Vector 3,000 watt power inverter question

[Mike]

I just bought a Vector Maxx SST 3,000 power inverter. Hooked it up today to
my car battery. (Tried it with the motor running as well as without). When
I powered up the inverter, with a 40 watt light lamp load, I noticed the
light is pretty dim and the fans did not start and run on the inverter.
Looking through the owner's manual, I don't see where they say anything
about how the fans operate. I am wondering if someone out there might have
one of these inverters and can tell me if the fans are supposed to start as
soon as you apply the 12 volts or are they controlled by a thermostat and
only come on when needed?

So far I am really disappointed with this unit. I bought it to power a
microwave, toaster oven and some lights when the power goes out at my house
and I noticed first thing, in the owner's manual it says the inverter will
not power any "high wattage" equipment that produces heat, such as microwave
ovens. Yet, on the box, it says you can power a microwave oven. Looks to
me like false advertisement.

I also tried plugging in a little "milk house" heater that was set at the
1200 watt setting. It won't run. Monitoring the AC voltage out of the
inverter, I can see it go to zero when I turn on the heater.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Meat Plow]

I just bought a Vector Maxx SST 3,000 power inverter. Hooked it up today to
my car battery. (Tried it with the motor running as well as without). When
I powered up the inverter, with a 40 watt light lamp load, I noticed the
light is pretty dim and the fans did not start and run on the inverter.
Looking through the owner's manual, I don't see where they say anything
about how the fans operate. I am wondering if someone out there might have
one of these inverters and can tell me if the fans are supposed to start as
soon as you apply the 12 volts or are they controlled by a thermostat and
only come on when needed?

So far I am really disappointed with this unit. I bought it to power a
microwave, toaster oven and some lights when the power goes out at my house
and I noticed first thing, in the owner's manual it says the inverter will
not power any "high wattage" equipment that produces heat, such as microwave
ovens. Yet, on the box, it says you can power a microwave oven. Looks to
me like false advertisement.

I also tried plugging in a little "milk house" heater that was set at the
1200 watt setting. It won't run. Monitoring the AC voltage out of the
inverter, I can see it go to zero when I turn on the heater.

Thanks for any help.

Looks like the unit is defective, return it for an exchange.

 

[Malissa Baldwin]

Looks like the unit is defective, return it for an exchange.

this is a repair newsgroup, not an exchange newsgroup you pain in the
ass.

 

[Bennett Price]

Looks like the unit is defective, return it for an exchange.

If you haven't already, make sure your source (battery?) doesn't drop
drastically when you run the inverter under load. If the source of
power is good, then it sounds like the inverter is defective.

 

[Fred McKenzie]

I just bought a Vector Maxx SST 3,000 power inverter. Hooked it up today to
my car battery. (Tried it with the motor running as well as without).

Mike-

Did you look at your car battery voltage as well? It is possible that
the battery's current delivering capability and the voltage drop in the
connecting wires, does not provide sufficient voltage AT the inverter's
input for it to work, even with a small load.

What size wire would you use to drive a 3,000 watt inverter? Even if it
were 100% efficient, the input current would be about 250 Amperes at
full load from a 12 volt battery. I think you would need heavy bus-bars
connecting directly between the battery terminals and the inverter
terminals.

In other words, it may not be practical to use this inverter for the
applications you have in mind. High power inverters I've seen used,
were connected to banks of large, high capacity cells.

Fred

 

[Mike]

Mike-

Did you look at your car battery voltage as well? It is possible that
the battery's current delivering capability and the voltage drop in the
connecting wires, does not provide sufficient voltage AT the inverter's
input for it to work, even with a small load.

What size wire would you use to drive a 3,000 watt inverter? Even if it
were 100% efficient, the input current would be about 250 Amperes at
full load from a 12 volt battery. I think you would need heavy bus-bars
connecting directly between the battery terminals and the inverter
terminals.

In other words, it may not be practical to use this inverter for the
applications you have in mind. High power inverters I've seen used,
were connected to banks of large, high capacity cells.

Fred

The owner's manual says the input cables are #4 AWG and they are 3 feet long
(there are two red and two black ones).

I think you've helped me a lot Fred. I hadn't thought about running this
battery off of a bank of batteries, but that may be what is necessary to
make it do what I thought it was supposed to do.

