Giandel Pure Sine Wave Inverter

Back in October 2019 I wrote on the blog (Gigi’s Log Book Chapter – 30) that while considering upgrading the existing 2KW inverter, I couldn’t justify either the cost of the Inverter or the need for extra batteries..

It just happened that one day in December I needed to use the Microwave for a couple of minutes. Problem was that it was raining a lot, and I really didn’t feel like going out in the rain, walking in the mud and having to clean everything afterwards. Normally, if connected to the main, I don’t need the Generator to run the microwave, but that particular day and because of the storm, the power went off. Now, there are three items on Gigi that do run on a separate 240V circuit. The washing machine, the microwave and the fridge..

The reason behind this was simply that with the 2KW inverter that was no chance for the  1.9KW microwave to even start, however one thing that I did noticed since the installation of the solar system, was that because of the large panels installed, I normally have every day my battery fully charged and the MPPT floating from around 10am for the rest of the day.. That means that I could theoretically tap into the solar system during the day for other power hungry devices, without possibly affecting the batteries..

I remember reading in a blog last year were the RV owner was running a massive inverter and two air conditioners during the day because of the same reason.. Perhaps it was time to try the same route, and see if it really does work.. I still didn’t want to spend $3000 for a 3KW inverter, plus 3KW for this experiment was probably not enough..

So against my Will, (and common sense) I found myself looking at the cheaper Chinese alternative.. After a while, I found two possible candidates:

1. Excelsior Power Inverter PS4000/24 for $1,199.00 plus delivery
2. Giandel 4000W from eBay for $650.00 free delivery (price has gone up since, now $799.00)

Considering that I knew nothing about both brands, that Giandel is sold a bit everywhere around the world and that after all this was just going to be an experiment, I opted for the cheaper Chinese eBay version that do however advertise as “USA Transistors”, what ever that mean. I’m not going to waste time to open it, and see if it is true, unless it burns, or it doesn’t work from the word go!

Let’s get the bullshit bits out of the way first:

1. The seller advertises this unit as 4000 and 8000 Watts surge. People that have test smaller models did find that the surge is nowhere near the claimed figure. The 3000/6000 model does reset at 3800Watts. I haven’t tried to see what the surge figure could be on my unit, but I would think that a conservative 5000 Watts would be feasible
2. The Vendor advertises this unit as “No Load currents：0.6(24V)“. Again this figure is completely wrong as in the actual manual it does clearly state that the No Load Current is actually 3 Amp. That’s a huge difference from the advertised 0.6 Amp on eBay. Keep this figure in mind especially if thinking of running this unit at night on standby!
3. The cables supplied with the unit are double but very thin.. If you are seriously planning to use this unit at its full capacity, I strongly suggest getting something thicker (2AWG) at least.
4. The manual in Chinglish, does recommends you to wear an eye patch and work clothes when working around batteries.. ARRR Captain..😂
5. Finally, you must use the terminal for any load bigger than 2000 Watts as each power points, only allows you up to 10 Amps. Now not sure why as 10 Amps are equal to 2400 Watts, but that is what is printed in the manual and perhaps even only 1500 Watts per power outlet is a more realistic figure. The only way to find out for sure what wattage you could tap from those plugs is to open the unit and check both wire thickness and connections.

Right. I received the inverter 7 days after the purchase, so you got to be happy about that. First thing I notice was that the 10kg advertised, must include the entire package. The unit itself is not that heavy, and it seems well built. Everything works, and it even comes with a remote On/Off switch. It would have being nice if like my other unit, the remote did also showed the Amps and Watts consumption, but for this money, you can’t really complain..

The installation was quite simple, as I just had to relocate the older unit and put the new Giandel in the same place..

The old unit will be kept as a back up and installed just next to the new one..

I’m happy to confirm that it has no problem running the convection oven/microwave and in the next few weeks I will also test the Air con and see if during the day, I can manage the lot without affecting the batteries, giving me the chance to finish the review.. While testing the Microwave it was around 34° and the fan never came on once.

Updates 2/04/21

It has been more than two months now since I purchase the Giandel and I have used for pretty much anything inside Gigi, from the Microwave to the aircon unit and the washing machine. It has also being steady on 24/7 for the past two weeks providing power to both 240 Volts system, since I move to the new location, and in all honesty, I can’t fault it…

I thought it was going to be just another “Made in China” cheap disappointment, but so far it has been a great workhorse and perhaps a great investment.. When used with the microwave the first time, I only tested to warm up some food, and it was never for longer than a couple of minutes (and it was only the microwave, not the oven being used). This time, while cooking a pizza (14 minutes) using the actual oven and because of the way the microwave operates (on and off all the time while it cooks) it did put the Inverter to the test to the point that I had to replace, the original 250 Amp fuse, as it was getting hot and continuously tripping, with a much larger 350 Amp fuse to compensate for all the peak power requests from the microwave every time it cycled on.. I’m guessing while the microwave is rated at 1.9Kw, it actually needs a lot more than 4Kw when it cycles on and off.. The inverter was warm to the touch but definitely not hot to be a concern..

As it turned out, you can easily run the aircon unit all day on a sunny day without troubling the batteries, but not at night.. At night, the 4000 watts Giandel used with either the aircon or the microwave, would deplete my battery’s bank in 2 hours and 13 minutes according to the Victron battery monitor.. This off course also apply more or less to a very cloudy day..