Inverter Recommendations? (1 Viewer)

DesRes

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Apr 21, 2012
260
110
West Lancs
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20,674
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Since 1990 ish...
My 1200W inverter blew up in some spectacular style not long ago, the smell of "electrical death" prevailed for some time...:Eeek:
I'm looking around for a replacement, the biggest regular consumer would be a 700W microwave.
The "Sterling" products look the biz but strike me as a bit pricey for the occasional bowl of nuc'd rice.
Any recommendations for the budget minded?:Smile:
 

JeanLuc

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Nov 17, 2008
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I would stick with Sterling, Victron or Waeco. Ultimately, you get what you pay for.
I suggest that a 700W microwave might be the cause of death of your 1200W inverter. A microwave can draw significantly more than the rated output wattage - up to double - during the start-up surge. Some inverters can handle a significant surge and are rated for continuous, not peak power output. Sterling falls into this category and its inverters can generally handle a transient surge of up to double the rated output. Other cheaper types may be rated at peak output and any surge above this will kill them. Having said this, it is not a good idea to try and run a 700W microwave on any inverter rated at less than 1500W continuous.
 

geo glasgow

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Feb 2, 2014
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Auto-trail cheyenne
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2013
i bought this last week works great

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used microwave u get a monitor as well cant fault it £399.00
depends what your budget is but u need at least 1500w to start up a microwave with no probs ,, thats what i was told,,
i managed to get a small microwave works great as well matsui make .
good luck,:thumb:
 
Apr 27, 2008
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Bear in mind a 700w microwave refers to its power output, not the current drawn which will be much higher. It will be on a plate somewhere on the back or bottom and will probably be close to or exceeding the output of a 1200w inverter. You probably need at least a 1500w continuous with a 3000w peak output
 

Ed Excel

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Nov 27, 2012
870
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Ribble Valley
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Coach built
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Started 2007
You also need to be sure the 700W rating of your microwave relates to the input power not the output power. The input wattage will be substantially more including supplies for a fan, light, turntable, electronics, etc and, as has been said, will surge to an even larger figure on start up.

If you determine the input watts of your MW you can size a suitable inverter (Inverter continuous rating).

Then you need to know the start up load/time of your MW to identify inverter maximum power requirement (inverter peak rating).

One way to avoid the circuit protection operating at start up is to use a coarse protection mcb, say type C or D. The latter is used for motor starting.

Whoops. 4 minutes too slow!

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Techno

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Jul 28, 2010
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Why are you talking about circuit breakers when the microwave will be plugged into the 3 pin socket on the inverter.
The microwave equipment is protected by the fuse in the plug top there isn't a circuit breaker involved
 
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Allanm

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Jun 30, 2013
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We bought a Bestak 1000W inverter from Amazon. It gets very good reviews ( apart from mine because one of the crocodile clips fell apart when I first used it. All new cables now and it seems to do the job well). We don't intend to use the microwave or a hair drier, just to charge up laptops and maybe run a standard Remoska occasionally and a few other things.

Allan
 
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DesRes

DesRes

Free Member
Apr 21, 2012
260
110
West Lancs
Funster No
20,674
MH
C class
Exp
Since 1990 ish...
Many thanks for all the responses and links. Agreed, you get what you pay for.
No complaints concerning the previous inverter. The manfacturer of that was "Moore Power" and we picked it up from a show over ten years ago. It was transferred our previous van and had given good service. Can't remember what we paid for it and lost all the spec details...
For sure I'll go for a higher Wattage on the next purchase.
I'd seen that one on e-bay Pappajohn, the 2000W version is on my shortlist.
The "Sunshine Solar" products look good as well geo glasgow, glad you like yours.::bigsmile:

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colyoung

Free Member
Oct 26, 2007
21
2
Hull
Funster No
713
MH
Coach built
Exp
7 Years
I bought one about a year ago but have never got round to installing it.Seemed a good idea at the time but my wife can't be bothered to use a hair drier since she had her hair cut.Will be putting on eBay shortly and will post a link on here if anyone is interested?it is a silver line 1000 watt.
 

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