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Chinese inverters on ebay

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jack11:
ok, so we now know it's the Power Jack brand.

I found some info on the internet, mostly unfavorable.

the efficiency is low 87%, but at least they don't lie about it.

the caps seem to blow up frequently, but that's a problem in general (I've lost a motherboard and a PC power supply due to ruptured caps, in the time frame they had the "capacitor plague").

However, the Power Jack inverters CAN be repaired, as the following youtube video demonstrates (must see):

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1TzSPCvxhI
my conclusion is: JUNK (product quality and customer service), I'll stay away from them.

oztules:
Not sure if I would use that clip as a reference to how good it may/not be. From memory, the boards are computer robot constructed, so they should be fine quality wise, the assembly is fixable, and the caps replaceable.... depends what you want to use it for, how much you like fiddling, how much you want to spend to trade these things off.

Like I said, I like the 50kg (>100lbs) inverters, but they are terribly expensive except for the brand (generic) I bought. Probably no change out of 4000 bucks... so I was prepared to do some work for a 3000 dollar saving. It is a very useful tool now. ( commercial toroids that size can be had from UK and Aust for 700-1000 dollars. From America also, but did not price them there. The transformers weigh about 20kgs... so overseas freight is expensive. (44 lbs).

For intermittent use, maybe the power-jack style would be ok.... depends on your abilities, and threshold of pain with shelling out thousands for something really only worth barely more than what the Chinese are charging.  Expensive ones are not that different, but for the service and backup (supposedly), which is useless over here.... there is no backup. The components are pretty much the same... better caps, .... and what else can they have better?

The silicon remains essentially the same. There are not 5 times better or more components in the expensive ones, and they need service and backup too..... they fail as well apparently.

Like I said, I don't know what to submit as a "buy", but your eyes are open now.



.................oztules

jack11:
I do allow for some honest equipment failures, and I am not afraid to tinker with things to repair or improve, but I also expect due diligence for the manufacturer in constructing/supporting their products.
The multiple videos and written feedback from several unconnected people I've seen show the Power Jack to be EXTREMELY sloppy construction, and no real help from the maker in correcting/replacing the inverters, all bordering on total neglect.
I've not seen as bad inverter reviews as the Power Jack ones.

The one thing I have not seen is any info about their pure sine wave topology they use (full-bridge, NPC, HF transformer, transformerless, how they generate PWM controls, etc).
By knowing the topology they chose for the switching and control functions I could make a judgment on how they compare against the other brands Samlex, GoPower, etc, at least concerning their design choices.
Also, if I don't know the topology then I don't know how easy/difficult it would be for me to get inside of their failed inverter and make it work again, either by fixing the whole thing or re-using a part of it with my own fix.

I guess, based on what I've seen - and I maybe I haven't looked at all the right info, these inverters have exceeded my threshold of what I'd consider junk.

striider:
I have not used a Power jack inverter, but I have experienced issues with the "bad caps" in my high quality 3 year old Samsung LCD TV.  The power would come on, and it would start cycling on and off.  Google, a 12 dollar cap kit off Ebay and an hour of my time saved me $1000 on a new TV. 

So I can see how your tolerance for repair work can directly impact your tolerance for a (hopefully only) slightly inferior product at a large enough cost savings.  Good point Oztules.

oztules:
I played with a power jackk here:
http://www.anotherpower.com/board/index.php/topic,902.0.html#msg8865

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