 "cobra cpi 1500" | 2009-10-26 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2S0MOICZRRLSA |
| very efficient and quiet. i have used many inverters in the past but this brand is what i will buy from now on.other brands' fan starting to go right away contributing to drainage of your battery.the cobra cpi 1575 starts only when it needs to and i am yet to see it heat up for a need for the fans to come on.buy this model and you'll not be dissappointed. |
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| "Works Flawlessly" | 2009-10-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1CQMIEB02HHNV |
| I used this every day for a week at my remote cabin. I had loads that varied from 40 watts to 1750 watts. The inverter works great and the display is accurate. |
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 "Lasted less than 24 hours" | 2009-10-07 |
| - Reviewed By User: A22144LYL3ZGK8 |
Other reviewers don't seem to have had the problem I did, so this might be a good product but I must tell you my experience with it. I am very familiar with inverters and how to hook them up having lived off of solar power now for over ten years. When I first set up this inverter, the input voltage showed 12.3 volts, the same as my battery voltage but undr a 110 watt load the output wattage meter showed 0 (zero) watts. What I had plugged into the inverter was working fine (a small TV), so I assumed this meter was just broken. If that was all that was wrong I could have lived with it. The next morning I turned it on, turned on the same TV and within 20 minutes the picture on my TV slowly shrank down to a pinpoint and then shut off. There were no low voltage warning sounds. I checked my battery level and it was at 12.2 volts, the same 12.2 volts showed on the input meter on the inverter, output still showed zero, as it always did. I checked the output at all three of the outlets on the inverter and they showed zero. I turned the inverter off and then back on with the voltage meter still in one of the outlets and watched my meter go from 119 volts down to 30 volts, up to 80 volts and then back to zero. The whole time there were no warning sounds coming from the inverter. This fluctuation could very easily damage anything that was plugged into the inverter!!!!
The good news, Amazon's return system is very easy, didn't cost a penny to return it and I got a refund quickly. I thought of getting a replacement instead of a refund because of all the good reviews but decided not to press my luck, no equipment was damaged this time but why risk it again. If I could rate Amazon I would give them five stars but the inverter gets zero xtars since it didn't function as advertised, went dead under much lower load than it is rated for. |
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| "12VDC Wire size and fuse considerations" | 2009-10-04 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3LJUCQ24IJP3Q |
This review is in response to some comments regarding wire and fuse size selections for this inverter and others like it.
In response to other review quoting a table from the National Electric Code (NEC). While the table that was posted is correct for 115VAC (household voltage) is does not translate directly to 12VDC (automotive voltage). When dealing with a 12 volt system there is less concern with wires overheating, at least in the way that the NEC considers it, and far more concern with voltage drop. When running wiring a reasonable distance (a couple hundred feet or so) there is little concern with voltage drop with AC power. But when dealing with DC, simply increasing your wiring distance 5-10' can have a drastic effect on voltage drop. That is why this inverter should be wired with, at the very least, with #4 wire and really should be installed with #2 or thicker, especially if you need to run wire 15 or 20 feet or more.
The purpose of a fuse in a DC system is to protect the rest of your electrical system in the event of a short. That is why you always want to install your fuse as close to the battery as possible (no more then 3' if you can help it). As far as the amperage goes, there is a really good quick reference chart for automotive wire size that can be found at Tessco's web site here:[...]. But to boil it down, you can safely fuse a 12VDC circuit at 150, or 200 amps, or more on #4, #2 or #0 wire.
Now this unit at full load is something like 85% efficient. So if you do the math -- 1500 Watts / 12 Volts / .85 efficiency = ~147 amps, A 150 AMP FUSE IS REQUIRED. If you take peak power into account you would need to double that to a 300 amp fuse, but because the inverter cannot run at peak power for more then a moment, a slow-blow 150amp fuse may work just fine, or perhaps you could step up a 200amp. I wouldn't go all the way to a 300 amp fuse unless you really found that you needed it and had the inverted is wired in such a way that it could handle that level current (read: installed using very heavy gauge wire). Now if your vehicle is running while your inverter is working the amperage will be a little lower because your dealing with 14.4 VDC rather then 12 volts (watts = volts x amps -or- amps = watts / volts). But at the very least, a 150 amp ANL fuse is very good idea and not at all over sized.
Just a FYI on fuses, most car stereos are installed with AGU style fuses, but they only go up to 100 amps.
You will need an ANL style fuse to get one rated at 150 amps or more. See these links for examples:
Kicker 09ANL150 150 Amp ROHS Compliant ANL Fuse - Package of 2
Scosche EWFH Single ANL Fuse Holder |
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 "needs a bigger battery?" | 2009-09-30 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2A2QQEP8SSAXH |
| this seems to be okay for intermittent use, but i wanted to use it for a solar system/electric hot water heater project and the instructions clearly tell you not to run it for more than an hour at full load. I would need to run it for hours at a time. Also as many have commented you need to get a cut up a pair of 6 gauge jumper cables to hook this thing up as it has internal power connectors, and it takes a pretty good battery to run it. I am going to try and run this off a pair of 6 volt golf cart batteries instead of a car battery and see if it works any better. I have not tested it out over 10 amps yet, and about any decent power tool takes that as a minimum. I also have not tried to run it for a more than an hour due to the instructions (hour on, hour off at full load) When I get more of my project set up I will update my review. |
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| "Cobra 1575 Inverter" | 2009-09-17 |
| - Reviewed By User: AMB4TI4DVD87M |
| So far seems to work great, but I have only been able to test a load of about 1.03kw. I wish that the terminals that you connect the positive and negative wires to were a different design because the wires can slip out after much use. |
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