Reviews of Xantrex Prowatt SW1000 1000W True Sinewave Inverter

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Recently the price on inverters (esp true sine) has dropped quite a bit (there are two xantrex 1000 watt units the older 750 buck one and now the $200-$300 price one). Xantrex has a wonderful reputation. I own this inverter along with their older model (pro-sine) and also the new entry from sunforce (yes I have alot of 1000w inverters).

I also have alot of 1000w loads. In particular is my favorite testload a 1050 w (with motorthe heating element is 1000w exactly but it has a blower that consumes 50w so technically its a tad high).

With this dummy load both of my xantrex inverters will run it all day or until the battery bank dies whichever comes first. They draw about 110-115 amps on the 12vdc lines.

The sunforce 1000w inverter CAN NOT run this load for more than 2 seconds without an output overload shutdown. But I still like the sunforce because it can handle 900W and it has an RF keychain remote on/off switch.

The point is Xantrex products are clean, reliable power, while other knockoffs (compare sunforce's 1K and this one and guess who coppied who) are not up to being a real 1K unit. If anyone wants a demo my email is in my profile i'd be happy to film the two side by side on optima D31 blue top batteries and even give the sunforce the running head start with the fresh charge on the cells 2 seconds and it will shutdown. Yes, i know 1050 watts is over 1000w, but the xantrex will drain the batteries before they complain of anything else runing the heatgun.

This is the leading brand in inverters today. Their new product line offers 3x the value of their older units without sacrificing quality or stability. It's a real value in high power inverters. Unfortunately, xantrex moved their mfg overseas and the quality suffered from more than one report. We no longer use this model, but for an apples to apples comparison against offshore mfg inverters, xantrex still has a better design to begin with = better product to ship back to the usa

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So far I returned (3) inverters (1)Power Bright PW400, (2)Tripp Lite PV1000 because the output voltage was to low (89-95volts). Fluorescent light would not be as bright,fan would not come up to speed and I"m sure this was not good for motors. Had this one for (3) days (Xantres Prowatt SW 1000) and am very satisfied with it. Output voltage is 124 volts, lights are bright motors are running up to speed And my running amps are lower. I don't know whether this unit is just made better or if its because its a pure sine wave inverter or both but it puts the other inverters I tried to shame.

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I'm not running much off this device and the thing that strikes me is that the cooling fan only turns on when a certain temperature is reached. So for small loads, it's very quiet because the fan has no need to turn on. Previous experiences with inverter default to the fan being on and they are often very noisy.

The sine wave seems to be clean. After trying this, I'll never go back to modified sine waves for devices remotely designed to work with sine waves. Otherwise, I'll just go with the cheap square wave inverters.

I plan on buying another unit in the future.

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I bought this about two months ago. So far I only use about 250 watts everyday 6-7 hours run time) and have had no issues at all. To test it I plugged in my 32" tube TV, two 60 watt lamps, two 15'6 notebooks, PS3 Playstation and the Frig. Ran it all just fine and took the surge from the Frig very easily. And more I'm sure! Well made product, great directions, easy to intall. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a well made power inverter that performs as advertised.

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I purchased this inverter to use as part of a home backup power system. I previously was using an 1100W modified sine wave inverter, but it wasn't running some of my more sensitive items as well. For example, my furnace fan ran slower and I'd get some weird flickering in my fridge lights. Switching to this has resolved that issue.

One caveat though...If you are thinking of plugging into a home transfer switch with this inverter you may run into problems. The second I plugged my into my transfer switch the GFCI outlet popped and power output ceased. My electrical panel has my neutral and ground bonded, so the inverter was not able to sense the returning voltage and thought someone was getting fried.

I did some research online and someone else in another review said they had changed the GFCI outlet in the inverter to resolve their issue. I decided to give that a shot (note that this voids your warranty). If you're comfortable working with electrical stuff it turns out it is not a difficult project. The unit uses a standard GFCI outlet. You can replace it with a normal outlet from the hardware store with little trouble. You only need to remove the front portion of the device to do this. Most of the circuits I am powering are protected in my breaker panel by GFCI or arc fault breakers already so I was comfortable with this change.

Overall the unit is very high quality and I was very impressed by how solid it is put together. Since I use this only for emergencies I will have to update the review later to let you know how it holds up, but for now it ran through my tests without a problem.

UPDATE: After only a couple short uses, this unit emitted a loud "pop" along with associated electronic smoke. It still turns on and supplies power but the the smoke returns here and there and I do not feel safe using it. It's surprising to me that it isn't detecting a fault of any kind after several incidents like this. As a result I am dropping my review a couple notches.