Review on ⚡ AIMS Power PICOGLF40W12V120V: 4000W Pure Sine Inverter Charger - Reliable Backup Power Solution with 12,000W Surge Capacity by Chris Hart

Bought this unit to install in my Class A RV which currently does not have an inverter. It took quite a bit of engineering to get it right, and there were some rough edges and some good points. The first thing to understand is that many RVs are not rated for 240 volts. The generators on many of these devices are 120 volts, and there is a switch that actually sends 240 outlets to the control panel. This created some difficulties in setting up the charging circuit as the 120 volt alternator cannot power the charger for this device. I'll talk about that a little later. The inverter works quite well, however I had some problems running the air conditioner, dishwasher and fridge on the same phase circuit. My calculations show it shouldn't exceed 20 amps, but it was close enough for the onboard circuit breaker to trip. There were no problems with the air conditioning. As for using the power saving mode, I didn't find it very useful. We constantly fell into a trap 22 with a refrigerator. It never tried to turn on because it didn't see 120 volts on its input, and the inverter never turned on because it didn't see enough traction. Unfortunately, it relied on propane until I turned off the low-power mode and ensured a steady supply. When I started I did some stupid things to learn from. Firstly it's the power saving issue mentioned above, secondly I didn't pay a bit of attention to the actual circuit readings and lastly I didn't notice that the charge setting is maxed out when you crank it all the way up the left one. , which defies most conventions. After running the charger for 24 hours straight, I couldn't figure out why it couldn't handle the charge. After reading the manual with the fine-toothed comb, I realized that the setting needs to be turned all the way to the left. It plays around with it, turning the semicolon on and off. I understand that I should invest in a control panel. When you're spending that kind of money on an inverter, you need to make it more user-friendly, and you definitely don't want that big buzzing block sitting there that people can send themselves to the afterlife without being connected to a battery. I will notice some minor design and implementation errors. First, the high-voltage input side is fitted with strain relief covers. However, for an incoming 3-wire, 6-gauge installation, there is absolutely no way a 1/2-inch threaded fitting will suffice. Also, I'm very glad they provided some battery cable covers on the low voltage side. However, after doing some basic calculations, I decided that it would be best to connect two sets of battery cables to this unit in parallel. Those built-in lids didn't help either. I had some problems with battery terminals. They were definitely not the standard English size and if you lose them, it will be very difficult for you to find an exact replacement. So, here's what happened. I've found the unit to provide the power I need to run pretty much anything in my RV class. While I have to watch what I turn on every time, my wife is more than happy that we can turn on the air conditioning and it seems to do that for hours. The device looks very solidly built and has several self-defense mechanisms. While other users complained about the fan's noise level, my wife liked the white noise it produced. I would take that into account when planning the location. If you don't like the sound of the fans running I wouldn't put it in the bedroom. Honestly, I like that the fan settings are very conservative (turns on very easily) which means the device should have a very long lifespan. Okay how did I solve the problem of the RV being a weird combination of 120 volts? and 240 volts? First I had to fit a generator changeover switch on the output side of the inverter. This is because I didn't want a 120 phase to be sent to the same terminals at the input of the inverter. I'm not sure if that would be a problem, but obviously the inverter doesn't see 240 volts and will likely stop working. Choosing a 240V inverter made it impossible for me to use the wrong plug to plug my RV into a standard 120V outlet to charge batteries or power devices directly. Next, I decided to solve both problems at the same time. I took a 30 amp switch for a single phase 120 and also connected it to the 30 amp output of my generator. I connected a special 120 volt extension cord to the other input of the switcher. This means that either an extension cable or a more powerful generator branch can be used to charge the batteries. Since the power strip was only rated for 13 amps, I also added a fuse behind the switch to protect both the original charger and the power strip. Also note that you are not leaving the charger plugged into your van's standard control panel. You could run into a situation where the inverter draws 12 volts to provide 120 only to get your charger back up to 12 volts. Every time the current goes through this cycle, efficiency is lost and you'll end up with a dead battery pretty quickly, not to mention wearing out your components. It was a significant investment of time and money, but I think it was worth it. We can enjoy movies without running the generator and when we get home it's very easy to just grab the vacuum cleaner and mop the floor. The extra batteries were a big expense, but I wouldn't take less than 440 amp hours.