Since my first post I have hooked the inverter directly to the car battery
using the supplied cables (the first test I had merely used some 6 foot
jumper cables from the input wires of the inverter to the battery, so there
was probably a lot of loss there). With the inverter connected directly to
the battery, a 100 watt light bulb load looks good and I can turn the
electric heater on in either the 1200 or 1500 watt switch positions and it
will come on and produce heat. Fan speed seems about normal. I only let it
run for about a minute. I have a charger connected to the battery (plugged
into the household AC) and I can see the heater is really loading down the
battery. (Would be pulling around 150 amps I guess). I have also
discovered that the fans only come on after about 150 watt load is applied
to the inverter. That was one of my major concerns as I thought there was
something wrong with the (4) fans since none of them would come on when I
powered the inverter up. I am feeling a lot better about it now. I think I
just need more battery power. The inverter itself seems to be doing what it
should be doing.

Thanks.

 

[Meat Plow]

Looks like the unit is defective, return it for an exchange.

thi[SLAP]

Nobody gave you permission to poast here.

 

[T Shadow]

The owner's manual says the input cables are #4 AWG and they are 3 feet long
(there are two red and two black ones).

I think you've helped me a lot Fred. I hadn't thought about running this
battery off of a bank of batteries, but that may be what is necessary to
make it do what I thought it was supposed to do.

Since my first post I have hooked the inverter directly to the car battery
using the supplied cables (the first test I had merely used some 6 foot
jumper cables from the input wires of the inverter to the battery, so there
was probably a lot of loss there). With the inverter connected directly to
the battery, a 100 watt light bulb load looks good and I can turn the
electric heater on in either the 1200 or 1500 watt switch positions and it
will come on and produce heat. Fan speed seems about normal. I only let it
run for about a minute. I have a charger connected to the battery (plugged
into the household AC) and I can see the heater is really loading down the
battery. (Would be pulling around 150 amps I guess). I have also
discovered that the fans only come on after about 150 watt load is applied
to the inverter. That was one of my major concerns as I thought there was
something wrong with the (4) fans since none of them would come on when I
powered the inverter up. I am feeling a lot better about it now. I think I
just need more battery power. The inverter itself seems to be doing what it
should be doing.

Thanks.

Wowzer, that's a big inverter. Have a couple of small inverters and was
thinking of getting a 1200 watt to run the gas furnace blower motor.
Maintaining sufficient battery power for that wattage(several heating
cycles) made me rethink the situations cost/benefit ratio. Multiple
batteries won't last long with the kind of consumption you seem to be
contemplating. Look at the amp/hr rating of the batteries. Average
alternator output is ~55amp so it's not much help and has the same carbon
monoxide hazard as a generator. People have died from carbon monoxide using
generators the last 2 seasons in our county alone.
Let us know how it works out and what kind of battery power you end up with
to get a reasonable run time.

 

[Ken Weitzel]

Wowzer, that's a big inverter. Have a couple of small inverters and was
thinking of getting a 1200 watt to run the gas furnace blower motor.
Maintaining sufficient battery power for that wattage(several heating
cycles) made me rethink the situations cost/benefit ratio. Multiple
batteries won't last long with the kind of consumption you seem to be
contemplating. Look at the amp/hr rating of the batteries. Average
alternator output is ~55amp so it's not much help and has the same carbon
monoxide hazard as a generator. People have died from carbon monoxide using
generators the last 2 seasons in our county alone.
Let us know how it works out and what kind of battery power you end up with
to get a reasonable run time.

Hi..

But... your furnace blower is probably 1/4 horse, maybe 1/3.

Take care.

Ken

 

[webpa]

Wowzer, that's a big inverter. Have a couple of small inverters and was
thinking of getting a 1200 watt to run the gas furnace blower motor.
Maintaining sufficient battery power for that wattage(several heating
cycles) made me rethink the situations cost/benefit ratio. Multiple
batteries won't last long with the kind of consumption you seem to be
contemplating. Look at the amp/hr rating of the batteries. Average
alternator output is ~55amp so it's not much help and has the same carbon
monoxide hazard as a generator. People have died from carbon monoxide using
generators the last 2 seasons in our county alone.
Let us know how it works out and what kind of battery power you end up with
to get a reasonable run time.

It is highly likely that the literature packed with the device
(inverter) contained a pretty good description of how to get sufficient
DC current into it. The OP's description seems to indicate this
information was never read, never understood, never considered...which
is normal, I guess. I attempt to help:

For a 3 kw inverter to be really useful, you need a BIG (300 CCA
minimum, deep discharge) battery. It must be connected to the inverter
with 6 (4 is better) gauge cables no more than 1 foot long. 20 Foot
"Jumper Cables" WILL NOT WORK!!!!!! They are usually 6 to 12 gauge
(bigger is not better, here). Jumper cables can be useful to charge
the inverter's primary battery from a truck in between house-furnace
runs. But again...learn some physics (Ohm's law, etc.)...good is big
(small gauge numbers) wire between the source and the drain (truck
alternater and inverter battery).

