Sine wave inverter prices have dropped!

[mightybooboo]

There are a lot of low priced sine wave inverters,unfortunately they are also pretty bad quality.Horrible record of failures,Samlex for an example,good luck with one of those,I know a lady who had three fail in a row!

BUT Xantrex to the rescue!

Do a search,its possible to get the SW2000 sine wave inverter for 343.00 delivered,ordered online.

Xantrex is known for pretty good products,BUT they are now Chinese manufactured,Im ASSUMING this inverter is too,havent found out that yet.

However,343 dollars for a 2000 watt,1800 watt continuos with a 3000 watt surge,thats an amazing price.

Im going to check if the online site I found has em in stock,most are sold out.

Heres a link for about 349 bucks.
http://www.starmarinedepot.com/Xantrex+Prowatt+SW2000+Inverter.html

the 600 watt goes for 135 dollars,1200 watt surge

the 1000 watt,200 watt surge 233 dollars

the 2000 watt here is 323,dont know shipping cost
http://www.manventureoutpost.com/products/Xantrex-Prowatt-Sw2000-2000W-True-Sinewave-Inverter-%28806%252d1220%29.html

[Oz]

Nice tip and glad you provided some specific info.  Quality vs. price is always a major consideration, so it's very important to know what's a true value and what to avoid.  Thanks!

[mightybooboo]

Interesting.

Im calling around to try to get a Xantrex 2000 watt sine wave inverter for about 350 dollars.Its out of stock everywhere.

Met a guy who was chatty,he said sales have been brisk in all areas of his boating supply company,but they are turning down sales because product,across all lines just plain isnt available.He said his orders have been brisk since March,just no supply on anything!

How about that? Thought that was real interesting that manufacturing across so many industries cant supply product.

Wonder what that means to our sluggish economy and all the possible ramifications?

[ibdilbert01]

That is pretty much what we are seeing constant across the solar and alternative energy market.    Xantrex use to be the leader in quality inverters, both off grid and grid tie.    And good quality sometimes comes with a price.   

Because of a faulty feeling economy, the higher end products are not selling and unfortunately the companies making lower quality inverters are booming because they are cheap.     

Because of the lower demand of high quality costly equipment, the better companies are suffering and are simply not keeping a high number of stock. Now that the economy or at least the market in inverters is starting to turn around, there is a demand and the companies are just now starting to spin up production numbers.   "Out of Stock" or "Back Order" seems to be the current trend until they catch up.

I'm also not sure if we should expect a spike in prices, as there is currently an awful lot of companies trying to squeeze into the alternative energy market and selling their products.    Wouldn't surprise me if Xantrex didn't either reprice some of their products, or come out with an economy line of products to keep the market.

The exact same thing is going on in the solar panel and controller markets, the cheapest of the cheap is selling, and the higher quality Mono or even Polycrystalline panels are not selling as well.

BTW, I have a Xantrex 2kW that was given to me about 12 years ago and its never failed me. 

[gadgetman]

I did some searching and couldn't find any real current post on good inverters, seems Xantrex now built in china may not be the good unit it use to be ?? Just looking for a 1500 to 2000 watt one that I can just plug my power cord into and I would manage the loads from there. Seems like a simple way to do it to me. No transfer switches needed that way. I dont want a built in charger just an inverter. Don't want to spend over 300.00 or so. I would like one that has a remote on/off switch because where it needs to be mounted is remote. Dont want to pay the price for a pure sine wave one either. I would like it to be able to run the microwave.


Any tips form folks that have one ??

[Alaskan Itasca]

I looked at the xantrex but ended up going with the sunforce 11240 1000w inverter since it has a remote to turn it on and off  I read in some reviews it doesn't pull as much of a load as a xantrex, it doesnt have feet on it so mountingnis difficult.


I found it runs my electric fridge and Tv/dvd just fine. It also runs a coffee pot fine, I even ran a chest freezer off of it in July  we had that sucker packed with 30 salmon and 4 halibut. It cannot handle my 800 watt microwave, I think the surge is too much for it. Overall I really like this inverter for what I use it for which is running the fridge and tv while I am driving, and to survive the occational overnight trip dry camping .


I overcame the cons of the  inverter fairly easy. I bought some strapping to use to hold it down and I don't try to run to many things at once with it and everything is great. I'll be dry camping this thursday-monday and the temps at night out there are right at freezing. my plan is to use the inverter at night to run the fridge and my 2k honda generator to charge in the day.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

We have a Coleman, 1500w, 3000w peak inverter, that we've been using for a couple of years now.  Not sure if its sine or not, but it runs the flat screen LCD television just fine, and charges our phones and laptops just fine as well.

What is the advantage of a sine inverter versus a non sine model?  I know the plain old inverters are way cheaper, so what's the scoop with the sine models and why are they more in demand?

Kev

[Alaskan Itasca]

my understanding of the modified sine wave inverters are they produce a square wave which some types of equipment don't like.

The true sine wave inverters make a sine wave pattern which is how the power in your house is which all ac devices like. some people say these work better than the cheap ones.

I'm running a household fridge so I went with a sine wave model so I don't have to worry about hurting my fridge.

[DanD2Soon]

Kevin,

Saw your post in NY 2012 about maybe getting more panels and how you might mount them...

No matter how many you end up with, Don't dream of mounting them any way but flat & solid.  Angled mounts are nothing but an opportunity for loosness and failed hardware - just not worth the trouble when you're moving so much of the time.  Good idea to leave some air/wiring space beneath the panels, but they'll produce just fine installed flat. 

p.s.  Plumbing vents and their caps can be ideal entry points for finding chase spaces and feeding your wiring into & through the RV.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Thanks Dan!  That is what I wanted to know...and it will make it way easier to install.  I'm going to use aluminum angle stock, the 4 inch kind, the whole length of the panels, with rubber washers to absorb road shock, and lock nuts so they can't loosen up.  The angle stock will raise the panels a good 3 inches from the roof for air and wire space, will act as a frame for the panels, and support the weight of the panels across a greater area on the roof.  My roof has a very mild dome to it, so I might have to have a spacer under the rails on the two that will mount side to side.  The other panel will fit front to back.  Alas, I did some roof measurements yesterday, and I can only fit 3 panels, not 4.  And the third panel will require me to relocate my CB antenna, but that's not a big deal.

Kev