12 volt 2000 watt inverter charger recommendations

[somekevinguy]

Can I get any recommendations for a good 12 volt 2000 watt inverter charger? Is Aims junk? What about between the top tier brands?

[Sunking]

Any 12 volt inverter above 1000 watts is junk and a fire trap. Aims is about as bad as they come. The Input terminals are not near large enough to terminate the smallest size wire that can safely handle the 200 amps of current required.

Here is your challenges that cannot be conquered. To run a 12 volt 2000 watt Inverter requires a 900 pound 1200 AH battery with a 120 amp 12 volt charger. Neither of which are made. I would buy a CO2 fire extinguisher before a charger.

2000 watt Inverter is 48 volt battery territory.

[somekevinguy]

Any 12 volt inverter above 1000 watts is junk and a fire trap. Aims is about as bad as they come. The Input terminals are not near large enough to terminate the smallest size wire that can safely handle the 200 amps of current required.

Here is your challenges that cannot be conquered. To run a 12 volt 2000 watt Inverter requires a 900 pound 1200 AH battery with a 120 amp 12 volt charger. Neither of which are made. I would buy a CO2 fire extinguisher before a charger.

2000 watt Inverter is 48 volt battery territory.

Yeah I was pretty sure Aims was junk but I just wanted to confirm.

I put 2000 watt inverter/charger in my last RV with four golf cart batteries and ran it for five years and never had a problem and Battle Born sells two battery kits with 2000 watt inverters but reading through the posts here talked me out of it and I ended up getting a 1000 watt Magnum. The only reason I was even considering 2000 watts was the wife wanted to have a microwave off grid. I told her she has to cook the old fashioned way.

Thanks for the reply.

[MD2020]

Any 12 volt inverter above 1000 watts is junk and a fire trap. Aims is about as bad as they come. The Input terminals are not near large enough to terminate the smallest size wire that can safely handle the 200 amps of current required.

Here is your challenges that cannot be conquered. To run a 12 volt 2000 watt Inverter requires a 900 pound 1200 AH battery with a 120 amp 12 volt charger. Neither of which are made. I would buy a CO2 fire extinguisher before a charger.

2000 watt Inverter is 48 volt battery territory.

How about a Victron 12v/5000watt/220-100v/100amp inverter?

https://www.victronenergy.com/inverters-chargers/quattro

[Sunking]

How about a Victron 12v/5000watt/220-100v/100amp inverter?

https://www.victronenergy.com/invert...argers/quattro

That is some funny stuff, I don't care who you are. Does demonstrate how extremely dangerous the product is if you know what you are looking at. At 5000 watts Input takes 500 amps @ 12 volts. The cable required to do that is 750 MCM which is as big as a mans wrist weighing 7 pounds per foot. There is no way to terminate the cable with the terminals and would require 2-hole 5/8 bolt hole lugs using a 14-ton hydraulic compression tool to terminate.

Kind of like looking down the barrel of a gun, and pulling the trigger to see if the gun is loaded. One less idiot in the world no one will miss.

[MD2020]

[FONT=comic sans ms]That is some funny stuff, I don't care who you are. [FONT=arial]Does demonstrate how extremely dangerous the product is if you know what you are looking at. At 5000 watts Input takes 500 amps @ 12 volts. The cable required to do that is 750 MCM which is as big as a mans wrist weighing 7 pounds per foot. There is no way to terminate the cable with the terminals and would require 2-hole 5/8 bolt hole lugs using a 14-ton hydraulic compression tool to terminate.

I'm not a solar expert. Can you help me understand your logic on this? If its unsafe, why are these companies selling these products? Thx.

[Mike90250]

2000w @ 12v = 200A from your battery. Generally, the cable to carry 200A , won't fit in the connector on the inverter

That is 3/0 cable needed to safely carry 200A, and to do it without appreciable resistance (resistance drops voltage, and the inverter faults on low voltage), you need at least 4/0 cable.

[MD2020]

2000w @ 12v = 200A from your battery. Generally, the cable to carry 200A , won't fit in the connector on the inverter

That is 3/0 cable needed to safely carry 200A, and to do it without appreciable resistance (resistance drops voltage, and the inverter faults on low voltage), you need at least 4/0 cable.

So, the 3/0 cable is the limiting factor. The higher the wattage at 12V, the higher the amperage and corresponding AWG cable required to carry the current. I think I got it.

48V at 8000 watts should be good for 3/0 AWG?

[Mike90250]

............48V at 8000 watts should be good for 3/0 AWG?

Yes. I think you got it. The cables on my inverter are a fair amount larger than 4/0 which reduces the loss in the wires

[littleharbor]

Yes. I think you got it. The cables on my inverter are a fair amount larger than 4/0 which reduces the loss in the wires

How difficult is it to bend cable that large when making your connections?

