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I just bought a Ampeak 1200 Watt Pure sign wave inverter for $71 with a digital display. Who thinks it will be good or junk?

Technologist

Technologist

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UPDATE: The 50% off coupon has expired.

Who thinks it will be good or junk? Also if posting price discounts like this is a problem with site rules let me know. I have nothing to do with the product.

Amazon Prime shipped so if it’s junk I can return it. Coupons still availabe now if someone else want’s to gamble. I really wish it had 1500 Watts instead of 1200W so it could run full sized inverter microwave.

Zero reviews but the other Ampeak inverters on Amazon seem to have good reviews.
Amazon has it priced at $151 but with all the discounts it comes to $71.19 shipped if you have Amazon Prime.

The PCB looks like a good layout but it only weighs 1.48 Kilograms and is pretty tiny. 9.6 x 5.9 x 3 inches.
Supplied power leads look very thin! Nice built in display. Pure sine wave.

Amazon Product link https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09SZCWM8R $20 coupon at Amazon
MyVipon Discount link. Claims it’s only $58.90 but it ends up as $71.19 You can sign up for free. They discount on that site hoping that you will write a product review but never check.
https://www.myvipon.com/product/9464372-Ampeak-1200W-Pure-Sine-Wave-Power-amazon-coupons?

It should arrive tomorrow for me to test out. I have smaller and larger inverters. Just thought this might be worth the gamble.
Screen Shot 2022-06-18 at 9.18.03 AM.png
 
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To CamelCase, What do you think about this? $1399 -50% = $699. I didn’t order it yet.

Seems cheaper than any other 1500W power stations by a few hundred dollars. The specs seem to be wrong on the charging input. I’m trying to find the manual. The only thing that bothers me is the recharge speed. It claims 600W from the Anderson ports but other specs mention 30V max open circuit and 13A so the best you would get is 390 Watts. With solar more like 17v x 13 = 221 Watts as a 24 volt solar cells Open-circuit voltage (Voc): 40-44 Volts DC making the voltage too high so you would be stuck with 12V panels that usually have a max output at 17V x 13A = 221 watts unless it can handle more amps. Then again another image says 140W input max. That would take forever to charge. I’m hoping the 600W input is image is accurate. Both the 500 and 800W versions I bought have really good MPPT controllers built in and perform well.
612jyIybtQL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

BULLBAT Adventurer 1500W Portable Power Station, 1226Wh Capacity​


I own both the Bullbat 500 Watt and 800 Watt versions for several months now and like them.

Also the 500W, 504Wh version is also 50% off in the link.
 
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Sorry, you're asking the wrong guy for sure, Technologist. I've got zero experience with solar generators. I generally avoid off brand stuff like that unless it has a ton of positive reviews. At least for bigger ticket items.
 
Alrighty, my Ampeak 1200w inverter arrived. It's great except for one thing, it's noisy as hell. Loud fans kick on full speed even a low wattage under 100w.

I'm thinking there is a thermal calibration issue because the display shows over 100F even when cold turned on in a 77F room.
 
Missed the original coupon for $71, but a different coupon is back on that MyVipon site so total is $87 before tax. Tempted to give it a try...
 
SolarKwijibo said:
Missed the original coupon for $71, but a different coupon is back on that MyVipon site so total is $87 before tax. Tempted to give it a try...
Click to expand...

Mine has a constant loud fan, I ordered a replacement from amazon to give it one more try.
 
Mine is a great deal for the $71 discounted price I paid. It looks like the myvipon.com link is up again with a total cost of $86 with the coupon and $20 off.

Here's what I came up with so far. The no load power draw with AC output working but no load is about 10.8 Watts. USB puts out its rated 2.4 Amps measuring 5.09 Volts no problems and the fan stays off using it. I haven't done the efficiency tests yet but it should be just over 90% at full load. I need to get my flukes and oscope to see the waveform.

