# Maplins special offer inverters



## SidT (May 9, 2005)

Hi. Someone recently posted that they had used an inverter for sometime without problems and recommended the Maplin 300watt inverter. (Can't find the post) but on other posts there are horror stories of inverters blowing up electrical equipment even toothbrushes. Surely a national company aren't going to sell equipment that wrecks the equipment they say it will charge.
I am not interested in TV just want to charge Camcorder and Digital camera batteries and the laptop.
Cheers Sid


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## autostratus (May 9, 2005)

I've not seen any of the horror stories you mention about blowing up toothbrushes I can only tell you of our experience.

We use an inverter and use it to recharge the mobile phone and the batteries for the radio through a little battery charger. We also have charged a GameBoy and all without any problem.

We used the inverter to charge the Braun toothbrush and found that the charger is now defunct. We then became aware that the indirect type of charger is the type which suffer. We bought a battery charger for some rechargeable camera batteries and seeing the metal contacts thought that this would be ok but no that also is now defunct 

So nothing blew up but the two chargers were 'cooked'.
There is nothing wrong with the inverter we bought, it is simply that we didn't use it on the correct appliances.


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## Anonymous (Nov 10, 2000)

When we first got our van we bought a 'modified' sine wave inverter from maplin and it killed both of our toothbrush chargers, and a phone charger. Furthermore it got very hot - not good when left unattended.

There are technical reasons for this but we feel the more efficient and higher quality sine-wave models are worth the extra money. Furthermore they produce true 'domestic quality' mains, and will not damage anything you plug into them.

We're currently using a Mobitronic, which works well but is a little noisy. We are looking to upgrade our entire electrical system by putting a high quality inverter/charger at the heart of it. After considerable research it appears the Victron (www.victronenergy.com) are the way forward.

We have just secured a deal with Victron to supply any of their products direct from the Netherlands. We will be listing them on www.vangear.co.uk over the next few weeks, as we evaluate them.

We can't wait to get our inverter/charger. It promises to take all the hassle out of our electronics, and even to allow the 'impossible' - temporarily taking more power from our genny/hookup than is available! We'll be writing a full review, and stocking this revolutionary product soon... watch this space


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## 88741 (May 9, 2005)

Sounds brilliant, please when writing up what it does spare a thought for us electrically challenged people and make it simple


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## Anonymous (Nov 10, 2000)

I will try to keep things simple, but I'm occasionally afflicted with terrible ‘geekieness’. That’s exactly where Lizzie will hopefully come to my rescue, re-writing it in a digestible form.

After all these things are supposed to make our lives easier!


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## SidT (May 9, 2005)

Ben. Do you know how much a true sine wave inverter, 12volt in/230volts out would cost or an aproximation?
Going back to Maplins, they say they have a delivery every week of 12 300 watt units and sell out within 2 days and have never had one back, which is strange if they are as bad as suggested I am sure they would have had complaints.
Cheers Sid


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## autostratus (May 9, 2005)

I don't think it's a case of 'they are as bad as suggested' but a question of 
a) ignorance of the 2 types (as in our case) or
b) the difference in cost.

see: http://www.cybermarket.co.uk/ for comparison.
We didn't buy from them and I've no idea how competitive they are.

When we were setting up we were advised that an inverter would be an asset and bought ours at one of the exhibitions.
Taking cybermarket as an example, I don't know whether we would have been prepared to pay £159.95 as against £49.95.


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## SidT (May 9, 2005)

Gillian. Sorry about my "flowery" language, I am afraid to me any electrical item that is burnt out etc has "blown up"
Until we bought our campervan I knew nothing about inverters either and it seems to be a minefield, do you still use an inverter and which type.
Sid


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## Anonymous (Nov 10, 2000)

SidT
I use a modifide sign wave converter for Laptop (sometimes all day), TV/DVD player, Ni-MH Ni Cad dry cell battery charging (including still and video camera), phone charging, fan, and small drill.(and before someone asks, not all at the same time) To date, no problems , and I will be very surprised if I do get any. Probably the most likely one of these to get a problem is the mains TV (switch mode power supply), and if the manufacturers of the converter state categoricaly that it's suitable for this purpose thats good enough for me.

Ken


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## SidT (May 9, 2005)

Ken. Thanks for that. what output is yours, Is a 300 watt ok for a laptop ?
Sid


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## Anonymous (Nov 10, 2000)

SidT 
For various reasons I run a 600W, but a 300w should be plenty for your requirements.

Ken


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## nobbythehobby (May 9, 2005)

Hi,

Thought i'd just add something that I learned from experience with inverters. It's probably mentioned elsewhere in the forums but is worth reiterating.

Ensure that you plug the inverter in, or mount it, as close to the 12 volt source (battery) as possible in order to avoid voltage drop in long cable runs. This will be particularly noticeable when using an inverter to power a laptop through it's power pack for example and any loss of voltage may cause intermittent operation.

Motorhome cable runs can be somewhat circuitous and I even had trouble with a 12v power socket half way along my van. You often don't discover these things until you are away! I now have a dedicated (fused) take off close to the leisure battery.

In choosing an inverter, look for one with a built in cooling fan (pay a little bit more, I suppose). Uncooled ones can get disconcertingly warm if the sun is warming the van interior. The fan only cuts in when necessary.

Steve


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## Anonymous (Nov 10, 2000)

I bought an inverter about 3 years ago for charging mobile phone, laptop, AA batteries etc. The first inveter blew when it was slightly overloaded, a friend who knows a bit about electonics said the design was very bad & it would have failed eventually & was complete trashed. The importer of these inverters wasn't interested in any complaints & as it was over 12 months old I chalked it down to experience. My 2nd inverter is still working ok, my laptop will no longer charge (I don't know if it's a batterey problem or the charging circuit) I now use a 12 volt adapter from Maplins for running it now. My phone battery has since died & been replaced, I don't know if either of these problems are related to using the inverter but I remember reading something about the modified sine wave ones can cause problem or damage to some electronic components.


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## Anonymous (Nov 10, 2000)

SidT said:


> Ben. Do you know how much a true sine wave inverter, 12volt in/230volts out would cost or an aproximation?
> Going back to Maplins, they say they have a delivery every week of 12 300 watt units and sell out within 2 days and have never had one back, which is strange if they are as bad as suggested I am sure they would have had complaints.
> Cheers Sid


Just checking our Victron trade price list... We haven't priced these products yet, but to give you an idea a 300W model (all Victron products are now true sinewave) would be around the £150 mark.

Best regards


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## Anonymous (Nov 10, 2000)

*Maplin inverters*

I had a lot of trouble with my inverter bought from maplin and so I decided to check voltage and frequency and found neither to be correct. I took the top of and found 2 presets on the circuit board and by adjusting each one a little at a time I found I could get both voltage and frequency to acceptable amounts. I have since bought a pure sine wave inverter and the early maplin one has been relegated to non sensative use

Peter


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