Inverter to run a washing machine

[Keith M]

does anyone have a definitive answer on which of the two compact washing machines (zanussi 1301 or candy aquamatiuc 100f) is best in terms of power usage, performance etc??

 

we have a mastervolt mass 12/2000 2kw inverter. could this cope with either of these machines?? we are also in the market for one of these...

 

Having work with both of the washing you have talked about

 

There is a chance that your inverter will not run either of these machines

 

This is why mastervolt introduced the 12 / 2500 / 100 Inverter / Charger

 

Some times with the 2000 inverter or combi the washing machinewould not work

 

Keith

[DHutch]

Just had a look at the web site for the £235! PSW 2000W inverter charger from China. I am beginning to think that I should take the risk.

Cheap inverters?

 

[Theo]

http://www.sunshinesolar.co.uk/khxc/gbu0-prodshow/VP3000.html?gclid=CKX5092Ro7wCFVDLtAodzTIA5A

 

Dear Nicholas,
Yes these units are CE approved.

Regards
Andrew Black
Sunshine Solar Ltd

 

Should that allay my fears? Having watch Daniel's video I might just open it up on arrival and check its build quality. If, that is, I decided to take the risk.

 

Nick

[Theo]

I have, for better or worse, bought this inverter at the offer price of £408. It has arrived and been bench, well, kitchen table, tested. It ran the 2kW electric kettle OK and a 13W compact fluorescent. I have the new washing machine at home but I really don't want to unpack and plumb it in just for a test. When I have it all set up on the boat and working (or not) I will report back.

 

Oh, and there was a warning not to delve around inside or you will invalidate the warranty but I gave it a vigorous shake and there was no rattling so I trust that it has been assembled properly.

 

N

[smileypete]

I'd check out the off load and on load voltage:

 

http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=61992

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

[Mike Tee]

I have, for better or worse, bought this inverter at the offer price of £408. It has arrived and been bench, well, kitchen table, tested. It ran the 2kW electric kettle OK and a 13W compact fluorescent. I have the new washing machine at home but I really don't want to unpack and plumb it in just for a test. When I have it all set up on the boat and working (or not) I will report back.

 

Oh, and there was a warning not to delve around inside or you will invalidate the warranty but I gave it a vigorous shake and there was no rattling so I trust that it has been assembled properly.

 

N

At that price, if it does everything it says in the ad, its very good value.

 

Probably eggs, grandmothers and sucking, but I see in the ad that they also sell an inline fuse to go with it - highly recommended.

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

Hi gang,

I run a Bush wqp-63202 fs11 Dishwasher Daily.

A Delta combination Microwave/Oven/Grill Daily.

A Candy Aquamatic 3 times a week.

& a white knight Tumble dryer 3 times a week.

Very nicely (one at a time) off my Mastervolt Dakar sine 2500.for 6 yrs now. It's permanently left on & ready for use,Never had a problem yet. Thankfully!.

Edited February 6, 2014 by Paul's Nulife4-2

[cereal tiller]

At that price, if it does everything it says in the ad, its very good value.

 

Probably eggs, grandmothers and sucking, but I see in the ad that they also sell an inline fuse to go with it - highly recommended.

Inline fuse is a good idea of course and these inverters have a cluster of 60 amp fuses on the back of the casing already,at least my 1500 watt sunshine inverter has.

CT

[Theo]

At that price, if it does everything it says in the ad, its very good value.

 

Probably eggs, grandmothers and sucking, but I see in the ad that they also sell an inline fuse to go with it - highly recommended.

There is a cluster of 12 off 35A fuses on the back but I have an in line fuse set up already for my Sterling 1800W MSW which I will be selling quite soon. (Once I have finally ensured that this one does what I want.) Don't worry about egg sucking instruction. Grandmothers occasionally forget and anyway this thread is also read by the electrically less knowledgeable.

 

Interesting that this unit requires two positive and two negative battery connections. I wonder if they could not source big enough connectors and needed to double up the ones that they could get.

 

N

Hi gang,

I run a Bush wqp-63202 fs11 Dishwasher Daily.

A Delta combination Microwave/Oven/Grill Daily.

A Candy Aquamatic 3 times a week.

& a white knight Tumble dryer 3 times a week.

Very nicely (one at a time) off my Mastervolt Dakar sine 2500.for 6 yrs now. It's permanently left on & ready for use,Never had a problem yet. Thankfully!.

Good grief! How do you manage to keep enough charge in your batteries to service that lot?

