I really really enjoy your videos you're a very smart man thank you so much for taking the time to explain everything Rock

I was the beggar who asked ages ago to review Accurate Tools. I did buy a 300/600 but it went back. This was my experience: 1. When I received it, it rattled inside. I contacted them and asked them if it was OK to take it apart to see what it was. A power wire eyelet was laying inside, disconnected from the wire. I crimped and soldered a new eyelet on the wire and connected it. 2. I ran power to the battery under the hood, and then put it under the seat. I then ran it to power a laptop in my car. However, when I plugged in my laptop, the cursor rapidly jumps all over the screen, and electricity burned the tops of my legs like a 9v battery on your tongue.(titanium base on Dell M6600 laptop) The touch screen on my Note 3 would not respond to touch while the inverter was on. Others have read have had similar problems. If I moved the inverter on the other side of the windshield, just under the hood. With the hood open, I ran the high voltage wire into the car to test. Everything worked fine. I played with people's recommendations of capacitors and they made zero difference. I sent it back because I was afraid of it damaging devices. 4. I talked to Samlex. They said you cannot stop that inexpensively, and the snake oil fixes with capacitors cannot work because the problem is not on the output side, it is from the input side, and why putting it under the hood works. Then he went on with and high-amp conductors reflecting the high frequency switching is the problem, and how theirs has an FCC Part 15 Class B rating (residential low EMI emissions) He also said to spec. at least twice the average continuous power you will be using for best circuit stability. The Xantrex ProWATTS are Class A (industrial, which is not as stringent) but good enough to work with Apple products, which apparently is the acid test for fussy power requirements. My take away from owning one of theseAccurate Tools inverters is they can be had for a good price. The assembly makes me think of an assembly line where they get so many seconds and it moves on, ready or not. Positioned inside of the passenger area with wires going to the battery is not tenable due to their high EM radiation from the input wires. They are a little too cheap to get good assembly. Unlike MSW inverters, it adds significant cost to produce a pure sine wave, low-EMI inverter, suitable for use inside of the passenger compartment of a vehicle. Even if you can put an inverter somewhere where the EMI will not be an issue, you might want to double the price and get something like a TigerClaw. They are more the threshold of real with thermostatically controlled fans, to far better heat sinking, to better airflow distribution, to more consistent and closer tap switching, to actually being able to do 1500 and surge to 3000, it is better in every way but price, $179.00 in-hand. The only issues they have is the fans don't last forever for something like an off-grid scenario. See knurlgnar24's reviews on the TigerClaw.

I was waiting for you to press the right button, I would have liked to have seen the cycles. I enjoyed the video.

Very nice. One thing that happened with mine is that two fuses blew and I did not have any smoke! Your video was very good in showing how the case comes apart for in my case it did NOT open easily. My unit has 3 transformers.

Hey man I always watch you stuff and ur really inspiring. I recently got my hands on some super cheap sma 240 grid tie micro inverter but I am finding out they need something called a multigate which is really just a glorified communication device. I know they talk between each other thru power line comm. Any idea how it says to allow voltage to be pushed to grid. I was thinking of trying to pull it apart and see if I can get some pin outs on the board. Goal to use without a multigate, just like I do today with an enphase without an envoy

love the videos bud

Hello Knurlgnar, Once again you have produced a very good video. I am anxious to see the rest of the series. Best Regards. -BAG2

I just want to know how your going to get another 3 parts out of a blown inverter. Thanks for sharing.

i reckon you could drill a couple holes near the heatsinks that were not attached to the case giving you some more airflow and cooling the transistors too

Ive got one of these heaps, drops down to 90 volts at 1200 watts. All 4 of my 40 amp fuses internally are all melted but yet still work???

I bought an accurate tools 1000 watt pure sine wave inverter for an ebay auction for 115 bucks, and almost all the things you said were bad about your inverter were built correctly in my inverter

What are the two trimmer pots inside the inverter for? I know one of them adjusts output voltage but I dont know what the other one is for. Thank you!

what is a good reasonably priced pure sinewave inverter? I am new to solor so I am trying to research as much as I can before buying.

Can't wait for next part :) Could You explain topology of this inverter in next part? :)

great job

how many power jacks have you done.

