300W Pure Sine Wave Car Inverter

I've seen Giandel inverters on Amazon for a while now. They always seem to be well received and well reviewed, but I haven't had the need to buy a new inverter until recently. I was making due with some older modified sine wave inverters and they were doing the task well enough. So this one was bought to replace one I let the smoke out of. Honestly, i was looking more for an inverter to fit within a specific cubby in my battery box. I wasn't looking for performance per se, just size. This Giandel 300w fits the cubby perfectly so points for form factor. The performance, yeah I lucked out on that. For performance, its top notch. I am happy with it as it does what I intend for it to do - power smaller loads such as my laptop / mobile office or charge my cordless tool batteries when away from the house. It does the job effortlessly. There isn't much to say. It does what it is supposed to do, and that leaves for a less than thrilling review. Would i recommend, I absolutely do. Small quirk for an honest review to be complete.... it seems like this inverter will do a full power draw when you power it on. Self test i assume. When it does this test, it goes to town I guess. When I first plugged it in to verify it worked, it blew the 15 amp fuse I had it on. Well yeah, it'll do that you say. Yes it does, under load. I was expecting it to just turn on and sit there until loaded, but it seems to pull heavy current for that apparent self test. properly rated fuse (same as the fuse in the inverter) fixes this. Just a thought to consider.

performance: I set this up running off two diesel car batteries using a 16awg adapter. On the AC side i ran a 20 feet thick extension cord to my computer's UPS with a inline AC meter. My UPS accepted it as a safe power source to pass through to my computer managing to power both while also charging the UPS batteries. When first plugged in its load was about 260W then went down too 200W when the UPS batteries were charged. The frequency was exactly 60 most the time. It deviated slightly once by about .03 i think. The voltage would fluctuate a bit between 117 to 122 but those are safe ranges for most things as far as im aware. The fan doesn't come on unless it gets hot or using more than a 100 Watts but I'm not sure if that part's true. I had the fan turn off for a few seconds while pulling 200 Watts through it. The fan is fairly quiet when its on and when it's off there's no way to know it's running other than the dull light in the front. No buzzing coming from it or anything it's plugged into. Aesthetically: it's a metal box which is fine but the end caps to the box are slightly unaligned where the bottom of the end caps have a lip and slightly short on the top. The switch and AC ports are slightly unaligned but you can just shift them back into place yourself since they aren't directly attached to the board. Biggest problem is the USB is so out of place if I plug something into it will have to move the board. The board may just shift into place but visually looks bad and may make the USB ports unusable. Also 16 AWG cable isn't strong enough. The cable was getting hot. I've gotten a 11 AWG cable to use now that should be enough.

While this may be a 300 watt inverter, the issue is that the cigarette power cord significantly limits it's useful power to about 120 watts. Assuming your car is running, and the available voltage is around 14 volts, a 300 watt inverter will pull at least 22 Amps of current (more because it's not 100% efficient). Because this inverter uses a cigarette lighter plug, what they don't tell you is that most cars/trucks only supply about 10 amps to a cigarette lighter plug. So in a typical automotive setup, if you try to draw more than about 120 watts from the inverter, you'll end up blowing the cigarette lighter plug fuse. There are other options to get more power/current from a cigarette plug. For example you could wire your own plug directly to the car battery. But even in this situation, cigarette plugs aren't designed to handle much more than 10 amps. They do not provide very secure connections, and If draw much higher current, you're likely going to melt one or both ends of the plug. In addition, the wire that comes out of the inverter, going to the plug is maybe 16 gauge wire, which is only rated for about 12 amps. Because the length is so short, you "might" be able to push it a little, but if you tried to pull 22 amps through it, to get the full 300 watts, the wire would start to get very warm and possibly melt the insulation. All around an unsafe situation. So in the end, while "technically" you have a 300 watt inverter, you'll never SAFELY be able to hook up a 300 watt load to it without melting either the wire or cigarette lighter plug. Well, why did I give it 4 stars then? Ignoring the 300 watts, it's a very well constructed inverter. I've been using it for about 2 years to power laptops, and power tool battery chargers. All loads less than about 100 watts. The inverter has worked nonstop. It doesn't get hot at all and the fan is very quiet. I've hooked it up to an oscilloscope to check the output waveform, and it is a very nice, clean (symmetrical with no discernible stepping) true sine wave. For the price, it's hard to find something this accurate, even through it's only practical to use it up to about 120 watts.

I purchased this inverter for my son to run his PlayStation (a higher power draw PS4 pro, but still lower than his PS5). We tested in the front and rear accessory outlets (aka "cigarette lighter sockets") of a Dodge Grand Caravan. The monitor turned on but not the PS4 did not turn on. [BTW: The tiny, low power, monitor was also purchased through Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07F8V3BH2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ] >>> I had previously checked that the van's accessory outlets are fused at 20 amps each so if the battery is 12 volts, then 12 volts x 20 amps= 240 watts – should be fine for running the PS4 on this inverter. >>> We tried the setup with my sons 2005 Toyota Camry. Turned the engine on. Everything ran perfectly. Turned off the ignition but left the car ignition switch on "ACC" (meaning accessories). In this setting the car radio and accessory outlets should still be powered on - BUT ONLY BY THE CAR BATTERY. Everything ran fine. >>> So back to my van. Started the van up and plugged everything in. RAN FINE. Set the ignition switch to ACC (engine off but accessory outlets on). The monitor came on but when the PS4 did not AND the inverter started beeping. WHAT I LEARNED: MY VAN BATTERY ALONE did NOT provide enough power (voltage or current or both) for the inverter to operate both the monitor and the PS4 . The beeping – which is a great feature – likely indicated a too-low voltage coming from the vehicle battery. STARTED THE VAN ENGINE UP. NOW there was enough voltage (and current) coming from the accessory sockets. HONEST OPINION: It is probably never a good idea to run a high–power–draw item (Inverter or not) with a VEHICLE ENGINE NOT RUNNING. How long would it be before the battery runs too low to even start the vehicle back up? Yes, some things, like some 12 volt drink coolers, will supposedly shut themselves down when the car voltage gets too low - but I would never risk that. We purchased the inverter (and monitor) for a 1,355 mile cross country journey and I won’t run that risk. If anything is less than perfect with this equipment, I'll make another post (when we get back). Otherwise, so far, the inverter and monitor (and PS4) work perfectly together. >>> LAST IMPORTANT NOTE: Personally, I would rather NOT want to use an inverter with a digitally synthesized AC sine wave. Too many risks, which is why I went for this "Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter." (Google "sine wave vs simulated sine wave" to find out the differences.)