[somekevinguy]

In vans and RVs a lot of people are doing like 2 or 3 foot round trip runs though so you can get away with smaller wire. Magnum only recommends 2/0 for their 2000 watt up to 5 feet and I've seen wire manufacturers say you are good with 1/0 for 300 amps. I don't know anything though. That's just what manufactures and everyone else besides this forum says so it's probably all lies from millennials and hippies and stuff.

[Sunking]

If its unsafe, why are these companies selling these products? Thx.

Because they can. You can buy ganja, tobacco, beer, alcohol, cars, motorcycles, and the number 1 killer of kids and young adults is cell phones. It is none of those companies job to educate the public.

The real issue is current. The general public is taught high voltage is what makes electricity dangerous which is true, but only 1/4 the whole picture. However high voltage is not defined in public terms, but anything less than 600 volts is Low Voltage. It is super easy to protect the public from voltages, all it takes is Insulation, Barriers, and Distance. Roughly 1-inch for every 1000 volts.

Power or Watts is the heat portion of electricity. and Ohm's Law defines POWER = VOLTAGE x CURRENT. So 100 watts of power can be delivered with 100 volts @ 1 Amp, or 1 Volt @ 100 Amps. On paper and theory, either way works. However in practice it does not quite work that way. Rather at 100 volts or 1 volt the Insulation does not change, but the cross-sectional size of the conductor changes by a factor of 100. At 1-Amp with 100 volts pushing it only requires a 30 AWG wire not much larger than a strand of hair, at 100 amps the size of your thumb. At 500 Amps the size of your wrist.

So why is high current dangerous? Well so far I have covered 3/4 of electrical elements of Power, Voltage, and Current. There is another element called Resistance, and every conductors (wire), connection, and semi-conductors have resistance and is what is used to control electricity. FWIW an Insulators has extremely high resistance, most up to Infinity up to a point. Air is an insulator. As I stated POWER = VOLTAGE x RESISTANCE, but Ohm's LAW states VOLTAGE = CURRENT x RESISTANCE, that would means then POWER = CURRENT x CURRENT x RESISTANCE. A good example you may have noticed is when you run a high power gizmo like a blow dryer, toaster, vacuum cleaner, too many Xmas lights, the cords get hot especially where the PLUG is plugged into a wall socket. That connection has higher resistance than the wire does. That 1500 watt Blower Dryer operating @ 120 volts only pulls 12.5 amps, and with a loose connection can get hot enough to burn you.

So here is the deal to handle 500 amps at low voltage requires a very large conductor, a minimum 750 MCM which is the size of your wrist and requires a lot of surface area between connection points maintaining a thousand pounds of pressure. That is why the Terminal above is so large with 2 x 5/8" bolt holes that require 40-foot pounds of torque. That terminal also require some very expensive tooling, a 14 to 16 Ton Hydraulic Press, training, and experience to install the terminal correctly to keep the connection resistance low. No way a DIY can do it. Now look at the terminals on that Inverter. It is not made to handle that kind of hardware or the weigh and stress a 750 MCM cable that weighs 7 pounds per foot.

About a large of a cable a Consumer can work with is 4 AWg and that is still pushing it and asking for trouble. A 4 AWG can only safely handle 100 amps at most for a very short distance up to 10 feet @ 12 volts. That would be 1000 watts max @ 12 volts, 2000 watts @ 24 volts, and 4000 watts @ 48 volts.

Now you know why utilities use such high voltage up to 1,000,000 volts and with only 100 amps is 100,000,000 watts of power, enough for a small city.

[Sunking]

In vans and RVs a lot of people are doing like 2 or 3 foot round trip runs though so you can get away with smaller wire.

BS half truth. NEC and all electrical codes have minimum wire gauge standards vs current. Example a 50 amp circuit requires a minimum 6 AWG wire. You cannot use anything smaller. At 100 requires a minimum 4 AWG, and at 200 amps require 2/0. Whoever told you 1/0 is good for 300 amps is full of chit and should be ignored and shot. 300 amps requires 4/0 AWG.

[Sunking]

How difficult is it to bend cable that large when making your connections?

That would depend on what stranding is used. Example a 4/0 Class A stranding would require a cheater bar and a gorrilla from the zoo contracted to bend and form. Class H Super Flex a high school girly boy can work with it.

[littleharbor]

That would depend on what stranding is used. Example a 4/0 Class A stranding would require a cheater bar and a gorrilla from the zoo contracted to bend and form. Class H Super Flex a high school girly boy can work with it.

I dismantled a system that had, I'd guess 1/0 19 strand cable going to the batteries. I thought that was really stiff and that pre-bending it before making the connections would be a real b***h, but absolutely necessary to get the lugs properly oriented.