I have an Accurate Tools 300 watt pure sine wave inverter and it has been my workhorse inverter in our camper for a few years. My crude test of AC waveform suitability is if the flat screen television in the camper makes an awful humming noise when it is plugged into it. With a MSW inverter, the TV will have a loud humming from the back of it as soon as it is plugged into the outlet. With the Accurate Tools 300 watt PSW inverter, there is no humming and the TV works perfectly. It worked well enough that I bought a 1000 watt Accurate Tools pure sine wave inverter as well. However, the television makes a quieter version of humming sound when plugged into its outlet. Any ideas on what causes that? Thanks.

the inverter i bought and want you to review has fan control but runs it all the time but not full till hot, its nearly fool proof in design where you can hook even ac 12v to the input and it will think its pulsed dc, literally i hooked it up in the dark when my power went out and if it didn't turn on id reverse it, its 23$ for 300watts or 71 for 1000watts, the only way to break the input side is really high input voltage (have not tested but there is no protection that i see) of course if you short it from the cap on the inside it will blow, the output side is short protected at least that trying to run my stove and 4500 watts of radiant heat and 1800 of convection heat just stalled it and it tried to reboot repeatedly but never blew, the input is fully isolated and only connected magneticly, if you run 120 wall power to the inputs it sits there happily till you turn it on, then it blows up spectacularly where it blows the whole input side except the drive board and the dc cap, the driver may be broken i cant tell, also switching to 240 split phase with 2 of them is as easy as 2 diodes in place of the drive ground leads and wires connecting drive grounds then cutting 2 traces on the back witch i can do with a box cutter and soldering wire to 4 through hole board connections then just hooking the drive from one to the driven of both and thats it to pair and isolate them, then you can take l1 and l2 and pair them and pair n1 and n2 to get more current or take l1 as l1 and l2/n1 as N and n2 as l2 to get 240 with a centrer tap, i will be doing this soon but need to get more inverters

Was hoping to see the output on an O scope to see if it is a genuine sine wave

I am looking at the AT5000P model, want to buy one to power my home, when the power goes out! I have 7kw of LiFePo4 and 3kw of LTO batteries!

How about directly printed on the board next to the fuses says 30A!!! yet comes with 40's

+knurlgnar24 I have the 400 watt version and Im having an issue with beeping. it keeps beeping and the light goes from green to red and back and forth. Is this a grounding issue? I tested it by trying to connect it directly to the battery with some jumper cables and it worked. Then once I connected it to my longer cable it does the beeping thing. Even when the engine is on. Any ideas?

Do you think getting a higher wattage inverter than needed and keeping it running at 75% would keep the inverter running cooler? (For example: Purchase a 2000 instead of a 1500 and only use 1500)

10:55 I'm not entirely sure what you mean. Current measing shunts should preferrably have a low resistance, since you don't want to unnecessarily waste power. Usually wires with a particularly length and width are used as shunts. In precision applications the wire is laser etched to make it thinner until the resistance matches the desired value. How do you know the shunts do not have the correct resistance? I find it much more unsettling that wires are soldered directly to the shunts, changing their resistance by a random amount (unless the exact soldering location and amount of solder is carefully planned, which I suspect was not the case). Perhaps the shunts themselves have the correct resistance. You could try to desoldering the wires, cleaning the solder off the surface of the shunts as much possible and soldering the wires to the solder pads underneath the PCB.

Great video, i almost getting one of these unit, but after watching the review, i learned a lot, so what do you recommend, what is the best reasonable one for me to buy out there in the market today? I need one in case of the power out, winter months here are tough. Thank you.

As I said in another comment on Knurlgnar's reviews...I had two of these Accurate Tools Cheapies from Ebay...my 1500 PSW burned out in around 32 days. The 2000 in around 16-17 days. The return policy was 14 days. THEY KNOW....They HAVE TO.... I had the same experience, but mine had only one set of hook ups in the back. My watt/volt indicator was the same, or so....the 2000 had a faulty switch as well. So....Thank you Knurlgnar....NOW I KNOW WHY!!!!! These went bad....because they ARE BAD!!!! And it was nothing that I did....They are over powered on voltage....nothing really NEEDS 125volts...House current is 118v on my Kill a Watt. My cheap 400 watt inverters run my 300 watt one cup coffee maker just fine at 111v-112v...so does the OSP Tiger Claw...then as you saw in the video...the other poor things about these inverters...and it is NOT JUST THE 1500!!!!! I had taken my inverter setup in my car, with two 100ah batteries to make a friend a hotdog with my 600w Microwave oven,....did that...got home...and FZZZZZZZZZ....when I tested it again in the car....burned out. At least mine did not SMOKE!!! The 2000w I was just in the back study making a hotdog, and BWUOOOP! OFF.....dead....even with Fuse. These things are CRAP!!!!! Don't buy one. The OSP Tiger Claw has been an excellent inverter...No problems since purchase in June 2014....knock on wood...(like my other review.) KUDOS to Knurlgnar and Xboxer 1985 for their excellent reviews...and tests, etc.... Excellent Work!!!

Do you fix inverters please let me know

It looks like you are drawing all the wattage off of one leg or one outlet, both heater and bulbs. This unit is 1500w but is each leg 750w max or is it bridged so you can draw all 1500 off of one outlet?

what kind of sine wave do you get with these I bought a 400 watt /800 max am going to run a 95 watt unit but that is an Ac oxygen concentrater compressor which requires a good sine wave Can you post a picture of the sine wave ?

