Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Replacing Inverter Part One

I went out yesterday to hook up the StarChoice (Shaw Direct) in the motorhome. I have a dish mounted on the workshop and hook up the two TV's in the motorhome for the odd time we have company staying out there.

I hooked it up and turned the receivers and TV's on. Or at least tried to. They were plugged into the inverter and there was no power coming out! I cycled it on and off and disconnected the 12 volt side for a few minutes, hoping it would reset. No luck! It is toast.

I checked to see when I had bought the inverter and discovered it was in 2013, five years ago. It was way out of warranty but still should not have gone in only five years.

I decided to replace the 1500 watt Modified Sine Wave unit with a 1000 watt Pure Sine Wave, more expensive but kinder to electronics and 1000 watts is more than I need. There is a possibility that was what killed my Toshiba laptop. I checked around town and found two, a heavy duty one at Walmart for $400 and a Motomaster Eliminator (house brand) at Canadian Tire for $235. After checking the specs I decided on the cheaper one.

Today I will install it. Maybe photos. Stay tuned.

3 comments:

  1. Good luck with the install . Our 1200 watt modified sine wave from CTC we hav been using now for 12 years now and still seems to be working fine. Someday it will die too.

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    1. -I don't generally subscribe to the modified vs, pure sine wave argument. I have never knowingly experienced a problem with MSW inverters and I have had three over the years (still using two, one in the motorhome cab and one in the Honda). Yesterday the prices at Canadian Tire were close enough to convince me to make the switch.

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    2. OK, I'm going to ask a dumb question! Why did you install an inverter in your Honda?

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