Inverter advice

Gimlet

Gimlet

Elite Member
Subscriber
I'm thinking of buying a pro cordless chainsaw for work. I will be using it on and off all day every day so I need to be able to charge it from the car as I'm never anywhere near a power source. So I need an inverter. They vary from £40 to £500 and I don't know what I need.
It will only be used for charging the saw battery so I only need a single 230v socket and nothing with a heavy power drain will be run off it, as in appliances in camper vans etc.

I've no idea what spec I need. Don't want to waste money but I need to know it will run the charger reliably. The batteries, if it's relevant, are 40v 9 AH with a fast charger (30-40 minutes). Ideally I'd like crocodile clips so I can charge directly off the battery - otherwise the engine needs to be left running - and preferably a 12v socket lead as well so I can charge while I'm driving.

Any recommendations?
 
Think the important figure is the power consumtion of the charger in watts? There should be a plate or sticker on it with this figure.
 
Could you visit a towbar or caravan specialist and get a leisure battery wired in to your vehicle and run the inverter off that. Or keep your eyes open for Lidl and Aldi deals. I got an 850w petrol generator from there should be good enough for chargers.
Mind you I only used it a couple of times before I got lecky in my garage
 
1418 said:
Could you visit a towbar or caravan specialist and get a leisure battery wired in to your vehicle and run the inverter off that. Or keep your eyes open for Lidl and Aldi deals. I got an 850w petrol generator from there should be good enough for chargers.
Mind you I only used it a couple of times before I got lecky in my garage
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That's not a bad idea. The Landrover is very sensitive to battery drain. If it drops too low you get all sorts of sensors triggered and it goes into limp mode. Hence the need to charge with the engine running. You can't just leave the ignition on in any case, as it'll shut the system down after about 15 minutes. That's OK if it only needs one half hour charge per day at lunch time. Becomes an issue if it needs more than that. I could probably buy a cheap genny cheaper than I could buy a second Husqvarna battery... And I don't want to have the car sitting idling for an hour every day.
The unknow factor is how long a single charge will last. If the saw is used flat out continuously it's easy to work out. But my work involves all day intermitent use so I've no idea how often I need to charge until I get started.

I think in the first instance I'd just buy the minimum inverter I need to charge off the car battery. If more than one charge a day are needed I would look at the genny/leisure battery options.
 
A mate of mine has the Stihl MSA70, he reckons it runs for a constant 40 minutes per battery. Maybe buy one of those with a couple of batteries.

It may be a Stihl but all battery chainsaws are gay….
 
Gimlet said:
I'm thinking of buying a pro cordless chainsaw for work. I will be using it on and off all day every day so I need to be able to charge it from the car as I'm never anywhere near a power source. So I need an inverter. They vary from £40 to £500 and I don't know what I need.
It will only be used for charging the saw battery so I only need a single 230v socket and nothing with a heavy power drain will be run off it, as in appliances in camper vans etc.

I've no idea what spec I need. Don't want to waste money but I need to know it will run the charger reliably. The batteries, if it's relevant, are 40v 9 AH with a fast charger (30-40 minutes). Ideally I'd like crocodile clips so I can charge directly off the battery - otherwise the engine needs to be left running - and preferably a 12v socket lead as well so I can charge while I'm driving.

Any recommendations?
Click to expand...
Why not just invest in a decent small petrol chainsaw?
If you insist on electric, then you'll need to know the consumption of the fast charger.
On inverters, you get what you pay for. Pure sine, as a minimum... make sure its continuous rating is 20% higher than the fastcharger maximum consumption. Ignore all peak figures as they are for fractions of a second.

Most cigarette sockets can only provide limited power, they really are a poor source of 12v.... think mobile phone/sat nav use.
Not sure many would even allow a small child to learn a valuable lesson...

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Not sure what brand but I see a lot of lads now using power banks to charge their cordless tools i never pay much attention as we refuse to run of genies as it fucks up our festtool gear ... no power no fitting service
 
I use cordless all day every day and although I did install an inverter in my wagon, I would not do it again in hindsight. It will be cheaper to upspec the tool to a better brand(if appropriate) and buy spare batteries. I am still on 18v Makita gear and it may see me out.
But if you do install, you need to be able to supply double the draw of the charger. Also you need to make sure the inverter supply cables are adequate. Easy for a small device but gets very expensive for a 3000W inverter when you factor in the cables and fittings. I spent $400 on a 2000w inverter and it was going to be similar for proper connections. The inverter lasted approx 6yrs before tapping out. At 2000W, it would struggle to power anything with a draw of 1200W or more as the draw on startup would trip the overload switch.
 
Well I'm still using petrol. I went over to Aspen for a while. Definitely far cleaner and less fumey but I'd be spending in one day on Aspen what I'd spend in a week on pump fuel. Ran out of Aspen this week and had to go back to regular fuel. No coughing so I assume there was something wrong with my health following the flue I had.

Going to hold off buying cordless for now as this years work hasn't gone that well with the wet winter and I don't know how much I'll have next year. But if I go cordless I'm just going to buy a decent inverter briefcase generator.
A decent one like a Honda putting out 3000+ watts will be over a grand used, but it solves the charging issue without involving the car and it will be useful for all sorts of other things.
 
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