Harbor Freight Inverter ? OK ?

[John Hilley]

You are getting down to 25% state of charge. There should have been comparable demand though.

[wa8yxm]

It should be up to the job you desire (TV + Player) HOWEVER.. When watching DVD I do not think there will be a problem.. (However the key word is THINK). When watching Televison.....

MSW inverters, can be kind of hard on a TV signal (It is called Television Interference, a form of Radio Frequency Interference).. So it might work, or not.. Only one way to tell.. Try it.

I have a TRUE SINE WAVE inverter here... It works.. PERIOD.

[Phobos]

I have one that powers an old 19" Tube TV and a DVD player. I've had it a couple years and it seems to do fine except the the battery has to be fully charged to to power that tv and dvd player. If it gets just a little bit low, the inverter will kick out and start beeping.
Oh, and it does have some interference noise on the TV, it's not that bad and I expected as much when I bought it for like 40 bucks.
I suspect that when we upgrade the TV to something more modern that it will do even better.

[John Hilley]

If you use larger cables from battery to inverter you should be able to use with a lower state of charge.

[dogbate1]

I have that exact 750 watt inverter, and it runs a 32inch, and a 20 inch flat screen televisions with no problem. I also have a BluRay player for the 32 inch TV, and all 3 will run at the same time no problem. I have 2 batteries on my fifth wheel, and can run these TV's for at least 3 days before recharging my batteries. When this Inverter dies, I will buy another from Harbor Freight.

[Scarab0088]

Keep the 12VDC cables short and run the 120VAC cord the longer run to the TV...DC drops much easier on long cable runs.

I have a 750Watt and the big 3000Watt from Harbor Freight in my RV...they work great! BUT, I did burn up a 1500Watt from HF...don't know why, but it was so inexpensive, I just upgraded.

And, here's the trick about many modern appliances...they have a transformer inside that drops the AC to low voltage DC. This system isolates the appliance from the issues found in MSW inverters of the past. From laptop computers, cell phone chargers, or LED TV's...they all drop the power before use.

The appliances that do not drop the voltage are heat producing like coffee pots, crockpots and toasters. These appliances are not impacted by MSW.

Enjoy the cheap inverter. And if it quits, you can get a new one...and both will still be less money than the fancy PSW units.

To prevent RF interference, use the ground lug on the inverter chassis to ground it to the RV's chassis.
Best luck

[mr300ce]

OK.... I just tried the Sony 40" LED TV. After 1 hr, the voltage was down to 11.7v. I turned it off, and it jumped back up to 12.38v. I guess that Sony draws too much juice.

Next I will test the 1994 20" Panasonic that came built into the motor home above the dash. I suspect that it will be OK, like the 35" Magnavox in the house that I first tried. After 5 hrs, the voltage was 12.08v

[Stan.Birch]

Nothing at all unusual for fully charged house batteries to offer 11.7 V while under load. Anything much above that is merely a floating no-load voltage. You should be good until the voltage gets down to around 10.5 volts. Then your batteries will need charging.

And not to worry about the 40" Sony TV. They just like any other TVs that typically draw 100 watts or 10 amps, which should keep you going for about 10 hours on a single battery, until you get down to 10.5 volts.

Using a smaller TV isn't going to make a significant difference in power consumption.

[mr300ce]

So..... I put the inverter inside the cabinet that has all the stuff in it, like the DVD player and switch box for what your gonna watch, etc.

I ran 12 ft of 8 gage wires (cut the clamps off a new car jumper set) up to the inverter. I watched the DVD and 20" Panasonic front TV. Voltage did NOT drop on the batteries after 30 min.

I recon it will work fine. BUT.... there is a very thin horizontal line that scrolls from bottom to top, with about a 4" separation from one to the next one.

When the movie started, it was gone, but if you pause or stop the movie, you will see it start up again. I figure it must be the inverter, because it is NOT there on shore power, or generator use.

[smiller]

Remember that it is best not to regularly discharge a deep cycle battery below 50% or you will adversely affect its life.

The line you see on the screen is probably just some noise from the inverter. As long as it doesn't bother you it won't do any harm.

[mr300ce]

Thanks everyone for your replies.