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Canadians where/which inverters
By Reno, Section Homebrewed Electricity Posted on Wed Sep 03, 2003 at 06:25:01 AM MST
none

After blowing up a Canadian Tire 700 series inverter
by placing the rated 500 watt cont. load on it and lasting
3 minutes it went back.
Since I live in a small city I will have to order or travel to get one.
I was looking at the Power Bright Inverters,
http://www.dcacpowerinverters.com/12_volt_power_inverters.html
but they ship out of the US and charge GST and PST. They state prices are in US funds and all orders from US I was always billed afterward by rev Can for the Taxes.
This this makes no sense to me.
I also considered the Vector inverter
http://www.donrowe.com/inverters/vector_1200.html
but they use a broker and the fee is 30.00 US even though
the price even with exchange is good all the service charges
cost almost as much as the inverter.
Any suggestion
thanks

Canadians where/which inverters | 19 comments (19 topical)

Re: Canadians where/which inverters (3.00 / 0) (#19)
by rcmron on Tue Nov 11, 2008 at 12:14:22 PM MST

To Renop and anyone esle condifering buying a Power bright inverter. I bought thier biggest inverter, 6000W, and never had it under a very heavy load. After a couple of days it stopped showing the power draw, then in slowy started not deliverying enough capcity, everything woudl trip out and then it finally failed. It faile about 3 month prior to the 1 year warranty period and Power bright went out of thier way to not provide warranty. the excusses were unimaginable. I also learned that power bright sells refurbised inverters to retails stores who then sell them as new. Performance was not good, the customer service was not good. I would reccommend staying away from power bright.

I now have a cobra 2500 Watt. Does anyone have experience with these in cold climate?

Re: Canadians where/which inverters (none / 0) (#1)
by iFred on Wed Sep 03, 2003 at 06:49:26 AM MST

I purchased a "uberex" standard 600 watt inverter from costco. Seems to work well.
As far as tax's go. All merchandise made in Canada is charged PST and GST. both imported and exported if it is new, if not new then it is under a product catagory and gets charged differently... Don't ask. Our tax system is screwy at best and everyone knows it.
>> all energy used to produce this comment or post came from solar and wind energy! It works!

300<1000watt Schematic Here (none / 0) (#2)
by LowTechWreck on Wed Sep 03, 2003 at 07:04:43 AM MST

http://www.aaroncake.net/circuits/inverter.htm

[ Parent ]

Re: 300<1000watt Schematic Here (none / 0) (#3)
by JW on Wed Sep 03, 2003 at 11:26:33 AM MST

Hi Reno,

Try www.vectormfg.com then go to the remanufactured web-sales section of there website. They do sell the 3000w model (VEC051) there for $435.00 us plus shipping. Bear in mind this is a remanufactured unit. but it still carrys the full two year warranty. I just bought one there myself, it works just as good as a new unit. I was able to compare a new one against a reman, they both seem to work equally well.
-JW

[ Parent ]

Re: 300<1000watt Schematic Here (none / 0) (#4)
by JW on Wed Sep 03, 2003 at 12:21:30 PM MST

I just visited the vector site and could not find the vec051. It seems they took it off the page, there's a bunch of other inverters there, but no vec051. I had been watching that thing on there for like six months finally decided to do it, it went well and as soon as I mentioned it its gone. sorry guys maybe I bought the last one they had.
-JW

[ Parent ]

Re: 300<1000watt Schematic Here (none / 0) (#6)
by Reno on Wed Sep 03, 2003 at 03:41:47 PM MST

I am looking for a Canadian site
I did write Vector and asked them for
a list of Canadian retailers but nothing yet.

[ Parent ]

Re: 300<1000watt Schematic Here (none / 0) (#5)
by TomW on Wed Sep 03, 2003 at 03:22:27 PM MST

LTW;

I have to point a couple things out with regard to that inverter.

I can't imagine it has much frequency stability. What I mean by that is while it will certainly put out AC the output hertz [frequency] will vary wildly with the load it has on it.

Pretty much the same thing goes for output voltage and current. I would never attach that to anything i cared much about. However, for lights or heaters or something like a wall wart it would probably be OK.

Just felt that should be said before someone thinks they can build one to run their house off of. Modern inverters incorporate several layers of control on frequency, current and voltage in order to stay within rated specs over varying loading and supply conditions.

By all means experiment, learn and try one out but be aware of its limitations before you plug in your new Widescreen HDTV.

I tend to see things from the angle of "Whats wrong with this picture" viewpoint which comes from years of troubleshooting. I never believed anyone else much so I experimented and you should too. I have seen some spectacular failures over time trying circuits i found in some obscure place including a tesla coil that nearly fried me because i doubled the windings for some windage.

I am certainly not an expert in electronics circuit design just a guy who has worked with electronics and computers for a longer time than he cares to admit.

Cheers.

