I had an Aims Low frequency 3000 watt pure sine wave inverter installed in our camper but it drew close to 5 amps at idle. Unless I kept turning it on and off every time I used it, it killed the batteries fairly quickly. I use it mainly for the microwave oven, the entertainment system, and my cpap machine.
The Aims High Frequency 3000 watt inverter uses less than 1 amp at idle. I will just leave it on all the time. My initial concern with the HF unit was would it run the MW oven. It works just fine. I probably could have gotten away with using the 2000 watt unit but I didn't want to chance it.
The LF inverter I took out of the camper will be used in the house now.
This review is for the product performance only, not AIms, or Factory Pure as I would rate both of these companies a five star for their speedy and effortless refund of my money. The problem with this inverter, and I suspect many of the chinese built pure sign wave inverters out there is that a pretty small microwave, my High Point 900W in my Arctic Fox 811, can overwhelm them on start up. Yes, a 900W microwave. This microwave draws about 1400 when running, and I was able to get the inverter to start it with some fancy footwork. To get this out of the way, I had a strip chart going from my battery monitoring system, and never went below the rated input DC voltage specified for the inverter. In fact, my two new LiFePo4 batteries were fully charged, and I used cables of greater size than recommended by AIMS. This same inverter would easily start my rooftop air conditioner using the same cables and batteries, but when attempting to start the microwave, the microwave would hum loudly and then shut down in its overload protection mode. It would start normally if I hit the pause button during the loud buzz and then hit start right away. While in the failed start condition, the output of the AIMS inverter would drop to 62VAC. During a successful start, the inverter would only drop to 95VAC, and then recover to about 110 and run the microwave normally, and able to cook a large potato. For giggles, I threw a 30 year old, but new in the box, 1500W modified inverter I had into the setup, same cabling and batteries, and it easily starts and runs the microwave, but will not start the air conditioner, which one would expect it could not start. I have since purchased another brand 2200/4400W pure sine wave, which I suspect is the same chinese built board that is a bit shorter, and found the same issue with it, even the 62VAC output in the failing mode. This inverter will also start the air conditioner without issue. See failed and successful starts in strip chart attached.