The output Voltage on mine actually stays too high, 125 Volts AC. That's too much. That may not sound like much more, but it is enough to cause some stuff to over heat, most things that call for 115-120 Volts AC, like fan motors, most of witch are induction, that are cheap and run to hot anyway, even with a normal voltage. An average household voltage reading is between 116 to 119+ Volts AC. that would be the drawback on power consumption using this Inverter. I would have to use a large rheostat or an inductor to reduce the voltage. The 60 hertz on the other hand, is spot on perfect. this is a sinusoidal Inverter. I didn't get a chance to check it on my oscilloscope to see what the wave form may look like, with and without a load. The AC transistors do not have a heatsink. There's only two transistors for the DC side, so they tend to run quite hot the higher the load, they're attached to the case. The cooling fan has cheap bearings, I can hear them. but works well enough, an not too loud. During testing, I had to pull that annoying Piezo speaker out, as it was driving me insane. I only have a 13.8 Volts DC, 19 Amp, Radio Shack switching power supply to work with. Load Test: I used (1) 100 watt 125 Volt extended service incandescent light. (2) table fans, each 120 Volts AC, 35, Watts. Total: 165 Watts. the light would technically be 95 watts on a normal circuit. The Inverter is, if we go mathematically, 12 Volts DC, 30 Amps. That is 300 Watts DC to AC (there's a little more to it than that) (I get too technical as it is), Note: everything will be approximate. At around 165 Watts worth, the Inverter's out put voltage drops to 122 Volts. The Inverter power is well regulated, the output voltage just likes to stay too high. The power cord gets hot.

Good product if using a stable lead acid bank. If using lithium or custom cell lifepo4 you need a buck converter to use keeping voltage under 15.8 vdc or over 11.5 vdc. None of which are mentioned in the description. Wish I had been better informed before purchasing. Currently using 2 175 watt modified inverters to do the job I bought this for. Seems to run well. Will try it in a portable generator this fall.

This is my second Giandel inverter, I own a 4500W inverter from the same company. Their pure sine wave inverters are phenomenal. Zero maintenance, 100% reliability. Let's talk about this 300 W unit. The outer body is compact, cable is tough and decently long. I own a modified-sine wave inverter too, but its cable length is small and therefore I couldn't keep it in the middle compartment. This one, I can. The attached USB's are bit useless for me, because my phones interpret them as 'slow charge'. Well, I didn't purchase this unit for the USBs, but rather for the 'mains', which I'm using couple wall-plugs as high-speed charge solution. High value for the money: spend an extra $15-20 bucks and get this pure-sine wave Giandel. Note: my Samsung charger refused to work with the modified-sine wave unit and works like a breeze with this one. I have higher confidence of life and durability of electronic devices in the car due to this unit. Highly recommended.

This is my third Giandel inverter purchase and I have been happy with all 3. My previous purchases were the 2200W sine wave inverter and the previous version of this 300W sine wave inverter. Since I used to design inverters and UPS systems, I was intrigued how they got the cost down for a sine wave inverter. The PWM control and output filter add significant cost over a modified sine / step wave inverter. There are not many loads that a step wave is safe to use, with motor and magnetic / transformer type loads being the worst. Also, any electronic load that has EMI filtering (computer, TV, electronic blower for HVAC, etc.) can damage the EMI filter in the load. I do not believe most people should risk using a modified sine inverter. You are getting what you pay for, and can damage some of your appliances and even cause fire. The manual specs that interested me are: Continuous 300W Surge power 400W +/- 100W (can be as low as 300W!) I measured only 506mA of current without any load. That is only about 6W at idle. When I first tested this, I found I could easily cause the under voltage alarm to trip, which is latching. You have to cycle the power switch on the unit to reset the alarm. What I found was as expected: any voltage drops when the inverter is starting or running will help cause the UV alarm. These could be: poor battery, wiring that is too small, small wiring to the cigarette lighter socket, fuse voltage drops, and poorly seated cigarette lighter plug. So if the UV alarm trips, check these first before blaming the inverter. Just like with me, it is likely to be user error. My only negative on this is that it does not have UL or ETL safety marks, which indicates that the product has been safety certified for electric shock and fire. There are a ton of products coming from Asia that are poorly made and do not have these safety marks, so when I end up with one, I check it out before using. Which I did for voltage spacing. :) They used reasonable safety spacings, and I noticed that they have good designs for EMI noise as well. The ground prongs are left open on the standard 120V outlets (NEMA 15-20), so be aware that the ground is open. This is typically fine with most appliances but consider it only truly safe for double insulated appliances. Note that this wiring trick is common on many low power inverters, but not on UL/ETL inverters or UPS systems! Overall, I found this a good buy and safe to use with my CPAP machine - with a floating battery and double insulated CPAP device.