 

[Meat Plow]

Wowzer, that's a big inverter. Have a couple of small inverters and was
thinking of getting a 1200 watt to run the gas furnace blower motor.
Maintaining sufficient battery power for that wattage(several heating
cycles) made me rethink the situations cost/benefit ratio. Multiple
batteries won't last long with the kind of consumption you seem to be
contemplating. Look at the amp/hr rating of the batteries. Average
alternator output is ~55amp so it's not much help and has the same carbon
monoxide hazard as a generator. People have died from carbon monoxide using
generators the last 2 seasons in our county alone.
Let us know how it works out and what kind of battery power you end up with
to get a reasonable run time.

I bought a 3500 watt Coleman generator and got to use it once already. Our
power went out for about 6 hours a few weeks ago after a windstorm toppled
trees and lines. I have a disconnect that allows me to hook the generator
up to my fusebox. 3500 watts was enough for enough 60 watt lights, the
furnace blower and my fridge. My 51" Panasonic tv, the sat dvr and audio
equip are on a 1500 APC but the APC sure didn't like the generator. Must
have been noise or something because the output was 119vac but the APC
didn't want to come off battery.

 

[Homer J Simpson]

Wowzer, that's a big inverter. Have a couple of small inverters and was
thinking of getting a 1200 watt to run the gas furnace blower motor.

Run the blower at the lowest speed on inverter power. Let the burner cycle
on the hi limit - you'll still get enough heat. That will reduce the blower
motor power to maybe 200W.

 

[T Shadow]

Hi..

But... your furnace blower is probably 1/4 horse, maybe 1/3.

Take care.

Ken

Motor options for the furnace also shows 1/2 & 3/4. From the info I got from
motor the way it was wired it may have ran on a 750 watt inverter. Did the
math at the time. The wild card was starting current. Has to have enough
current to start or its worthless.

 

[Jim Land]

People have died from carbon monoxide using
generators the last 2 seasons in our county alone.

??? Because they ran them indoors? Or... ???

 

[James Sweet]

I just bought a Vector Maxx SST 3,000 power inverter. Hooked it up today to
my car battery. (Tried it with the motor running as well as without). When
I powered up the inverter, with a 40 watt light lamp load, I noticed the
light is pretty dim and the fans did not start and run on the inverter.
Looking through the owner's manual, I don't see where they say anything
about how the fans operate. I am wondering if someone out there might have
one of these inverters and can tell me if the fans are supposed to start as
soon as you apply the 12 volts or are they controlled by a thermostat and
only come on when needed?

So far I am really disappointed with this unit. I bought it to power a
microwave, toaster oven and some lights when the power goes out at my house
and I noticed first thing, in the owner's manual it says the inverter will
not power any "high wattage" equipment that produces heat, such as microwave
ovens. Yet, on the box, it says you can power a microwave oven. Looks to
me like false advertisement.

I also tried plugging in a little "milk house" heater that was set at the
1200 watt setting. It won't run. Monitoring the AC voltage out of the
inverter, I can see it go to zero when I turn on the heater.

Thanks for any help.

What size wire are you using to connect it to the battery? 3KW is gonna
pull about 250A from the battery so you'll need some BIG cable like
you'd use to connect to a starter motor. Also don't expect to pull even
half that much for more than a couple minutes without the engine
running, even with it, most cars have less than a 100A alternator so
your continuous load will be much lower, probably around 500W for an
average car.

 

[James Sweet]

Hi..

But... your furnace blower is probably 1/4 horse, maybe 1/3.

Take care.

Ken

Many are larger, mine is 1/2 HP. The run current is not too terrible,
but the inrush is phenomenal, you need a bigger inverter than would
first be obvious.

 

[James Sweet]

[email protected]:




??? Because they ran them indoors? Or... ???

That happened around here in a recent storm that blew through. One guy
ran a generator in his livingroom(!?) and a few others had them in a
closed attached garage. Evolution at work.

 

[Mike]

What size wire are you using to connect it to the battery? 3KW is gonna
pull about 250A from the battery so you'll need some BIG cable like
you'd use to connect to a starter motor. Also don't expect to pull even
half that much for more than a couple minutes without the engine
running, even with it, most cars have less than a 100A alternator so
your continuous load will be much lower, probably around 500W for an
average car.