Hello, hope you can help me by directing me to a fix of my 1500 watt power inverter. The unit will not power on at all. I took the top off to visually examine it and noticed a burnt smell by one of the four transformers. If it would be OK I can post pictures to google drive for you to look at. I would really be very gratful . Thanks

I have 2 1800 watt inverter charger but they don't work they have bad fets in the input

Hi knurlgnar24I need help with an inverter, please. It is a 2000W pure sine. We used it for household appliances (refrigerator, washing machine, fan, lights), suddenly it stopped working. The voltage is fine - 220V - but the frequency has gone haywire: running between 100-200hz (should be 50hz). It still powers the lights, but nothing with a motor. Any idea what the problem could be, and more importantly, how can I fix it please??

7:15 it looks like the transistor that died wasn't particularly well mounted. Is it just me or is it not flat on the heatsink?

I don't suppose you could show the waveform on a scope at idle and under load some time ?

Wow, liked and subbed. I'm wondering if there is any downside to buying overkill in capacity and running low demand stuff...? They sell insanely large capacity-claiming ones like 5000w cont.(10kw peak) and I was wondering because a guy (I think he was reviewing a different brand 3kw one) said his bigger one gave wonky power (I forget if it was frequency or purity of wave, but it wasn't just voltage) at lower load or demand and smoother out after like 400w was being drawn. This concerns me since I may only draw like 25 watts at times but would like to be able to draw like 500w. Overall I'm attracted to this model over others (at the same price...I'm severely limited in budget & you can get one for 100 bucks) since I now can see inside and I've seen worse components. I have a large aluminum heat sink block and attachable fins that I could slather some heat sink paste on and bolt on, and I'm known for modding air flow. A guy called Tom's accurate tools also extensively did a text page on a 300w one of this brand, showing it dispensed like 62.5Hz vs. 60 etc. and he changed crystals to fix that. I doubt it will be a problem for me, I want to run small PA at weddings off grid. Thanks!!! I would rather have the fan burn all the time rather than the unit I saw that kicked in when the until was stupid hot. I can deal with a lot of cut corners either I can fix or just deal with. I just would like the least change of it stopping working altogether at a wedding. I'll get a backup one day soon, too, but can begin working now and I have a big pure sine wave UPS that can save the day for a while in a pinch. I wish the APC Smart UPS 600 ran off 12v but it seems to use two 12v batteries in series, not parallel (making it 24v) :( otherwise I could have used my 27 plate deep cycle battery with it as a backup unit.

hmm you popt it i got a 1500 watt dc to ac power inverter usb dc 12v to ac 230v good one or konw

I had the exact same, but 600 watt. It would beep all the time and not even close to 300 watts.Ended up selling it to a guy that need it to run just a radio.

I'm only asking....not complaining or trying to give you a bunch of feces...I noticed that the kill-a-watt looked as though it wasn't plugged in all the way.... I realize that contact is contact, but, could that have affected anything ? I'm figuring that the way the inverter was designed and put together, it wouldn't make a difference . I'm asking, because when I use my kill a watt...when putting several plugs into it, it seems to sag down. Thanks in advance. Love your vids !!!!!

the smaller 300 watt inverter has a fan control circuit. i imagine the larger units would too.

cant you fix it to make it run better

knurlgnar24 - Long time viewer, first time commenting: It occurs to me that a lot of the "brand name" components on these inexpensive inverters are most probably counterfeit. For example, the primary capacitor on this unit, which looks like Rubycon MXR is most probably fake. Often, fake large-value primary capacitors have a significantly lower farad rating than what is printed on them. You should also consider that input stage capacitors (Actually, in inverters, primary capacitors are output capacitors and secondary capacitors are input capacitors -- if I understand how an inverter works, that is) often fail without showing any outward signs. The electrolyte can dry up on the inside and the capacitor can still look perfectly normal. In PSUs, the quality of the primary capacitor isn't as critical as that of the secondary capacitors. I wonder if the reverse is true in an inverter. You should also consider that the transistors in these units might also be counterfeit. Either way, if you're going to repair these units, you might seriously consider investing in a sub-$100 ESR meter for the caps. Cheers, and great videos. Can't wait for the next few parts.

The Fan has to blow out the heat not the opposite, wher shout otherwise the heat go? 🤔 But a 2 fan designe would be much better, for one in for new cold air and one for out diapering the heat.

