Reliable 3000W Pure Sine Wave Inverter Review and Test

This inverter is very affordable for the power you get so I had to try it out. After putting it through some tests at 3000 watts I decided it was worth sharing. It handled all the tests that I put it through so I was pleased with its performance. I will continue to use it and let everyone know how it holds up over time.

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[wandahelmer]

I own these inverters now over 3yrs on a 4600 watt solar and 1500 amp hr bank. They run my fridge freezer one horse motors on tools they are still running.

[jamesotisjr]

Newbie advice: If you need to start a motor against a load - air compressor, cement mixer, dryer, you need an LF Low Frequency - inverter. The big giveaway is the end plate. LF inverters have a square end plate and they are dramatically heavy. The big flaw: they suck up a whole bunch of current when they are not producing.

This is an HF inverter. This produces clean power, and it draws about one third of the idle standby current of an LF inverter

My plan is to get the 2500 watt version of this to run kitchen appliances and electronics, and get a 5000 watt LF inverter for shop and ranch use. Swap them as needed, make the WZRLB the default unit and the LF inverter the occasional use unit.

[TheGrimshaw]

Thank you for that very informative video. Wished i had seen it earlier it would have saved me money.

[jamest.]

I have seen voltage on heave loads drop to about 98 volts. With a air compressor on a long extension. It worked as usual. Even though the open circuit voltage was about 117v. Nice review. What I like about these. You can order nearly any voltage. 12 to 72+v and they actually try to improve their products . repair slight design faults and such to make a better product. Thanks

[vincentrobinette]

It will actually peak at about 3500 watts. If you look at the fuses, you have 8 40 amp fuses in there, giving 320 amps total. At 12 volts, that will allow a maximum draw of 3840 watts from the 12 volt battery. When you had the heater running, and switched on the ShopVac, the output voltage dropped down to 70 volts, then came up as the vacuum motor came up to speed. That would be a problem, for an induction motor. If you're using this inverter to power your rooftop AC unit, turn on the AC unit first, then the inverter has plenty under the hood for additional loads, including a microwave oven. Induction motors are hard to start. This inverter will actually do better than a portable generator of the same rating. When connecting batteries, I recommend placing a battery on each side of the inverter, then, connecting each battery, with its own cables, to the inverter lugs. That will help the batteries current share, and will reduce the total length of wire necessary between the battery terminals, and the inverter lugs. You're very wise, to fatten up those cables. I actually melted the heat shrink on the cables that came in the box. Those cables are appropriate for the 1500 watt model, but just aren't beefy enough for this honest 3000 watt inverter. Keeping the voltage up on the lugs, goes a long way towards maintaining output voltage, under heavy loads. This inverter requires 270-300 amps at 12 volts to maintain 25 amps, 110 volts at the output, (3000 watts). Place the inverter as close as possible to the battery, with the thickest, shortest cables possible. You need 200 AH minimum battery capacity, for LiFePO4 batteries, (The kind you had in the video, ) or 400 AH AGM lead acid sealed batteries, or 600 AH of flooded cell batteries (6 golf cart batteries!) Otherwise, the lug voltage drops below 12 volts, and the output voltage drops below 110 volts. Obviously, the golf cart batteries will run the longest, but the lithiums are a good choice for something like a microwave oven, where you need huge amounts of power for minutes at a time. That cheap inverter is a lot of "bang for the buck". It is big, it demands a big battery.(I own that inverter, and I've put it through a "battery" of tests). PUN I run mine off of 4 100 AH LiFePO4 batteries, and the inverter really performs well with that many batteries keeping the voltage up under load.

[curtchase]

I just ran across your review here. You did an excellent job providing real world tests. I own the 3500 watt 24V version. I have not used it much, since it's for grid down backup mostly. A few things to point out is that it's still a "budget" inverter. There are many engineering shortcuts taken to get the price range down. One big problem is that these do not have a real neutral and ground like a house. They use a floating ground/neutral! If you connect it up like house wiring, you'll let the magic smoke out! All those fuses are a joke. If the thing actually pops it's fuses, the new ones will pop too. Goodbye MOSFET transistors and some. Idle current is a bit high. An amp or more is sucked out just to keep it alive. As you found out, AC voltage regulation sucked. Ya, it started the vac with heater, but you see voltage dropped to like 78? One way the sneaky bastards got their so called 6000 watt surge rating is that it soft starts. Plug a hi draw appliance into it, THEN flip the power switch on and the appliance may start and run. If inverter is already up and running and you switch on that hi current start appliance, good luck! Of course, it's NOT UL listed! It would fail easily. Keep it away from things like radial arm saws, big chop saws, larger air compressors and the like and it will be ok.

[mega-hbre]

Many things wrong here, first to avoid spark and destroy your batteries or inverter you need to fill the capacitor with a resistor Secondly those wires are not design for that as they are cheap wires and get hot, you need 2/0 awg which I’m glad that you corrected that at the end and 3rd you didn’t balance the batteries when connecting them. You need one positive on one battery and the negative in the opposite battery to creat a proper Balance and discharge 🙈🙈🙈🙈

[paulmagee]

I av just bought one and it works brilliant nice solid inverter worth every penny loved the video

[MobileMountain]

Hi Jim, Mike here in Punta Gorda Florida, love your channel and all the info you provide. Thank you so much. Always look forward to your new video's...

[Robism]

Very professionally done. I wish all videos were like this one.

[theronwinsby]

I know this was for testing. However, running 1500 watt motors should have at least a 4000W inverter behind it. It is wise to have triple the watts needed when you buy an inverter.

[MikeAndNary]

Hi Jim, it's been a year now with this inverter, how is it holding up?

[pathfinder]

on your surge test you have to add extension cords because that will make a difference and a heater on a cold start is were it really drains the batteries so when its hot the surge is lower when back on

[josephjackson]

This unit completely packs up working if you short circuit the unit and you fuses don't blow, The digital screen stops desplaying, without power.

[bobbyGnOly]

Really enjoyed your analysis....and you made it all very understandable. Thanks.

[skysurferuk]

9:50 "Just fine"? Nope. A drop in the vac was noticeable. "Well enough might have been a better choice". Thanks for the demo, though, good to know.

[ronwest]

Good review. Read the reviews out there and it's about 50/50. Some say its crap and others like these units. I read many posts about people wanting to run large items like AC units and I don't think people are very realistic when it comes to what these units and their battery bank and what can actually be done.

[huskers]

Hate to break it to you but the most watts you actually were able to put out of those batteries was 2560 watts in a perfect world. Your LiFe batteries were 12.8V x 100 amp hour = 1280 watts x 2 batteries = 2560 Watts. However if they are actually putting out 100 amps the voltage will drop from 12.8V to much lower which means you would get less watts out of the batteries. You never want to push a battery to its max like you did to get the most out of it. This is why you want more batteries in your bank to keep from the massive drops. In reality you were probably at 12V x 200 amps = 2400 watts. While the vacuum and heater worked they were not at 100 percent of rated watts. You were not at 3000 like you thought. Hence all your issues with the voltage drops. If you had a 3rd battery, the test would have been performed successfully, as you would have had 3840 watts available from the battery bank. Under load it would have probably been closer to 3600 watts of available power. Thank you for trying though. At least we know it is still a good inverter.

[carlosadanherrera]

good advice about the 2 gauge wire. I'm about to buy an inverter and I'm looking for the do's and don't for hooking one up for the first time.

[cliffmauck]

Good stuff. I like your practical approach.