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Samlex inverters

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birdhouse:
i've got a 24V prosine 1800 that i bought used on ebay for $500 and LOVE IT! 

it runs anything i plug into it except for my millermatic 135 mig welder...  it will run it, but just not if the dials are cranked to 11.  it also won't run my harbor freight electric log splitter.  but aside from those two items, it handles my pancake air compressor, chop saw, portable table saw, or worm drive circular saw with ease (not at the same time). 

the only funny thing i've noticed about that inverter, is if it goes into shutdown mode, it doesn't like to restart if there are even tiny loads on it. 

the dollars per satisfaction of that inverter blow me away on a regular basis, though i did purchase it before schneider elec purchased xantrex. 

adam

striider:
Howdy Ralph - doing great, thanks.  Lots of improvements up my way on the "Manor", you still gotta swing by sometime.  Had a well drilled, great water, now it's almost septic time for us.

Sounds like I am lucky I have not had to get my Xantrex serviced.  I will step up my efforts looking for a backup though, as I would hate to be broken in the boonies, and back to the dino-fuel gen!

striider:
I know this is an old post, but in the interest of reviewing the product, I thought it may be worth resurrecting.

The 12 volt Xantrex 1800 Prosine started pulling a bunch of power all the time, even with no load on it.  It still produced power, and was not in any fault status, but was eating up my battery.  I thought my battery was going bad, but noticed large arcing (as in heavy current draw) when troubleshooting it.  Didn't think to put a meter in circuit to measure draw until after I replaced it with my backup.  I have not opened it up to see if there are any obvious signs of component failure, and honestly don't know where to start troubleshooting it other than to look for bad capacitors or discolored components.  If anyone has tips in this regard, I am all ears.  No warranty, as I bought it used.

i am now using this one: http://www.safety-devices.com/xp3000.htm  Also an older vintage (manufactured in 2008), but the price was right ($130 on CL) and it has been working for close to a year now flawlessly.  It barely breaks a sweat (fan rarely turns on due to internal heat), even when running a coffee maker or the refrigerator kicks on.  The Prosine fan came on any time a load was introduced, even before heat was generated.  Oh- forgot to mention that the fan stopped coming on, even when under heavier loads towards the end of use I had to go tap it to get the fan to go.  With the 3000, especially when first turned on and cold, my CFL's make a slight buzzing noise since this one is modified sine, but other than that, I have had no other adverse affects on the TV or other devices.

As a side note: How many years of service should I expect from these mobile style inverters?

MadScientist267:
 Strider -  Define "bunch of current"... ?

I recently acquired the same inverter...  There's a sleep mode that's disabled by default whenever the 12V source is disconnected/reconnected. Not sure if this is what you're seeing. And yes, there's quite a "pop" when you first complete the 12V side when the caps inside draw their initial charge.

To enable/disable sleep, turn the inverter on, watch the display, and when it says something to the effect of "power save disabled", turn it off for about 3 seconds, then back on. The display should now say it's enabled when it goes by.

After a few seconds with extremely low or no load, it should enter a sleep state, drawing only a couple of watts. It sends out "feeler pulses" every couple of seconds, and if there's a sufficient load there, it powers up to feed it.

The no-load draw without the sleep mode engaged is in the 20W range (ammeter on the display on mine teeters on the edge between 1 and 2A). In sleep mode its something like 100mA. Also, the at-a-glance giveaway that its snoozing is the backlight for the display turns off (the display itself still has info on it).

As for operating life expectancy, jury is still out on mine and probably will be for a while... It's not quite in service yet, waiting on other things. I've done some basic testing and that's it.

Hope that helps....

Steve

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