Inverter recommendations
- Thread starter TimO
- Start date
MisterSandals
Participation Medalist
Victron, Magnum, Samlex come to mind as top tier. Giandel quite good too.
I use a samlex evo inverter zero complaints.
Steve_S
Offgrid Cabineer, N.E. Ontario, Canada
Samlex Booster here ! what else can I say LOL..
See link in my Signature on Samlex.
See link in my Signature on Samlex.
KG6S
ELI the ICE man
Single or dual phase?
Single
Mex Rider
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2019
- Messages
- 290
Hi, I had a Samlex 1000 watt inverter on my boat and never a problem. Was getting ready to order a Samlex 2000 watt inverter for my van and read all the reviews on Amazon (for what they are worth) One guy said he opened his up and the capacitors and mosfets were not top tier quality and said he planned on replacing them (listed makes and models). I don't know whether to believe it or not but for twice the price of say a Xantrex pro 2000 I sure would like to think the components and circuitry are top tier....your thoughts. Also do you think a 2000 watt inverter is big enough to run an 1800 watt portable table saw? Thanks for your thoughts . My system is 200 ah lithium 12 volt
Electric Personality
New Member
- Joined
- May 9, 2020
- Messages
- 143
This should be a sticky, but I say this from experience: MAKE SURE THAT IT IS UL LISTED OR AT LEAST CONFORMS TO THE UL CODE or you will be sorry when it comes to grounding unless you are never planning on tying it to an electrical panel, or RV, etc.
Last edited:
Steve_S
Offgrid Cabineer, N.E. Ontario, Canada
I have been "Inside" my 4024 and there are no crap parts in it. These are made in Taiwan and therefore have mostly components from there and some folks do not think that Taiwan produces quality stuff, which, well, is just biased type stuff. Like everywhere else there are good & bad products and Samlex uses nothing "bad" within from what I could see. The ONE TIME I had a warranty issue, a replacement inverter & remote was sent by air-express without a blink but then again I did the diagnostics and the legwork in advance.
- Victron Multiplus or Phoenix
- Samlex Evo
- Magnum MS
I think with Samlex inverters its important to differentiate between the LF (Samlex Evo) and HF (Samlex PST) models. I've heard a lot of good things about the Evo, I've heard next to nothing good or bad about the PST.
Mex Rider
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2019
- Messages
- 290
Thank you, good to know. Do you know if they buid the 2000 watt in the same facility?
John Frum
Tell me your problems
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2019
- Messages
- 15,233
I have one of these but its early days so I can't say much other than it powered on and ran a 100 watt incandescent bulb without producing smoke.
1500 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter | PST-1500-24 | Samlex America
Industrial Grade 1500W 24V DC-AC Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter. Converts 24VDC to 120VAC. Robust, heavy-duty power for tools, appliances and electronics.
www.samlexamerica.com
Self consumption from memory is ~8 watts.
I don't expect it will power my teleportation pods but it should serve its purpose.
RickP
Solar Power Padawan
I went with a Victron MultiPlus 24/3000, and recommend it. More expensive than many options, but very solidly built with a variety of useful options that I didn’t find elsewhere. Large, somewhat heavy, eminently purpose-built... think Abrams tank.
Samlex makes more than one 2000W inverter, what model do you have?
Mex Rider
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2019
- Messages
- 290
I do not have one but am considering. I really only want an inverter, not a charger, no plans to hookup to shore power. With 20 years living aboard sailboats I kinda have my act together with solar/12 vdc/ minimal inverter driven ac but it seems for a 2000 watt quality inverter my only choice is to pay for a charger as well... which leads me to his question: If I put a female ac receptacle on my rear bumper to run my portable table saw could it be used to feed shore ac to the inverter charger with a short male/female pig tail or does the input to the charger have to be completely different wiring, one direction only?
gnubie
Solar Wizard
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2019
- Messages
- 3,847
Inverter/chargers have separate input and output. The output is not necessarily synchronised with the input. If you attempted to feed power in the output socket, not only would it not work since the unit isn't built that way anyway, it would pretty much instantly go bang.
If the unit is grid tied it will probably have a single connection but that's not your application.
If the unit is grid tied it will probably have a single connection but that's not your application.
Mex Rider
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2019
- Messages
- 290
Kinda what I figured. What I read about the straight 2000 watt inverter, not an Evo is very mixed, some saying capacitors and mosfets not of equal quality to the Evo...Victron's Phoenix line does not go up to 2000 watts. What's a boy to do?
Victron phoenix is a high quality inverter, but only available up to 1200VA continuous, however, the surge is a full 30 seconds at 2200W.
Idle is super low (7W no load draw, 1W no load in eco mode).
Other than that I don't know what other inverter-only high quality options are available (Xantrex and Samlex are the companies that come to mind for mid range HF inverters).
But consider getting an inverter charger even if you wont use shorepower, from what I've heard the reason that all the low frequency inverters (other than the phoenix) are inverter/chargers, is because the cost of adding the charger functionality is minimal compared to the cost of the LF inverter most of the necessary components are already there.
For instance if we hop across the pond where large models of Phoenix are available we can see that the:
Victron Multiplus 3000VA / 12v sells on ebay for: ~$1400 (link)
Victron Phoenix 3000VA / 12v sells on ebay for: ~$1200 (link)
