Don't Buy That Inverter Until You've Watched This

Even after more than 25 years of product development, You'd be lucky to get even two years of service from a Chinese made high frequency inverter, especially when powering high inductance loads like full sized refrigerators, large power tools, portable AC units or large microwave ovens. The reason for this is that all of these lightweight, high frequency inverters lack an iron core, copper wound output transformer. Without an output transformer to act as a buffer to absorb the electrical surges provided by the “Flywheel Effect” inherent in the physical amount of a transformer’s iron, these surges and damaging reverse voltage spikes must be handled directly by the inverter’s MOSFET transistors or IGBTs, essentially shortening their life expectancy.
For a more detailed explanation regarding the use of high frequency inverters for charging an EV, please watch Solar Inverter Catastrophic Failure: • Solar Inverter Catastr...
You might be able to start and run some high surge loads when these high frequency inverters are new, but every time you do, you're shortening the life of the MOSFETs or IGBTs in these inverters. To make things even worse, lightweight, high frequency inverters run much hotter than low frequency, transformer-based inverters which makes the low cost, off spec, Chinese made components such as capacitors, MOSFETs, diodes, resistors and ICs that are used in these inverters, far more prone to early failure.
Another major consideration with these lightweight, high frequency, transformerless inverters like is safety. All it takes is for the AC output monitoring circuitry to fail and one of the MOSFETs in the inverter's H-Bridge circuit to short to ground, and these high frequency inverters can send dangerous, high voltage, high amperage DC current straight to your connected AC loads which will not only damage most AC appliances but can also set those AC appliances on fire.
Another consideration that is never mentioned by the high frequency inverter salespeople on youtube, is that the vast majority of these inverters are non-repairable. After the warranty runs out, you're not going to be able to simply ship these units back to the manufacturer in China and have them repair them. And at a typical shop rate of $125 per hour here in the US, with no schematic and limited parts availability, it won't make economic sense to even attempt to repair one of these units.
Once the FETs have fried and have burned a good portion of the inverter's PCB, (And trust me, sooner rather than later, they will fry.) they basically become a brick. Poor man's technology at a rich man's price. A much better choice would be to invest in an inverter or power station that uses low frequency, transformer based technology in its design. Low frequency inverters can handle high surge loads for at least 3x (300%) their continuous rated capacity and they can do this repeatedly, without sustaining damage to their MOSFET transistors, for minutes, rather than the milliseconds that a high frequency inverter offers. That's why the big name brand inverter manufacturers like Schneider Electric, Outback Power, Sigineer Power, Magnum Energy, Victron Energy and others, all use a low frequency topology in their design.

[@kwokallsafe5642]

VID Failure - Loud idiotic music, play's continuously. Thank-you for the TEXT in the description - Because, unable to listen / watch the video because of the background muzak

[@norsk54472]

yes, poor presentation

[@jamezlatrax9713]

I am intending to buy one of these portable power stations specifically for my PC ( Under 300 Watts), and won't use anything higher watt like a microwave, fridge, power tools, etc. I don't intend to ever change it with solar. Will my use case alleviate some of the worries since I will not be subjecting it to too much load? I need a lighter more portable solution and I also can't afford more, which is what's made me want one of these.

[@kickgas7171]

High frequency, transformerless inverters are relatively safe for low power non-inductive loads like computers. As long as the inverter's MOSFETS don't short to ground and pass DC current to its output, you should be ok.

[@jamezlatrax9713]

@@kickgas7171 Thanks, that's quite reassuring

[@pudiful]

What do you think about exceltech xp hf military specs?

[@kickgas7171]

We've repaired several Exeltech inverters over the years. Unlike Chinese made high frequency inverters, they're well-built and they use high quality US and European manufactured components, especially the MOSFETs. They're primarily designed for backup power applications in data centers (computers, routers etc.) They're not designed for powering high inductance loads, long term.

[@Tiersmoke92555]

I have an Aims 4K 48v/240v inverter, and I want to set up something in the 6K range. What affordable brand would you recommend? (Aims, Sungold, Singineer, Growatt, Genetry...)

[@kickgas7171]

Sigineer uses high quality International Rectifier MOSFET's in their inverters, so I would recommend Sigineer.

[@ThePonderi]

I have had my HF inverter for 5 years.. at a fraction of cost. $ for $ HF outsizes LF by far. I can throw in any number

[@kickgas7171]

Sure you've had it for five years but how often are you using it and what kinds of loads are you powering. That's the difference.

[@Tiersmoke92555]

I don't want to seem like I'm discrediting your reality but if you are running 3 A/Cs, 2 refrigerators, lights, electronics, microwave, dish washer, washer/dryer combo, 3 space heaters, 5 fish tanks, pellet grill, 2 fans, hot water heater, wielder, jetted bathtub, coffee maker and other countertop appliances in any 1.5 rated output configuration for six years 24/7 I will consider you statement valid. Also I have had a Xnatrex HF PS inverter that let go and cost me thousands in repairs and replacing appliances.

[@quickquote1568]

Xantrex high frequency inverters are the worst.

[@Tiersmoke92555]

@@quickquote1568 I have been running an aims 4k 48v/240v inverter, a set of KIDs on two SW-facing arrays, about 31Kwh of repurposed batteries, and a pulsar 7.5k inverter generator.

[@kickgas7171]

@@Tiersmoke92555 We don't run our inverter repair shop on off grid solar, but many of our customers do pretty much what you've described with their off grid systems using low frequency, transformer based inverters.