Bald man needs inverter for hairdryer.

stevebill

Guest
I'm bald as a Coot and have dragged my feet about getting an inverter- why would I need one? However, my scary assertive wife has now threatened to squeeze my ...... in a vice if I don't frame myself (Yorkshire for "get on with it").
So- I have a new pair of 120ah leisure batteries. I have 230W of solar panels on the roof.
The hairdryer will be around 1200w and will be in use for 10-12 minutes.
The motorhome will be stationary, engine switched off when the inverter is being used.
Given all this info - a) Pure sine wave or modified sine wave?
b) What continuous rating? e.g. 1500W
c) through a 13mm pipe, how long to fill a bath holding 265Litres? Sorry, that's a different question all together....
The end result of all this is that I will be knee deep in brownie points- for at least quarter of an hour.
cheers
Steve Billingham
Leaving:cheers: for some wild camping in Europe.
For maybe 5 months.
Soon.
 
Hairdryers will run quite happily on modified sine wave so if that is all you will need it for then they are cheaper but if you want to use other sensitive equipment then a pure sine wave is best.
There are low wattage hairdryers around that will work with a 1000W inverter such as this one, we have used one similar for ten years or more with a 800W inverter, I only had a 100W solar panel and we didn't have a problem using it
 
When my Wife mentioned a hairdryer I told her to stick her head out of the window while I'm driving. :drive:

I'm pleased I never married one of them Yorkshire women. :scared:
 
maingate said:
When my Wife mentioned a hairdryer I told her to stick her head out of the window while I'm driving. :drive:

I'm pleased I never married one of them Yorkshire women. :scared:
Click to expand...
I married a Londoner, I told her to stick her head out of the window as you said but she tried it on the train, she was posted to Wales
 
tezza33 said:
Hairdryers will run quite happily on modified sine wave so if that is all you will need it for then they are cheaper but if you want to use other sensitive equipment then a pure sine wave is best.
There are low wattage hairdryers around that will work with a 1000W inverter such as this one, we have used one similar for ten years or more with a 800W inverter, I only had a 100W solar panel and we didn't have a problem using it
Click to expand...

you are either overloading the inverter or the drier is not running up to scratch if its a 1000w and the inverter is 800,you should be using a 1200w inverter.
 
bald man- hairdryer

Thanks for the info- I have started by ordering the hairdryer you mention from Amazon. That will help keep the required inverter power down, not to mention the price. cheers
 
trevskoda said:
you are either overloading the inverter or the drier is not running up to scratch if its a 1000w and the inverter is 800,you should be using a 1200w inverter.
Click to expand...
We used one similar I said but the hairdryer in the link has a maximum wattage of 800W, hairdyers do not have a start up wattage higher than the running wattage unlike some other equipment such as microwaves, an 800W hairdryer will run perfectly OK with an 800W inverter (a good quality one), we used a 900W kettle for over ten years without problems because inverters have a surge capacity as well, a hairdryer is not on long enough to cause problems with the surge capacity
 
stevebill said:
Thanks for the info- I have started by ordering the hairdryer you mention from Amazon. That will help keep the required inverter power down, not to mention the price. cheers
Click to expand...
I just sold my 800W inverter to another member, I actually thought for over ten years it was a 1000W inverter because we used 900W appliances (hairdryer, kettle, small oven etc.) and it has been brilliant, keep your other half just wanting to dry her hair because if she wants to take the Tassimo you will spend over £340 on a pure sine wave inverter as I know:sad:
It would have been cheaper to take her out for a coffee
 
stevebill said:
I'm bald as a Coot and have dragged my feet about getting an inverter- why would I need one? However, my scary assertive wife has now threatened to squeeze my ...... in a vice if I don't frame myself (Yorkshire for "get on with it").
So- I have a new pair of 120ah leisure batteries. I have 230W of solar panels on the roof.
The hairdryer will be around 1200w and will be in use for 10-12 minutes.
The motorhome will be stationary, engine switched off when the inverter is being used.
Given all this info - a) Pure sine wave or modified sine wave?
b) What continuous rating? e.g. 1500W
c) through a 13mm pipe, how long to fill a bath holding 265Litres? Sorry, that's a different question all together....
The end result of all this is that I will be knee deep in brownie points- for at least quarter of an hour.
cheers
Steve Billingham
Leaving:cheers: for some wild camping in Europe.
For maybe 5 months.
Soon.
Click to expand...

