Samlex America Samlex Solar SSW-350-12A SSW Series Pure Sine Wave Inverter, Gray

I installed this at a remote cabin but have not had a chance to check it out much.

(Apologies for the long-winded review, but I needed to be thorough on this.)Pros:* Lightweight* Mounting brackets* USB port that charges smartphones and has proper AC adapter signaling (phone recognizes the power source to be a charger)* USB charging feature works even when inverter is off* Doesn't put out a ton of RF noise like a lot of other cheap sine wave units* Good bang for the buck, especially when considering this inverter is a sine wave unit that's UL certified.Cons:* It's too lightweight - feels very cheap for a $100+ unit* Unlike the PST series and other ones from Samlex, this fan is not temperature controlled, it is load controlled and the fan comes on regardless of what temperature it's actually running at* Fan is quite noisy even at no load* Because of the always-on USB, it can end up draining your car battery* Waveform is quite distorted (13-15% total harmonic distortion when unloaded!) that gets worse as you put more loads on it* Pretty poor voltage regulation especially under fast-changing loads like stereo amplifiers/receivers, etc. and sags much more than the ~5 volts in the datasheet* Frequency tends to drift +/- 1 Hz* Power terminals screw into the unit; other units are a "nut" where the bolt part of the terminal is on the unit itself - this makes attaching leads a bit of a pain* Fuse is not external - if something goes wrong that it blows the fuse (reverse polarity or overload perhaps?) then the whole unit is toast* ONLY comes with battery clips, no cigarette lighter plug* Battery clips are low-quality - the insulating sleeves fell off my unit during transit, and the cords are flimsy* Narrow input voltage range - the unit starts beeping well before my other inverters signal a low battery; unit only works from 10.5-15.3 volts DC* LED indicators are quite dim even when viewed indoorsThis inverter is an good model when considering the price of this unit ($100 or so for a fairly decent pure sine wave inverter). However, I found its output voltage performance to be quite disappointing as it put out a waveform that was substantially distorted (and caused a few of my electronics to buzz as if it were hooked up to a modified-sine wave inverter), and when put under load was even worse. The load-controlled fan is an annoyance since it not only wastes battery power, but also runs when there is no load connected to the inverter. The quality of a unit was disappointingly low for a Samlex brand inverter, but it still beats the pants out of a generic sine wave inverter and is so much better than a modfied-sine inverter.Bottom line: It's a nice inexpensive pure sine wave inverter, but you get what you paid for.Also, I have taken oscilloscope images of the inverter's waveform when unloaded, when put at 50% load, and when delivering surge power. The images are located in the image gallery for this item.

It didn't say it, but it comes with cables with clips. I installed a 30 amp mini fuse to the battery with a covered fuse holder and clipped the positive to that and the negative to the battery negative which is grounded. I used a grounded plug adapter and had no problems. The fan does come on as soon as there is a 10 watt load (which is a disappointment--it should come on with an over 50 watt load, or when it actually gets warm), but I close the cabinet door and it is relatively quiet. I notice less RF/EMI interference than the Aims 180 SW it replaced(which was fan-free). My guitar amplifier makes much less noise on high gain. No I can run more loads at once. The 180SW Aims had all it could do with one amp, let alone other loads, like lights and other amps. This one only cost about $30 more and is twice as good for power. The Aims is now the spare.

I spent a couple hours hooking this inverter directly to my battery with 8 gauge wire.When I first plugged it in the fan was on and would not shut off. So I put an inline cutoff switch to turn off the power. When I first started using it my laptop would not charge and my pci expansion box would cut out (The only things that are plugged into this inverter are a laptop and a pci expansion box). I used it for several days with no luck getting it to run both things; it would only run one of them. 350 watt inverter, I don`t think so. Maybe 50 at best. Bought a replacement inverter from frys electronics that works so much better than this one,BRAVO VIEW INV- 400W POWER INVERTER 5349588. Buy it, waste your time hooking it up just to see it doesn't work, like I did.

Samlex has the smallest terminals on this. Does not make sense to me. had to jerry rig it to get it to work for my application.