Are AIMS inverters any good?

[srnoth]

Hey all,

I've recently had some trouble with my 400W vector inverters (only one still works), so I am shopping for a new inverter again.

The inverter that has attracted my attention is an Aims 1250 Watt Modified Sine Wave Power Inverter:

http://www.invertersrus.com/inv1250w.html

Inverters R Us.com claims that AIMS inverters are very reliable. They say:

We only carry the Aims line of power inverters because it is the ONLY brand of inverters we trust. Compare the Aims power inverters to the competition and you will not only see that we are less expensive, but that the Aims inverters features and specifications are the same or BETTER! If you are like most of our inverter customers, you are mostly interested in buying a quality inverter, not paying for another manufacture's marketing campaign.

I would love to believe them but I have come to realise that you can't trust anybody who is trying to sell you something.

So what do y'all think of AIMS inverters. Have any of you had any experience with the particular inverter in question, or any AIMS inverters?

All advice is appreciated.

Cheers,

Stephen.

[nothing to lose]

Well first I should say I have not put mine into continous use with heavy loads like the whole house yet. But I love it so far!

Mine is a 5,000 watt/10,000watt surge Aims inverter, much larger than you mentioned.

I have ran chest type freezers off it for awhile, worked great. My Air Compressor works on it fine also (maybe 5hp, 60gal, but I forget exactly). Ran an electric chainsaw off it alot on a 100' extension cord in the woods. I have a 4' 2 tube shoplight CFL unit, it often buzzes even on grid power, does not buzz on the inverter so far which really surprised me. Only thing I noticed is some of my box type fans seemed to run a little slower (and one had a hum on slower speeds) and that's considered normal on mod wave inverters so I haven't worried about it.

 Although my inverter is not in everyday high load use, it has been used alot, with fairly heavy loads, several times it's been ran till it shut off at about 10.5 volts which of course was the batteries limit of a small bank.

I did call the tech support when I first got mine, he seemed friendly and knowledgable and spoke actual english, I think it was Nevada I was calling not sure. I did not have a problem, just wanted more info than included in the manaul. Only weak spot with this inverter is the manual, definatly should be proof read by someone that knows basic spelling and english. The info is easy to understand that they give, but it's a laugh a minute reading about the "poower" supply!

The tech I talked to did not say WHO makes the Aims inverter, just that it is made by one of the bigger manufactors that also builds other NAME BRAND units. He did not say which brands though. But just like anything else, they may produce High quality stuff as a name brand and lower cheaper quality stuff as generic also, many companies do that. But at least the company should have lots of knowledge and experience in the inverter area if that is true, not just some fly by night outfit here today gone tommorrow.

I have used mine alot. Only limited to size of battery bank, everything I have used so far works great or as expected (fans) on this inverter. I been alot slow on getting my offgrid set up, I have the grid but want to dump it. Been a nightmare at times trying to work on things here, no room, no time alot, get time and drag the stuff outside and it rains. I have had this inverter about 11 months or so now and it still works great but still not in everyday permanant use for the whole house as I had planned.

 I did just rent a LARGE old rock house, shop outside etc.. so now in the comming weeks I will be offgrid there and getting alot of work done on all my projects since I can just set stuff up and leave it till done. No more of dragging stuff out and putting it away to drag out something else or when it rains

As for the inverter again. I am planning to buy another one of these 5k/10k Aims myself. It has been very handy having this one as a portable unit (though large and bulky), enough power to run anything 120V from anywhere (as long as I have enough batteries). I am rebuilding  a 1ton box truck as a tool truck/camper/portable power/whatever truck and it will have a large battery bank under the truck and a permenantly mounted Aims 5K inverter inside the truck.

Not sure the regular price on this inverter, Donrowe.com sells em for around $580 I think, often on sale for around $525 or less, I bought mine new for under $500 early last year from a private dealer.

[nothing to lose]

By the way, Thanks for that link.

I have the one they are selling for $549 which may not be a bad price since it is free shipping. Those large ones like I have are heavy to ship and just about everyone wants around $35 just for shipping and insurance on them.

[nothing to lose]

After looking that site over a bit more, I am not to sure I like the site. Maybe you should do some checking before you spend much money there!! I still love the Aims inverter I have, but that site is looking ODD to me now.

Most product reviews are from people asking qustions, not owners of products reviewing them. Strange! It sometimes happens people do such things, but far too many there and far to few real reviews, looks strange to me!

This product I DO NOT like the claims of charging you battery while running devices from the inverter.

http://www.invertersrus.com/inv1500wc.html

"Aims 1500 Watt Modifed Sine Wave Power Inverter with Charger"

"With a built in charger, you can use your inverter to charge your 12 volt batteries while you draw power from your inverter. Simply connect your inverter to a 12V dc battery, such as the one you would find in your car,"

Ok, I don't see in the specs where that charging power is comming from any outside source through the inverter to charge the batteries. Using a battery to power an inverter to run your fridge, and charging that battery at the same time from it's own power through the inverter?? Simply cannot be done of course, but almost looks as that's what they are claiming. If so I would call it a scam and aviod that site, buy an AIMS elsewhere.

Now of course there are alot of inverter chargers controllers that use an external power source to charge batteries, wind gennies, solar, etc.. for the external power source, but I see no mention of anything like that. I do not even see anything in the specs about the charging currant it is suposed to charge at? Would that be 1amp, 10amp, etc..??

Looks awefull funny too me at this time. If one product is a scam then the whole site probably is, so beware and check them before buying anything. They post a number and say " Feel free to call us with any questions at 480-219-1796. " and I strongly suggest it before spending any money.