You will need 2½ to 3 times wattage for your hair dryer to work properly without it cutting out or blowing a fuse. 1200w X 3 = 3600w inverter required. Sorry.
 
Invertor or 12v hair dryer

Do you need the invertor for other items ?

If not consider a 12Volt hair dryer
 
jagmanx said:
Do you need the invertor for other items ?

If not consider a 12Volt hair dryer
Click to expand...

Well, my wife bought a 12v at Camperserv in Loule, Portugal. Excellent Brit owned and operated company who repair and store motorhomes. They told her that 12v were crap, and she bought it anyway - it's crap and now takes up space !
 
Tony Lee said:
Any reference that supports this huge margin
Click to expand...

In Spain a couple of years ago they were trying to start up a complete lighting system for a stage act on the Promenade. The Inverter would always trip out until a passer by who happened to be a qualified Electrician, told the guy what he needed if he wanted to get the lights going without hassle. They spoke in English as the band were Brits. Further more, this subject has been on here several times in the past years and the advice given was similar to mine. I hope this helps.
 
stevebill said:
3600w must surely be overkill to power an 800W hairdryer. Look, I'm asking to be educated- tell me why!!
Click to expand...

Unless I read the post wrong, I was under the impression it was a 1200w item, not 800w. If it is 800w, then 2000/2400w inverter would be a safe bet. Hope this helps.
 
bald- hairdryer

Thanks David. It seems I need to look out for an inverter- not sure whether sine or modified sine- that will work for 20 minutes or so at a max of 1000watts.
Note that 800 watts at 12volts is around 67 amps, which is a hell of a draw on the batteries.
 
well.....

I have a 1200W inverter. Fairly cheap thingie bought from ebay. I am in the process of wiring a second battery in and solar panels etc.

I just rigged the inverter up with 6 sqmm cable to measure how much it draws to estimate a fuse and cable size for the supply wire.

Any guesses before I post the measurements?
 
stevebill said:
Thanks David. It seems I need to look out for an inverter- not sure whether sine or modified sine- that will work for 20 minutes or so at a max of 1000watts.
Note that 800 watts at 12volts is around 67 amps, which is a hell of a draw on the batteries.
Click to expand...
Modified sine will power the hairdryer, my inverter was 800W max and it would run a 800W hairdryer for as long as she needed it to dry her hair which is thick and over her shoulders so not quick, it is only the draw on the batteries that is a problem so in the Winter when Maggy was drying her hair we ran the engine to top the batteries up, never needed to do that in the summer though, I am in the process of fitting an extra 150W of solar panels so we will be OK in the winter as well
 
I had a hairdryer with 1200W / 1500W running on "low" (which must be the 1200W) running for 30 mins.
I measured 38A draw with one of these inductive clamp amp meters. Seems reasonable to me, the fuse in the inverter is 40A.

Despite using only 6sqmm the cables just felt hand warm.

So no 3 times the wattage.

PS as soon as I tried to use the 1500W setting, the inverter switched off.

EDIT: PSS on standby the draw was 1 A
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Teutone said:
I had a hairdryer with 1200W / 1500W running on "low" (which must be the 1200W) running for 30 mins.
I measured 38A draw with one of these inductive clamp amp meters. Seems reasonable to me, the fuse in the inverter is 40A.

Despite using only 6sqmm the cables just felt hand warm.

So no 3 times the wattage.

PS as soon as I tried to use the 1500W setting, the inverter switched off.
Click to expand...
I believe what he was saying but 3 times the wattage for stage lights could have been due to a high start up surge for certain types of light, not needed for the things we use, microwaves need more to start but my 800W invertor powered a 500W microwave without problems
 
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