Good price for a 500 watt pure sine wave inverter

[papaof2]

If you ignore the advertised numbers and evaluate this as a 500 watt pure sine wave inverter for $44.99 + $3.99 ship + tax, it's a good deal for right at $50. At that price, I didn't expect it to be pure sine wave and I certainly didn't expect it to handle 2000 watts.

The output is a good sine wave (cleaner than what our power co-op delivers) at 510 watts, although the output voltage drops to 116 volts at that load.

I tried with the 650/1500 watt heat gun (for heat shrink tubing) and the inverter shut down immediately with 650 watts.

Tried the 750/1500 watt space heater and the inverter shut down immediately at 750 watts.

Loaded the inverter with the 440 watt halogen work light plus a 100 watt incandescent bulb - output voltage dropped to 116 volts but the inverter ran fine for 20 minutes.

The fan ran as the load increased but I never heard it get to what I would have considered "full speed" even after 20 minutes at 510 watts.

I've done enough inverter and other power conversion testing to accept 20 minutes as usually being a good indicator of longer term performance. There's also the problem of this old man's back and the lack of good seating in the basement...

That's a close-out price and there were 4 units left when I checked their site about 15 minutes before I posted this.

www.banggood.com/2000W-Solar-Pure-Sine-Wave-Power-Inverter-Dual-Usb-Digital-Display-p-1978212.html

I have a couple of pictures and I'll add the links when those pics get uploaded.

Sine wave output at 510 watts: www.jecarter.us/files/banggood-$50-500w-psw-2.jpg

Inverter's meters at 510 watt load: www.jecarter.us/files/banggood-$50-500w-psw-3.jpg

[papaof2]

The inverter has ONE outlet - a world-wide "universal" outlet. Surprisingly, it actually held a short (3 foot) three-prong grounded cord securely, even with the weight of a KillAWatt dangling from the cord...

For the inverter to have maximum usefulness, you may need a triple-tap or an outlet strip to provide additional outlets.

There are two USB charge ports but 1) I don't remember seeing their specs and 2) I didn't make another 32 stair round-trip to get the USB load and the tester that were on the main level.

The two trips I did make on the stairs for the little testing I did were more than my body can manage today :-( I barely touched supper (lasagna, hot from the oven and with cheese bread on the side) because the pain level is just a little below nausea. I'm medicated but they only offer tablets that take "forever" to take effect when you're hurting (up to an hour, occasionally even longer). I put a request in the weekly pain + med use log for some syringes pre-loaded with morphine for instant pain relief but I haven't received the paper Rx for those yet...

In the rather thin manual (half the bulk is pages of Chinese characters), they list all the models of sine and modified sine inverters they produce. There is NO marking on the case other than the "sine wave" logo and the "12" and "110" blocks having a red dot in them. Maybe there's a model number on the inside of the case or on the PCB? At the moment, I can guarantee that disassembly will most probably NOT happen any time soon :-(

This inverter is in a similar class as the 300 watt PSW inverter I got from eastwood.com several years ago. It was $39.99 + $10.01 for shipping. However, the fan in the 300 watt Eastwood inverter is much quieter. During the testing, I kept wondering if the manufacturer had put a 24 volt fan in the 12 volt 500 watt unit because it didn't sound "right" and it had small speed changes (up and down) that did NOT relate to a change in load. Or maybe they took a 24 volt DC to 240 volts AC inverter and mislabeled it as 12 => 120?

After 20 minutes at 510 watts, the hottest place on one side of the case was at 117F and roughly the same place on the other side of the case was 107F. Those were the hottest the outside of the case got. The ambient temperature was about 73F. The layout of the heat-producing devices is not symmetrical - there are three heatsink screws on one side of the case and two such screws on the other side of the case. That could explain the temperature difference between the two sides.

This might not be of interest to anyone here right now, but it's a good deal for someone who needs this level of power.

[papaof2]

The price is now $42.77 + $3.99 ship + tax and there are 3 left as I post this.

There has not been a run on them, as they have sold ONE in the 24 days since I made the first post.