My fan only turns on if the watts are in the >50-70 Watt range. Under 50 or so Watts it turns off again. The unit build quality is good but the display calibration is off a little. I haven't opened mine up yet to see if there are any adjustments.

The battery Charge % indicator on the display of mine shows WAY too low. Even a Full Lifepo4 at 14 Volts does not show 100% charge. I pushed the unit to 1300 Watts for 30 seconds. I couldn't get it to trip with just a 1500 watt heater as that heater really draws 1380 Watts at 120 volts and at the 108 Volts the inverter was pushing at max load. The heater was drawing around 1150 Watts. I had to add in another >150 or so Watt load and the heater to get it to overload reset. The Wattage out display is lower than real watts out as the voltage INPUT about .2-.3 Volts low under max load and the Voltage shown for the OUTPUT shows lower than it really is by about 3 volts. 1200 Watts shown on the display is closer to 1300 Watts with about 120 Amps draw.

The display not being dead on accurate is not really a big deal for me but it would be nice if I could zero them out. Having an inverter that shows the displayed voltage a little low and the output wattage a little lower than it's really putting out. Is better than the more expensive inverters that don't have any display at all. So far it seems to pass all the advertised specs.



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Technologist said:
Mine is a great deal for the $71 discounted price I paid. It looks like the myvipon.com link is up again with a total cost of $86 with the coupon and $20 off.

Here's what I came up with so far. The no load power draw with AC output working but no load is about 10.8 Watts. USB puts out its rated 2.4 Amps measuring 5.09 Volts no problems and the fan stays off using it. I haven't done the efficiency tests yet but it should be just over 90% at full load. I need to get my flukes and oscope to see the waveform.
Click to expand...

Yes confirmed 10w idle consumption on mine too.

I measured efficiency at about 90%, so that's good too.

Technologist said:
My fan only turns on if the watts are in the >50-70 Watt range. Under 50 or so Watts it turns off again. The unit build quality is good but the display calibration is off a little. I haven't opened mine up yet to see if there are any adjustments.
Click to expand...

Same with mine, fan is cranking at around 70w. This I don't think I can deal with. I was hoping to get into the 100-200w range with minimal fannage.

Technologist said:
The battery Charge % indicator on the display of mine shows WAY too low. Even a Full Lifepo4 at 14 Volts does not show 100% charge. I pushed the unit to 1300 Watts for 30 seconds. I couldn't get it to trip with just a 1500 watt heater as that heater really draws 1380 Watts at 120 volts and at the 108 Volts the inverter was pushing at max load. The heater was drawing around 1150 Watts. I had to add in another >150 or so Watt load and the heater to get it to overload reset. The Wattage out display is lower than real watts out as the voltage INPUT about .2-.3 Volts low under max load and the Voltage shown for the OUTPUT shows lower than it really is by about 3 volts. 1200 Watts shown on the display is closer to 1300 Watts with about 120 Amps draw.

The display not being dead on accurate is not really a big deal for me but it would be nice if I could zero them out. Having an inverter that shows the displayed voltage a little low and the output wattage a little lower than it's really putting out. Is better than the more expensive inverters that don't have any display at all. So far it seems to pass all the advertised specs.
Click to expand...

What does your temp say? Mine was way off, and hence I think the reason the fan is kicking so early.
 
Technologist said:
Mine is a great deal for the $71 discounted price I paid. It looks like the myvipon.com link is up again with a total cost of $86 with the coupon and $20 off.

Here's what I came up with so far. The no load power draw with AC output working but no load is about 10.8 Watts. USB puts out its rated 2.4 Amps measuring 5.09 Volts no problems and the fan stays off using it. I haven't done the efficiency tests yet but it should be just over 90% at full load. I need to get my flukes and oscope to see the waveform.

My fan only turns on if the watts are in the >50-70 Watt range. Under 50 or so Watts it turns off again. The unit build quality is good but the display calibration is off a little. I haven't opened mine up yet to see if there are any adjustments.