 

N

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

There is a cluster of 12 off 35A fuses on the back but I have an in line fuse set up already for my Sterling 1800W MSW which I will be selling quite soon. (Once I have finally ensured that this one does what I want.) Don't worry about egg sucking instruction. Grandmothers occasionally forget and anyway this thread is also read by the electrically less knowledgeable.

 

Interesting that this unit requires two positive and two negative battery connections. I wonder if they could not source big enough connectors and needed to double up the ones that they could get.

 

N

Good grief! How do you manage to keep enough charge in your batteries to service that lot?

 

N

I just use my boat,move or cruise.

You just get into a routine,do your washing / Tumbling whilst cruising ect that sort of thing.Twin 100amp Alternators, Eng (or sometimes my whisper gen) runs Approximately 2 / 3 hrs a day for battery charger (Mastervolt 80amp) and hot water,even if we just pop into town (Arundel) by boat for a paper and a coffee,or run under load whilst sat on our river mooring Currently @ Littlehampton ect, But a lot more Eng hrs if we move along the coast to Chichester,Shorham or the Bembridge I.O.W for a week or two in what ever good weather windows come about ofcourse.Although we haven't been able to do tha for months.

& a 840ah battery bank,Wind gen,Solar Panels help a bit (more so the wind gen recently).

But yes,it seams to work for us anyway.Easy really,just get into a routine so you don't waste an amp.

Edited February 6, 2014 by Paul's Nulife4-2

[Haven't a Clue]

 

Hm...

 

Just found this one 2000W with peak 4000W for £235! All the specs look good but can you trust something with such a low price tag?

 

And this 2000W for £298.

 

Has anyone any experience of cheap inverters? Do they burst into flames? The specs indicate the right sorts of protection.

 

N

Hi, just cruising around the forums and saw this post. My experience is as follows 4 years ago I had a sailing yacht and had just replaced the batteries and associated wiring, overdoing it to err on the safe side. It occurred to me that having an inveter on board might be occaisionally handy, but being skint, I looked around and found on the Towsure site a 2kW peak, 1kw continuous modified sine wave inverter for £99..... they're now £89 incidentally. I used it to run in order of preference, an 800w kettle (nice for a quick brew sailing on Soton water), a1/2kW fan heater (only on the low setting with the donk running) and a Tesco cheapie 700w m/wave....AND.. a Dell Laptop via its' mains charger. If it did all of that without going phutt, I'd say it's good enough. In fact I'm going to buy another one this week for our Merryfisher. 'cos it's a lot easier to make a brew on the move with the 'leccy kettle. So I'd say not all the cheapie ones should be dismissed too lightly. My tuppence worth. Ian

[Theo]

Here's an interim report on the one that I bought: http://www.sunshinesolar.co.uk/khxc/gbu0-prodshow/VP3000.html?gclid=CKX5092Ro7wCFVDLtAodzTIA5A

 

 

 

We are not living on the boat just now so the inverter has not had a full test but here are the results as far as I know them:

1. It has run perfectly and still is.

2. The fan is not noisy, just the gentle soughing that you would expect but there is a slight 50Hz buzz/hum. Sounmds a bit like transformer laminations buzzing but I don't know if it is. It is certainly not a problem that would have caused me to spend £50 more on a better inverter. The fan circuitry is cleverly designed. It has two different inputs to control it. It starts immediately if you draw high power from it but it also starts if the temperature gets too high.

3. Quiescent current is low. I haven't measured it but I didn't notice a change on the Smartguage having had is switched on all day.

4. I have not yet tried it with the washing machine which is yet to be installed. I notice that the electric drill works rather better than it did on the old Sterling MSW so the waveform is certainly better.

Nick

[Joelsanders]

I have that zanussi model and the only way I can get it to work is(a) when the generator (or shoreline) is present and ( if I also have a resistive load (like a fan heater) running at the same time. The resistive load is not needed on shore power though - just the genny.

 

That said, my inverter (even though it is 2500 watts) is not pure sine wave... so perhaps you'll be alright. For me, the zanussi might as well be unplugged if I try to run it through the inverter.

 

As others have said though, candy do seem to be much more consistent & agreeable with boat electrics. Sorry if that all sounds a bit pessimistic.

Edited March 21, 2014 by Joelsanders

[lexicon]

I just use my boat,move or cruise.

