Microwaves and Inverters

[MtnDon]

The question is, how many folks run a microwave on a modified sine wave (square wave) inverter?

And how well does it work for you? Have you compared the time to perform the same task on square wave and housepower (or a pure sine wave inverter)? Noisier? Takers longer?



I've never been impressed with microwave performance on modified sine wave myself.

[wincrasher]

Probably no one - besides the inverter, you'd need 4 group 31 12v batteries to power a microwave for any significant length of time. That's a pretty big bank for a little trailer. You might be able to get by with a 2 battery setup if you get a "cube" type microwave that runs on around 500watts.

I'd always go with a pure sine wave inverter whether you need it or not. You'd have clean power for all devices from computers to water pumps.

[MtnDon]

I suppose this is not the best venue to ask the question. I do run a microwave off 2 golf cart batteries via a pure sine wave inverter. ( 2 GC2's = 220 amp hours @ 12 VDC) It's 700 watts cooking power drawing 1050 VA from the inverter. It works well for our limited use. I was just wondering if there were others and if they used modified wave or not. And if they were happy.

FWIW, I asked the same question on a small cabin forum and most of those who responded were using modified sine wave and admitted to slow heating times and noisy operation. Which matches my experience and is why I use pure sine wave inverters for most applications.

Thanks