TomW

The Truth is the Truth, even if no one believes it; and a lie is a lie even if everyone believes it

[ Parent ]

300 to 1000watt Schematic Here: >Another one (none / 0) (#8)
by LowTechWreck on Wed Sep 03, 2003 at 04:43:24 PM MST

Hi Tom
As Johny Carson's side kick used to say
"Yes Sir, You Are Correct Sir"
But so many people are begging for Plans
I've been looking, because mine "Aint Gona CutIt Either"
Heres another one:

http://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/circ/archive/inverter.htm

[ Parent ]

300 to 1000 watt Schematic Here: Another one (none / 0) (#9)
by LowTechWreck on Wed Sep 03, 2003 at 05:00:52 PM MST

Silicon Power Transistor 2n3055

http://www.ushasemi.com/pdf/MJE/2N3055%20.pdf

[ Parent ]

Re: 300 to 1000 watt Schematic Here: Another one (none / 0) (#10)
by LowTechWreck on Wed Sep 03, 2003 at 06:16:43 PM MST

This Schematic is starting to be really consistant.
Another Refference...Even:

http://www.i4at.org/lib2/inverter.htm

[ Parent ]

Re: Canadians where/which inverters (none / 0) (#7)
by Reno on Wed Sep 03, 2003 at 03:43:14 PM MST

We have a Costco a few cities over
next time I am in that town i will
check it out
Thanks

[ Parent ]

Re: Canadians where/which inverters (none / 0) (#12)
by jubalearly on Thu Sep 04, 2003 at 01:50:00 PM MST

I bought an inverter here:

http://www.store4power.com

I believe they are in Canada.

[ Parent ]

Re: Canadians where/which inverters (none / 0) (#13)
by LowTechWreck on Thu Sep 04, 2003 at 02:44:49 PM MST

Looks like some great Prices.
Which one did you get?

[ Parent ]

Re: Canadians where/which inverters (none / 0) (#11)
by RobC on Wed Sep 03, 2003 at 09:30:07 PM MST

I bought mine a HighGear brand 2000 watt 4000 surge for 319.00 US.
They are made by the Cobra CB radio people 3 year warranty and if I remember right
24 hour telephone tech support. Bet you can't beat that deal anywhere.
I would bet they are sold in Canada but don't know for sure.
RobC

Re: Canadians where/which inverters (none / 0) (#14)
by thebbqguy on Fri Sep 05, 2003 at 08:09:22 AM MST

Hi Reno ( original poster of this topic )

Are you saying the Canadian Tire model was rated at 700 but you were able to blow it out at 500 ?

If so, did you get your money back from them ? .... I'm curious. I find Canadian Tire are not so quick to refund money.

I have always wondered about the quality of their intervers. I thought they may not be of the highest quality, and you story seems to back this up.

Anyway from what you say you were well within the specs of the product and it blew anyway, - that's pretty scary and depressing.

Mark

Re: Canadians where/which inverters (none / 0) (#15)
by thebbqguy on Fri Sep 05, 2003 at 02:44:52 PM MST

Hi Reno,

By the way, I see many of the people who responded to your orinal post, posting prices of power converters that are MUCH higher priced than the $99 model you bought, - I'm wondering if the low price of $99 for a 700 watt power inverter tells the tale - that indeed it's a piece of crap ? ... not sure, but from what i see here, it must be. I'm glad of your post because I will steer clear of that brand, that's for darned sure. If in the States you buy a 700 watt inverter for $400, ( about $500 Canadian) then it's for sure that they are much better quality than the piece of junk our local Canadian Tire store sells.

Is this by chance the model you bought ? it sells for $99.99
at CanadianTire ... http://www.canadiantire.ca

The bottom line, if the thing was rated at 700 watts which it is, and their website even states it has a 1000 watt surge, then it should never had blown with what you were using ... - this product is ineed a POC.

[ Parent ]

Re: Canadians where/which inverters (none / 0) (#16)
by Reno on Fri Sep 05, 2003 at 04:34:44 PM MST

yeah thats the one
But not my problem Canadian Tire owns it again.
Actually was thinking of blowing up another
just for fun
It does come with a 2 year warranty.
Why is that Canadian companies list prices
in US Dollars and did you know that provinces
do not collect each others sales taxes
PowerBright ships out of quebec and wants to
charge me PST. I told them Que doesn't collect PST for Ontario
and Quebec doesn't have a PST anymore.
The price you quoted for a 700 watt inverter is a little high
though
PowerBright - 159.00
Vector - 129.00 on sale normally 189.00

[ Parent ]

Re: Canadians where/which inverters (none / 0) (#17)
by Reno on Fri Sep 05, 2003 at 04:38:40 PM MST

It went back
Canadian Tire is great for taking thing back
A buddies bought one of those Mosquito Magnets
back in June he is returning now with no box and
no questions asked (Told them it didn't work)
Actually it was rated fot 500 watts continuous
so that is what I put on it.

[ Parent ]

Re: Canadians where/which inverters (none / 0) (#18)
by thebbqguy on Sun Sep 07, 2003 at 01:13:49 PM MST

Reno,

I have to ask something, can you tell us what you were running on the inverter that was sucking 500watts of continuous power ?

I'm really wondering what it was.....

thanks if you can let us know, sorry I'm just curious :-)

Mark

[ Parent ]

Canadians where/which inverters | 19 comments (19 topical)

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