The battery Charge % indicator on the display of mine shows WAY too low. Even a Full Lifepo4 at 14 Volts does not show 100% charge. I pushed the unit to 1300 Watts for 30 seconds. I couldn't get it to trip with just a 1500 watt heater as that heater really draws 1380 Watts at 120 volts and at the 108 Volts the inverter was pushing at max load. The heater was drawing around 1150 Watts. I had to add in another >150 or so Watt load and the heater to get it to overload reset. The Wattage out display is lower than real watts out as the voltage INPUT about .2-.3 Volts low under max load and the Voltage shown for the OUTPUT shows lower than it really is by about 3 volts. 1200 Watts shown on the display is closer to 1300 Watts with about 120 Amps draw.

The display not being dead on accurate is not really a big deal for me but it would be nice if I could zero them out. Having an inverter that shows the displayed voltage a little low and the output wattage a little lower than it's really putting out. Is better than the more expensive inverters that don't have any display at all. So far it seems to pass all the advertised specs.



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What are those 2 clamp meters? I'm looking for one for amps of course. I will probably buy a Klein or something
 
73powerstroke said:
What are those 2 clamp meters? I'm looking for one for amps of course. I will probably buy a Klein or something
Click to expand...
The larger clamp meter is low priced for it's features. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08CX6VHWV/ measures AC and DC Amperage up to 1000 Amps.

It also measures inrush currents so you can see the peak Amperage drawn on inductive motors. The peak Amps might be be 3-20 times that of the motors running current. So pure sine wave inverters and LifePO4 batteries with a BMS might have a hard time starting many motors, non inverter air conditioners etc,..

It also has LoZ mode so you can measure ghost voltages like explained here:
 
Technologist said:
The larger clamp meter is low priced for it's features. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08CX6VHWV/ measures AC and DC Amperage up to 1000 Amps.

It also measures inrush currents so you can see the peak Amperage drawn on inductive motors. The peak Amps might be be 3-20 times that of the motors running current. So pure sine wave inverters and LifePO4 batteries with a BMS might have a hard time starting many motors, non inverter air conditioners etc,..

It also has LoZ mode so you can measure ghost voltages like explained here:
Click to expand...
That's nice.. how would it compare to the Klein ones home depots sell?? They only have one that does amps this one
www.homedepot.com

Klein Tools AC/DC Digital Clamp Meter, Auto-Ranging 400 Amp CL390 - The Home Depot

Klein Tools CL390 is an automatically ranging true root mean squared (TRMS) digital clamp meter. It measures AC/DC current and NCVT via the clamp, AC/DC voltage, DC microamps, resistance, continuity, frequency, capacitance, and diodes via test leads, and temperature via a thermocouple probe. It...
www.homedepot.com
 
73powerstroke said:
That's nice.. how would it compare to the Klein ones home depots sell?? They only have one that does amps this one
www.homedepot.com

Klein Tools AC/DC Digital Clamp Meter, Auto-Ranging 400 Amp CL390 - The Home Depot

Klein Tools CL390 is an automatically ranging true root mean squared (TRMS) digital clamp meter. It measures AC/DC current and NCVT via the clamp, AC/DC voltage, DC microamps, resistance, continuity, frequency, capacitance, and diodes via test leads, and temperature via a thermocouple probe. It...
www.homedepot.com
Click to expand...

That Klein doesn't measure DC Amps, only AC, it's not a LoZ meter, it won't do Inrush currents, it's only a 4000 count not 6000. It only measures up to 400A AC not 1000A AC and DC. It's only rated 600V not CAT III 1000V, no work-light and some other stuff missing.
 
Technologist said:
That Klein doesn't measure DC Amps, only AC, it's not a LoZ meter, it won't do Inrush currents, it's only a 4000 count not 6000. It only measures up to 400A AC not 1000A AC and DC. It's only rated 600V not CAT III 1000V, no work-light and some other stuff missing.
Click to expand...
It says it measures dc amps with clamp. Oh wow. Microamps
 
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