Cutwater 26 Inverter

[jboland11]

My 1500 watt inverter is designed to run the microwave. It won't. When I checked the voltage on the Blue Sea panel it was reading 80 Volts? Any advise?

Thank you.

 

[stwendl]

I think you need a load before the full voltage is applied. The inverter may be in some stdby mode without load.

 

[Red Raven]

When you say “it won’t” what do you mean? What happens?

 

[BB marine]

I think that some of the inverters installed on Cutwaters were Modified sine wave. If your inverter is a modified sine wave inverter here is an explanation of why the voltage is lower. Many less expensive volt meters simply take the peak voltage and divide by the sqrt of 2... For a sine wave, this is exactly correct for calculating the Root Mean Square (RMS) value of a sine wave (basically, the 120 VDC voltage equivalent work of a 170 Volt Peak Sine Wave).However, a MSW (Modified Sine Wave) inverter outputs, basically, a square wave. The peak of the square wave is much less than 170 volts. So, the inexpensive meter reads the peak voltage, applies the sine wave conversion factor, and comes up with a low RMS reading. This is basically explaining that the 80 volt reading is because of the volt meter is not capable of reading a modified sine wave inverter voltage correctly.

The 1500W inverter should be able to operate the microwave. The information you gave is vague , Do you have the main breaker on at the Ac panel? Do you have the microwave breaker on at the main Ac panel? Does the microwave work ok when on shore power then when you switch to inverter it does not?

 

[Andrew Custis]

To add to the latest response, first thing you need to verify is battery voltage. Brian is right about the volt meter and you do have a modified sine wave inverter. If the batteries are weak or discharged, this would also be a place to check. Many times I will monitor battery voltage when running an inverter to make sure they don't drop off really quickly which sometimes will indicate a bad battery.

Thank you,

 

[MartyC]

i have a Cuisinart microwave and I believe it requires a true sine wave inverter. The 1500 watt that came std on my C28 never ran my microwave. KISAE Technology SW1220 2000W True Sine Wave Power Inverter runs my microwave just fine.

 

[jboland11]

Thanks to all. The microwave works with the shore power and generator but not the invertor.

 

[BB marine]

We have the same Microwave/convection oven as MartyC. When we purchased the boat I didn't get the factory inverter because I wanted a True sine wave inverter and also a higher output. We too have the Kisea technology SWX1220 2000W continuous and 4000W peak output. We use the microwave and convection oven with no issues using the inverter. The volt meter reads 120V because the true/pure sine wave outputs. Appliances like refrigerators, microwaves, and compressors that use AC motors won't run as efficiently on a modified sine wave as they would on a pure sine wave. We do not have a generator so we rely on the inverter for all our cooking and any other 120V requirement onboard. Exception the marine air,(Battery charger and Hot water heater, the engine takes care of these while running). I relocated the inverter from the factory location. I wanted it in a drier environment and cooler. I made a bracket and mounted the inverter on top of the waste tank with the cooling fans in the far aft section of the boat I found this to be cooler and drier then the storage compartment. The complete install was less then $700.00 Parts. Plus my labor.

 

[jboland11]

Just replaced this stock invertor with a Kisea technology SWX1220 2000W. Outstanding results.

Thanks to all for the advice.