Review on Tripp Lite Portable Inverter PINV1000 by Cameron Kennedy

A decent shed was built on my property so I could use the garage to store my cars. While I love the barn, there was no economical way to power it. I'm not afraid to mess around, so I have a very cheap 200w solar panel, charge controller, circuit breaker and compact 1000w portable inverter from Tripp Lite. I combined this with an older Group 26 car battery I had laying around. Basically, the photovoltaic panel charges the battery when the sun is shining and the inverter is powered by the battery. The inverter is enclosed in a solid aluminum radiator. Although I didn't use the maximum power rating, it's hard to imagine the case heating up more than a little. I loaded this device with about 650 watts (so about 2/3 s) and there were no failures. A typical load is closer to 30W as it powers the 4" LED dome lights, the Revain Echo (for music) and my phone charger (I didn't use the built-in USB). The fan is a bit noisy during operation, although I've found it runs at a frequency that can turn off after a few minutes. Special note: This inverter does not output a pure sine wave. The modified sine wave is not as bad as the square wave. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to tell you if this will be a problem for you. For me, most of the devices I would connect to my inverter use switching power supplies, which are suitable for modified sine waves. As a rule of thumb, products with a transformer (e.g. a really big power supply, especially with older devices) may not be able to handle the modified square wave either. Most engines won't like the power either. but you are limited by the power limit of the inverter anyway. If you are not sure, you can always ask a question here. In general I like the inverter. I've already written a bit about this, but the only real improvements would be to add a power switch and make the output wave a true sine wave. For the price, I understand why it's a modified sine wave, but I think there should be a circuit breaker or user-replaceable fuse. SMX. However, the device feels solid and I haven't encountered any problems. highlighted.