Inverter brand

[wyleyrabbit]

I was set to buy a Sunforce pure sine inverter, but then I read a couple of very negative reviews, one of them talking about how much power the unit draws just for itself. I don't recall the number exactly, but it seemed way too high.

I don't need many watts, perhaps 500-ish. Can anyone recommend an inverter?

 

[thomasinnv]

xantrex is one of the better ones. i bought a 1500 watt aims pure sine with transfer switch and charger built in, they just sent me the 4th one in 2 months. this time i decided to have them exchange it for one without the bells and whistles. the transfer switch malfunctioned in two of the units they sent. if i had to do it again, i would spend the extra few hundred dollars and get the xantrex.

 

[wyleyrabbit]

I just looked through my history and found the part that scared me off of the Sunforce:

...it has a high stand by current draw ( 2.15 amps). It will consume 623 watts of power every 24 hrs. just by turning it on. On top of that you have to add what ever you are operating with it, TV, computer etc. So you will need a 120 watt panel and 6 hours of bright sunshine evry day just to cover this consumption.

 

[branson4020]

Also, don't forget that no inverter is 100% efficient and true sine wave inverters are inherently less efficient than MSW inverters. The cheap sine wave inverters can be as llittle as 70% efficient. That means that for every 100 watts you put in, you only get 70 watts out. I have a Xantrex Prosine 1000 and I am very happy with it; +85% efficiency and it has a "sleep mode" where it only consumes about 2 watts when it is idle.