Short pieces of wire can act as a current shunt, (.001 Ohms or whatever)

Those wires are in fact how current shunts are made, there's not supposed to be any resistors. If you open any multimeter, you will see pretty much the same thing on the 10A scale. Granted, the ones in the video weren't probably trimmed for the job, but no resisters were meant to go there. (You wan't very low resistance in a current shunt. Less than 0.1 ohms, as you are drawing all the current over it)

The voltage is not anywhere high enough at the input to keep the voltage drop from happening. If a vehicle were to get their battery down to 12.8 volts while running, there would be significant issues present for any sizeable inverter. Car batteries should maintain 13.8 volts under heavy load and up to 14.4 without load.. The voltage really doesn't drop while the high beams are on, stereo blasted and every other component in the car, if it drops .2-.5 volts, that is a lot. The starter is normally one of the largest loads in a car other than high beams, however, if you look at the specs on most inverters that are over 1200 watts, they specifically rate them at 14.4 and 16 volts. They NEVER rate them at 12 or 12.8 volts.. The voltage drop on a an average sized car battery without being charged from a good alternator and it would be ridiculous with more than 40 amps loaded to them with the vehicle shut off. With 680 watts, the car battery will have an additional 57 amps added to the circuit, and, a car needs 70 or so amps rms to run everything at once minus the starter. This leaves you with only the ability to run 30-40 amps worth of accessories without maxing out the alternator. This 70 amps I am talking about is close to the maximum unless the vehicle is revving more than 3600 rpms. Alternator's max amperage is specified at way higher than idle currents where all inverters are normally run unless the vehicle has an idle kick up circuit installed. These larger inverters are designed for work trucks, campers, and, vehicles that can handle it.. not your average everyday small wimpy car. They are built for devices that have loads of batteries in a bank with solar panels, windmills, or other generation units capable of giving continous charge so the device can be powered. Inverters are not very efficient, and, this brand says they are 80-95% efficient, all depending on the product line.

you should contact the company about your assessment and let us know how they reply.

They should have just clipped the extra length off the input lead wire and used it to ground the case. Sloppy one hung low design.

yeah, pushing any inverter to its limits has its inherent risks!

Any chance you could review the larger accurate tools 5000 watt inverters at some point? I bought one of these and it seems to do quite well and can hold a consistent 4000-5000 Watt output in a motorhome, I was just wondering the quality of these, they appear close to a power bright model in looks but price point is much lower. pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=290987608713&alt=web

Need another can of smoke to recharge it.

Don't you think you're being a bit harsh when you say the jumper wires won't act like resistors... 🤣

should of said i poped it haha

That's 2 shunts not jumpers

That ground should be connected to the neutral side, many appliances use the ground for filtering, that's just crappy design

Yes he is correct. The transformers in these units are the problem. I design and build ev vehicles and we call this the “corona effect” no, not the beer... the field windings in the transformers generate enough heat to create a corona much like the sun around them causing more resistance due to a loss in magnetic field strength causing other problems. . I’ve been on a solar system for 25 years and have been through more than a few inverters. For my small electronics I have used a 400 watt sst vector inverter connected to a Triplite 600 watt isolater transformer line conditioner for the past 20 years. Vectors are good inverters but the reason it’s lasted so long is because the transformer line conditioner takes most of the load and stabilized the inverter. I like tripplite. For my large appliances, I use a Tripplite 2k inverter run through a Tripplite transformer line conditioner.

40.000w=40v

This thing is almost as puke worthy as a car sub amplifier I worked on a while back.

Man I tell you today 2019 I strongly believe they rebrand this inverter and call it Powerthat I tell you I bought one of them Powerthat inverter the internals look the same and is the same way it performs man I tell you it is the most disgusting inverter ever trust me when it is at the low tap my full size fridge flatters like it is struggling to run the lights which are led lights 💡💡 in my house also flatters and the fan runs 🏃 🏃 constantly trust me them fans load you be on the phone and have to talk loud to talk over the inverter it is like a generator in my house 🏡 and it is a 2000w 24v pure sine inverter right now I am saving up to buy a different inverter and I only have this one for three months now I just had to spend some time and watch this video and say to myself even back then different name but horrible same way.

why do electronics develop so much heat? make them so they don't, an you'll be rich

scariest part on this brand is their website. Section 7 "7. Disclaimer of Liability. AccurateTools® shall not be responsible for and disclaims all liability for any loss, liability, damage (whether direct, indirect or consequential), personal injury or expense of any nature whatsoever which may be suffered by you or any third party (including your company), as a result of or which may be attributable, directly or indirectly, to your access and use of the website, any information contained on the website, your or your company's personal information or material and information transmitted over our system. In particular, neither us nor any third party or data or content provider shall be liable in any way to you or to any other person, firm or corporation whatsoever for any loss, liability, damage (whether direct or consequential), personal injury or expense of any nature whatsoever arising from any delays, inaccuracies, errors in, or omission of any share price information or the transmission thereof, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon or occasioned thereby or by reason of non-performance or interruption, or termination thereof." Basically. Steer clear!!!!!