Inverters
- Thread starter Nastones
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Rene T
Site Team
Nastones said:
You may get a better response if you asked about Cotek inverters. Otherwise you may get some of our female members involved.
John From Detroit
Well-known member
Never heard of the Cotek brand.. Have, heard of the other product 
.
Generic info:
Iinverters come in 2x2.sizes types
First division
True sine wave or MSW.. True is by far the best.. In the old days Xantrex, who makes both, had a document on their web site titled things that may not work properly on MSW inverters.. It was a LONG list of things and growing faster than they could update it.. Even LED nightlights are on the list believe it or not.
TSW (Also known as Pure Sine Wave) the list was much shorter.. In fact it had only one entry (Common to both lists by the way)
Anything needing more than _____ watts (Blank is the capacity of the inverter, for example in my case, 2,000)
EVERYTHING, even my most sensitive radio receiver works just fine inverter on and working, ONLY thing that ever gave me a problem was a deffective to began with coffee pot.. It has since been replaced..twice. (First replacement wore out, I'm a coffee-holic don't you know)
Second 2 is "Inverter/Charger or INLINE" v/s INVERTER only or Stand Alone.
The first is what I have though I only use part of the features most of the time. These "INLINE" types both charge the batteires in the presence of Shore power and .. Should shore/generator power fail. they take over powering the loads using the self same batteries for power... Just exactly (in my case) like a 2,000 watt continous duty UPS.. In fact if shore power was to be lost as I type.. i'd never know it, The TV would continue to TV, the Laptop to Laptop the fan on my back would stop as would the air conditioners (The fan is my "Shore power indicator, it only runs on SHORE the A/C's also run on generator)
(I always try to have at least one device, Light/Fan, on SHORE only power. It has to be a non-essential it is not powered by the generator, separate cord in fact)
Now, to the comments:
Some of the MSW inverters out there are el-cheapo pieces of .... Avoid them.
But when you get a True Sine Inverter with a decent 3-stage charger module... I've yet to see one of those that was crap. All were well designed. Of course with the influs of China products.. that may change some day soon, or not.
.Generic info:
Iinverters come in 2x2.sizes types
First division
True sine wave or MSW.. True is by far the best.. In the old days Xantrex, who makes both, had a document on their web site titled things that may not work properly on MSW inverters.. It was a LONG list of things and growing faster than they could update it.. Even LED nightlights are on the list believe it or not.
TSW (Also known as Pure Sine Wave) the list was much shorter.. In fact it had only one entry (Common to both lists by the way)
Anything needing more than _____ watts (Blank is the capacity of the inverter, for example in my case, 2,000)
EVERYTHING, even my most sensitive radio receiver works just fine inverter on and working, ONLY thing that ever gave me a problem was a deffective to began with coffee pot.. It has since been replaced..twice. (First replacement wore out, I'm a coffee-holic don't you know)
Second 2 is "Inverter/Charger or INLINE" v/s INVERTER only or Stand Alone.
The first is what I have though I only use part of the features most of the time. These "INLINE" types both charge the batteires in the presence of Shore power and .. Should shore/generator power fail. they take over powering the loads using the self same batteries for power... Just exactly (in my case) like a 2,000 watt continous duty UPS.. In fact if shore power was to be lost as I type.. i'd never know it, The TV would continue to TV, the Laptop to Laptop the fan on my back would stop as would the air conditioners (The fan is my "Shore power indicator, it only runs on SHORE the A/C's also run on generator)
(I always try to have at least one device, Light/Fan, on SHORE only power. It has to be a non-essential it is not powered by the generator, separate cord in fact)
Now, to the comments:
Some of the MSW inverters out there are el-cheapo pieces of .... Avoid them.
But when you get a True Sine Inverter with a decent 3-stage charger module... I've yet to see one of those that was crap. All were well designed. Of course with the influs of China products.. that may change some day soon, or not.
Rene T
Site Team
Nastones said:
Cotek is a brand of inverter:
https://www.amazon.com/Cotek-SK1500-112-1500W-12VDC-Inverter/dp/B00CKYTP50/ref=sr_1_7/163-1571107-8647541?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1478041885&sr=1-7&keywords=cotek+pure+sine+wave+inverter
Gizmo
Well-known member
I have not heard of that brand. I would be very careful when selecting an inverter as the lesser brands can be finicky and unreliable.
Gary RV_Wizard
Site Team
Inverter technology has become a commodity and low cost digital control logic has brought prices way down. This has lead to numerous private brand labels springing up, either as independents (often marketing products from offshore factories) or perhaps as discount labels from some of the better known names, who are seeing their business cut by discount brands that seem to work fine at half the price.
I have no idea who Cotek is - never heard of them until this topic came up.
I have no idea who Cotek is - never heard of them until this topic came up.
I did some digging around online and found they have been in business since 1986, and the reviews and posts I have seen seem very favorable. It looks to me like if pricing is comparable to what most RV'ers use, we may have another source for a good inverter. I would consider one if I needed an inverter.
Rene T
Site Team
Nastones said:
I guess I can spell seeing you made a edit change to your original post. ;D I use spell check when I think of it.
I was wrong they are marketed by samlex. I said xantrax. Anyway I'm looking for a good inverter, no charger or transfer switch. 3000 watt psw. After weeks of looking I've narrowed it down to three brands Cotek ( for the guy who weighs is on everything but inverters) samlex, and xantrex. I think I'm just over thinking it.
Gizmo
Well-known member
You might also check out Magnum
Rene T
Site Team
anniemae said:
Like a good bottle of wine, it gets better with old age. ;D
