Modified sign wave inverter and the new HE washing machines

Kim Powers
1 Posts
Jan 22, 2009 04:04 pm
Modified sign wave inverter and the new HE washing machines

HI! I need to know how the HE washing machines do with the Modified sign wave inverter.  Anyone have this experience with the Xantrex Modified sign wave inverter and the new HE front loader washing machines.

Thanks
Kim
 
 
Sascha D
65 Posts
Jan 22, 2009 05:09 pm
Re: Modified sign wave inverter and the new HE washing machines

Howdy Kim,
Generally speaking running anything with motors in with a modified inverter will at best treat it hard.  Modified inverters (b/c of their square wave form) suck about 30% more energy from your batteries to run a motor than pure sine wave inverter.  Also, they will run the actual motor hotter - which usually means in the electrical world a decreased lifetime for that device.

Plus, the modified sinewave inverters are notoriously bad working with some electronics. So if your high efficiency washer has some really cool fancy looking digital display and a microprocessor inside it's possible it might not work at all or potentially even fry it. Or it might work just fine.

Last but not least (I have never verified this BTW), I have heard that some manufacturers of washers will not honor a warranty if it was run on a modified sine wave. One of the exceptions are the Staber washing machines which having been expressly built with off-grid folks with modified sine wave inverters in mind.
AltE
"Making Renewable Do-able" (tm)
http://www.altEstore.com/
 
 
David Comeau
2 Posts
Feb 5, 2009 08:22 am
Re: Modified sign wave inverter and the new HE washing machines

Hi Kim,

Use to be a Sears Service Technician and had serviced a all alt energy home one time. They were having problems with brand new dryer.  I believe it was a Kenmore, HE and all digital controls. (The washer didn't seem to have a problem.)

Unit function erratically at times.  Found that it was on the same circuit as the refrig.  When the refrig kicked on, there was a lot of electrical noise that the Xantrex inverter was not filtering out, thus causing the electronics in the dryer to operate erratically. 

A modified sign wave will probably raise havoc with your HE electronics.  Recommend purchasing a true sign wave inverter (that is over-rated as far as power goes as well) and put in place as much electrical filtering as possible.

Hope this helps.

Dave
 
 

Disclaimer and Disclosure

The Alternative Energy Store, Inc reserves the right, within its sole discretion, to refuse or delete any posting or portion thereof, or terminate or block the access to this forum.

The opinions and statements posted on this forum are the opinions and statements of the person posting same, and do not constitute the opinion or act of the Alternative Energy Store, Inc (AltE). The Alternative Energy Store, Inc does not endorse or subscribe to any particular posting. No posting shall be construed as the act or opinion of the Alternative Energy Store, Inc.

Click here for BBB Business Review

McAfee SECURE sites help keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams
Desktop Website | Mobile Website

Share

Click on an icon to share! If you don't see the method you want, hover over the orange "+".

Feedback

What can we do to help you?

Please enter a summary
Submit +
Sorry, the copyright must be in the template.
Please notify this forum's administrator that this site is using an ILLEGAL copy of SMF!
Copyright removed!!