You just get into a routine,do your washing / Tumbling whilst cruising ect that sort of thing.Twin 100amp Alternators, Eng (or sometimes my whisper gen) runs Approximately 2 / 3 hrs a day for battery charger (Mastervolt 80amp) and hot water,even if we just pop into town (Arundel) by boat for a paper and a coffee,or run under load whilst sat on our river mooring Currently @ Littlehampton ect, But a lot more Eng hrs if we move along the coast to Chichester,Shorham or the Bembridge I.O.W for a week or two in what ever good weather windows come about ofcourse.Although we haven't been able to do tha for months.

& a 840ah battery bank,Wind gen,Solar Panels help a bit (more so the wind gen recently).

But yes,it seams to work for us anyway.Easy really,just get into a routine so you don't waste an amp.

Hi Paul

Any chance you know the wattage of the white knight tumble drier? As it's not listed on the few sites I found them for sale.

[cereal tiller]

Hi Paul

Any chance you know the wattage of the white knight tumble drier? As it's not listed on the few sites I found them for sale.

I have got a White Knight

Will go and measure the power

Will be back in 5 minutes

 

CT

I have got a White Knight

Will go and measure the power

Will be back in 5 minutes

 

CT

It is a White Knight 38 AW

 

On low heat it draws 3.7 amps at 230 volt

 

On high heat it draws 7.2 amps

 

Thanks for the oven and Hob

 

CT

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

Hi Paul

Any chance you know the wattage of the white knight tumble drier? As it's not listed on the few sites I found them for sale.

Hi ya,

From memory, (??) 900w on low and 1500 on high ish.

It has Two settings High & Low, I always keep it

on low, it has a manual timer up to 120 minutes, and find this dry s a load straight out my

Washing machine just fine..

I also think Argos rings a bell.page 786 in catalogue item no 480/2084 £125 ish.

Hope that helps.

Edited March 22, 2014 by Paul's Nulife4-2

[lexicon]

Thanks chaps.

That looks a good option as it will run on either my 1600w Psw inverter or my 2k inverter generator and not too expensive.

 

And CT your welcome thavks for coming to collect them as i was fed up of squeezing past them.

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

Just cheak the actual watts if you can,as your 1600w inverter may run it absolutely fine on low, it may (Well almost certainly) struggle,if TD is on its High setting.

[lexicon]

It's a 1600w continous and 3200w surge rated inverter so should cope ok

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

Oh yes,no worries there then,

So you will be going shopping this afternoon then !

[Theo]

I have just been asked to comment on my experience with the inverter that I bought and the washing machine. The inverter is fine as I posted a bit ago but I have not yet fitted the washing machine and can't test the two together until I do. It may be a week or more before I can report back.

 

Nick

[Theo]

Today's work has been to install the Zanussi. We were rather anxious that the cheapo PSW inverter would would not be up to the job.

 

It works! Hurrah.

 

Nick

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

Well done, now watch you Batteries 'Boil' !

Edited April 10, 2014 by Paul's Nulife4-2

[FidoDido]

I have a Mastervolt 12/2000/100 and an old Zanussi rated at 2250w. The Mastervolt does run this, as I tried it once. Though peak amps from the batteries are around 215A when the heater is on (just a minute or two, as I wash at 30 deg C.) this was with a 55A alternator and the engine running. I now have a 70A alternator, but feel a bit dubious about running the washing machine again... My generator is broke (maybe I'll get in touch with Keith M again to see if he can fix it.. I have a feeling it won't be a cheap fix). I have a 420 Ah domestic bank. Am I correct to think that drawing 200A, even if only for a few minutes is not a good idea?

Edited April 10, 2014 by FidoDido

[by'eck]

I have a Mastervolt 12/2000/100 and an old Zanussi rated at 2250w. The Mastervolt does run this, as I tried it once. Though peak amps from the batteries are around 215A when the heater is on (just a minute or two, as I wash at 30 deg C.) this was with a 55A alternator and the engine running. I now have a 70A alternator, but feel a bit dubious about running the washing machine again... My generator is broke (maybe I'll get in touch with Keith M again to see if he can fix it.. I have a feeling it won't be a cheap fix). I have a 420 Ah domestic bank. Am I correct to think that drawing 200A, even if only for a few minutes is not a good idea?

 

Sounds a little marginal, but with engine running (and larger alternator) its just about ok if washing machine cycle is started with fully charged batteries. Consider at least one more battery.

 

Whether your Mastervolt Combi will stand the overload is another matter.

Edited April 10, 2014 by by'eck