I will quit recommending it. 

But the one I got was great. Never let me down a single time. I used it off and on to run a fridge and an upright freezer in my garage. I say off and on. I had to run an extension cord from the inverter thru my living room to the garage. It was a tripping hazard and I couldn't leave it there all the time. Plus my wife wasn't happy with a cord running thru her house.

I became a pure sine wave inverter snob. That's why I quit using the modified sine wave unit. I am now a pureblood, and can't be bothered with the commoners. 

Plus I did a lot of reading and discovered modified sine wave inverters can potentially cause damage to electronics. And I didn't want to have to buy a new fridge and upright freezer. One thing I noticed was the light inside the fridge flickered. Open the door and if you were prone to seizures this might have triggered one.

But, on a sidenote, I used 300 watt and 750 watt modified sine wave inverters to power my laptop computer in my truck for approximately 20 years without issue. I would power up the unit in the am and leave it plugged in to the inverter while just sitting in the seat waiting to be used. Then shut it down when I got done for the day. Did no damage I am aware of. And the laptop I am using now I have used since 2011, originally in the truck writing service reports.

While looking up a picture of the jupiter unit, I saw that jupiter now has a pure sine wave inverter made by Jupiter. I might go get one and try it out.

The next inverter I have for review is made by a company called GoWise.  I have not formed a complete opinion of this unit yet. I am leaning toward throw it away and go get the jupiter puresinewave inverter at the moment. 

This is a model PS2001, 3000 watt pure sine wave inverter. Purchased in August 2021 so it is naturally out of warranty. Used very little because I have been lazy and have not run a circuit into my garage I could dedicate solely to this unit. I decided not to hook this up to my AC breaker panel, because the neutrals for the fridge plug are tied into all of the other neutrals, in the attic. And I am too lazy to climb into the attic and separate them. Looks like I am just plain lazy.

A big thing I do not like about this unit is the display. It has a power display status in bars. Which does not tell me how much power the unit is drawing. The Giandel 4000 watt unit I reviewed has a display which shows battery supply power in volts, and it also will display the power output in watts. Nice. This GoWise unit display in bars is not very useful in my opinion.

But in any event I have been running a short length of led lights from this unit to light my "patio" area. Pulls much less than one watt of power. Then one day the unit shut off on high temperature and the cooling fans run all the time.  It was only about 70 F that day. 

I have periodically turned this unit back on and the cooling fans run continuously even on the coldest days of 32F we have had. Never shut off. Well, I heard them shut off and then immediately restart. The unit supplies good clean 120 vac power at 60Hz, just this little problem.

I emailed the company in Arizona, and got a reply email but I am uncertain if I will continue. I gave them the age and out of warranty status of the unit, and asked for tech support help to troubleshoot the unit, but the first thing they asked for was proof of purchase???

WTF???

So, for the moment, I cannot recommend this unit.



The last unit i will review is the Giandel 1200 watt pure sine wave inverter. I purchased this unit August 7 of 2021 before I purchased the above GoWise unit. My reasoning for purchasing this unit was price. I did not want to spend another 4 to 5 hundred dollars on another inverter. The wifely unit was giving me the old hairy eyeball.

This Giandel 1200 watt unit did not do the job for me at all. I guess it was just plain too small, which i guess is my fault. I had measured the watt draw of the fridge and the freezer when they ran together and I also measured the startup wattage draw of the two when they started together,( I don't remember the wattage draw number, but it was much less than 2400 watts the unit is rated for at surge) and I thought the 1200 watt continuous 2400 watt surge power would work fantastic to power my fridge and upright freezer. 

Boy, was I wrong. The first time I plugged the two units into this inverter, it squealed like a stuck pig and shut off. Subsequent tries had the exact same result. 

So I uninstalled the unit and shipped it back to amazon, and purchased the above green ugly monstrosity.

I cannot recommend this 1200 watt Giandel inverter.



I hope this review has been helpful to you. If you have questions please email me at fredhorn37@gmail.com


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