I am using the input cables that Vector provided with the inverter. I think
I read in the manual that they are #4 awg and there are two positive and two
negative cables. I didn't measure them but they are 3 feet in length or
less.

What I was hoping to accomplish with this was to be able to run a 1500 watt
electric heater when our electricity goes off. (I thought a 1500 watt
heater would just sit there and coast on a 3000 watt inverter). I'd also
planned to use a microwave oven, a toaster oven, some 60-75 watt lights, but
I didn't intend to run more than one or two of these items at a time, and
obviously had planned to run the toaster by itself and the microwave and the
heater. I didn't realize I was going to have to have so much input current
available to power the inverter. Kind of foils my plan because I had hoped
to put a battery in a nice case, put that on the bottom of a two wheel
dolly, mount the inverter to a piece of plywood and mount that to the dolly,
wire it up and then have a set up I could wheel into the living room when
the power goes out and plug in the heat or some lights, the tv, or whatever
I needed. I was hoping someone who has such a set up would see my post and
offer some suggestions on what worked for them. It appears I should have
gone the route of the generator, but I opted not to do that because of the
carbon monoxide and also routing a power cable from outside my house to the
interior won't be easy (all brick home).

I like the idea of powering the furnace motor with a setup like this, but I
have a heat pump so unfortunately, that isn't an option for me.

Thanks for your input.

 

[[email protected]]

Where do you live? You need to be able to keep pipes from freezing,
but that does not take a 3000 watt unit unless you live north of the
mason-dixon line, and there aren't very many heat pumps that far north.

H. R. Hofmann

 

[Ken Weitzel]

I am using the input cables that Vector provided with the inverter. I think
I read in the manual that they are #4 awg and there are two positive and two
negative cables. I didn't measure them but they are 3 feet in length or
less.

What I was hoping to accomplish with this was to be able to run a 1500 watt
electric heater when our electricity goes off. (I thought a 1500 watt
heater would just sit there and coast on a 3000 watt inverter). I'd also
planned to use a microwave oven, a toaster oven, some 60-75 watt lights, but
I didn't intend to run more than one or two of these items at a time, and
obviously had planned to run the toaster by itself and the microwave and the
heater. I didn't realize I was going to have to have so much input current
available to power the inverter. Kind of foils my plan because I had hoped
to put a battery in a nice case, put that on the bottom of a two wheel
dolly, mount the inverter to a piece of plywood and mount that to the dolly,
wire it up and then have a set up I could wheel into the living room when
the power goes out and plug in the heat or some lights, the tv, or whatever
I needed. I was hoping someone who has such a set up would see my post and
offer some suggestions on what worked for them. It appears I should have
gone the route of the generator, but I opted not to do that because of the
carbon monoxide and also routing a power cable from outside my house to the
interior won't be easy (all brick home).

I like the idea of powering the furnace motor with a setup like this, but I
have a heat pump so unfortunately, that isn't an option for me.

Hi Mike...

Respectfully suggest that you might perhaps re-think your project...
if you're looking for heat, even a fully charged new(ish) car battery
is only going to deliver 1500 watts of heat for about a half hour, and
that assuming that the inverter is somehow 100% efficient.
Even then - don't know where in the world you are, but I'm in Winnipeg
(sometimes called Winterpeg), Canada, and 1500 watts of heat is just
teasing. I'm not sure, but I might also be concerned about off-gassing
from the battery at that kind of load.

There are alternatives available - propane catalytic heaters or kerosene
space heaters, with plenty of ventilation and safety barriers to protect
youngsters work quite well, and the energy concentration of the source
is much more dense than a lead acid battery. You might also consider
putting in a wood burning fireplace, if you also enjoy the aesthetics
and don't mind a little work.

You surely don't need the fridge; if it's cold enough to require much
heat, it's also cold enough on a porch or in a garage to store your
perishables. And you can do without the microwave, if the outage is
long enough, you can (again, do it safely) use a camp stove burning
propane or white gas. Another idea - if you have a baby or toddlers
who need quick and often access to milk or formula, you might
consider one of the peltier effect (Koolatron) 12 volt coolers.
Mine draws about 4 amps at 12 volts. A side benefit is you can
use it in your car for trips for soft drinks, sandwich makings, etc.

What you might like your idea for is a bit of lighting if you need it,
but a 9 watt florescent (equal to 40 watt regular bulb) will run
a long long time on a small inverter. Plug a small inverter into
your cigarette lighter, and run a temporary extension cord outside.

Take care.

Ken