Also they repeatedly say "Simply connect your inverter to a 12V dc battery, such as the one you would find in your car" on all the inverters I looked at, I would not suggest that with my 5k inverter and any decent load of course as it would kill the car battery, early death!

Anyway I will probably call them latter myself and ask some questions about that charger inverter, just play dumb and see what they say. If they try to tell me the battery charges itself while suppling to a fridge too I'll know it's a scam site. Hopefully they are not, and myabe the will have some answers how it really connects to other power sources for charging??

[srnoth]

Hehe, I guess that last 'review' is yours ;-). I agree though. That one with the charger seems pretty odd. But I think they are a real site, since they also sell their inverters through amazon.com, and I think Amazon is pretty good with not having scams.

I think it's more likely that the website simply caters to the technically challenged people among us. When I read the 'customer testimonials', it seems that most of the people who bought the inverters were Floridians who had been through a hurricane and wanted backup power before the next hurricane arrived. So they make it sound so simple with the car batteries and stuff so these people would not freak out. Hopefully that is the case. If you're going to call them, post and let us know if they are for real or not.

Thanks for the long review on the aims. I think I will definitely get the 1250W one, at least for now, until I save up for the really big one you have. Do you know whether those big ones can be hard-wired to the house panel, or do they have a problem with the neutral and ground being bonded? It will be a great plus if they can handle that. I think I will email invertersrus.com and ask them that. If they can answer that (or have any clue at all what I'm talking about) then that's a good sign.

Cheers,

Stephen.

[hiker]

my wallmart 750watt vector is still kicking after a year--what kind of problems did

you have with your 400?

[ghurd]

By following the posts, I think they were the Sportsmans Guide, Target house branded, silver with a handle, re-furbs.

I have many good Vectors. (Not the "Power On Board" type Vectors, they are junk in my experience, and start with a 'POB' part number)

G-

[kenputer]

I think what they mean about charging your battery is when you use the inverter from  your car battery that you can run your car and let the alt.charge the battery while you still use the inverter. Thats my take on it.

kenputer

[(unknown)]

No, what they mean is stated under the 1000 watt unit.

"

The AIMS 1000 Watt modified sine wave power inverter with charger provides power to run your devices while charging your batteries. Simply plug this power inverter into an AC outlet.

"

You can tell from the picture that the 1500 watt unit works in the same manner.  The text on the site for the 1500 watt unit is not only misleading, it's flat out wrong.

happy trails

[srnoth]

Hey again guys,

Just for interest, I went ahead and purchased a 800W MSW AIMS inverter from invertersrus.com, and it arrived about a week and a half later, so they definiately are not bogus. Just some if the info on their site about the various models does seem to be a bit incorrect and potentially misleading. Like saying that the 5000W invterer can be hooked up to a car battery to provide power!! That would indeed wreck the battery in no time.

Anyway, The inverter works fine, I haven't had any problems with it, but I have not gotten a chance to test it under a heavy load for long periods of time.

The only problem I had is that the surge cappacity on this thing is so high (2000W) that I had to replace the wire between my fuses, DC disconnect and the inverter with heavier wire. THis was because when a load with heavy start up would come on, like the monitor, the lights would actually dim, and the computer would restart!! Replacing the wire (it waz pretty small wire I admit, but it worked for my small 400W inverter) with two sets how 8-gauge automotive wire from radioshack seemed to do the trick. Starts heavy loads with easy now.

So, I definately like www.invertersrus.com now. Their service is great, infact, they replied to every single one of my emails within about 5 mins of me sending it, even one sent at about 11 oclock at night!! And their prices are great. For some reason though, they are even better if you buy it through amazon.com, where invertersrus also offers their products.

Cheers,

Stephen.

[(unknown)]

AIMS inverters are junk!  

I purchased a 1500W pure sine unit and it failed after just a few hours use at low load.  I shipped it to the factory at my expense for a replacement (after 6 hassle-filled phone calls).  

The next one actually caught FIRE! That's not good aboard a boat!  It was again under light load.

The next one (yes, a third one!) just died after 3 *minutes* of use.  The manufacturer agreed to a refund (credit back to invertersrus).

Oh, but it's not over.  Now try to get a refund from invertersrus!  It took almost 3 months and many calls to get a credit.

IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM YOU ONLY HAVE 60 DAYS TO CONTACT THE CREDIT CARD COMPANY TO DISPUTE THE CHARGE.  If you are patient and try to work with the retailer (invertersrus) and the manufacturer, you will quickly run past this time and then you have NO LEVERAGE.  DON'T WAIT.

Also, the AIMS unit wouldn't power what is said it would.  The Xantrex unit I now have powers high-wattage units as claimed (such as a microwave).

MY ADVICE: BUY A XANTREX! PAY THE PREMIUM!  If you go for the Aims, you will get what you pay for.  If you buy from Invertersrus, dispute your charge within 60 days if you have ANY problems.

[(unknown)]

A note about the use of most Pure Sine Wave inverters here.

Most of these inverters will not perform well at all with

light loading.  Small loads tend to give problems.  Either

a smaller watt size inverter is needed, or the use of a

Modified Sine inverter. Sensitive equipment does need the

pure sine inverter to protect the equipment, but a small

load demand can cause problems in the inverter.  I had

made this mistake myself before a good study of the

problem.  Now, I use MSW for smaller loading, and smaller

wattage PSW for smaller loading with sensitive equipment.

Also, I always figure that any inverter may not be expected

to perform satisfactorily beyond 30% less than the stated

continuous power.  That 30% less figure is a good margin of

safety when calculating your expected watt requirements

versus the inverter power you buy.  You will never get

overloaded this way.