Xantrex Freedom 806-1840 HF 1800W Pure Sine Wave Inverter Charger for RVs, Boats & Off-Grid Power - Reliable Backup for Home & Outdoor Adventures

This unit offers a all in one package for 1800 watts as a modified wave inverter, 40 amp charger, and internal transfer switch.Where to strart?OK unit is nice and compact for what it represents, it is easy to connect and use unit.After testing it here is what I found: It easily puts out the 1800 watts, actually surpasses it for a reasonable length of time, (if you have the battery bank to power it) without any overheating or other issues. Voltage held reasonably stable in the 114~117 range as I switched form 800 to 1500 watts and even 1800~ without much light dimming, or other drama.Its charger section quickly recharges the battery when shore power is available however but herein lies the rub, it is very sensitive to its shore power and this really defeats the purpose.If your shore power is not at least 115 volts it will not operate at all. even the transfer switch does not work and it will not even pass through electricity unless it is at least 115 volts.all of the advertising for this unit lists it as 110~120 VAC, with the total range being from 90~135 volts AC. in reality it will not operate at any other voltage other than a very narrow range from 112~125 Volts AC this was confirmed by extensive testing with my house voltage and my Denyo gensets. The Denyo being made for use in multiple countries allows adjustment for both frequency and voltage regulation from 45~65 hertz in one hertz increments, and the same for voltage from 95 to 120. Anything below 112 and the charger and transfer switch would not operate, any higher 125 and it would enter a protection mode and not operate.The same applies for the cycles, its range of operation for all intents and purposes is 60 htz +/- three hertz. Not very feasible when you are camping/boon docking or traveling form marina to marina on a sea trip, even in the US the electricity is not that stable in most cases, let alone heaven forbid that you might travel up north to Canada, or south to Mexico.This being the case, it is virtually worthless for a ship, or an RV where you travel and have variable shore power. IF you are powering it from a genset that can maintain 115 volts at 60 Hertz it is fine, so if can charge in the 3~4 hours that some parks allow generateor operatin then you are OK. If you are using it as a UPS for a house it would be OK, but if that's the case you would probably opt for a pure sine wave inverter instead.the jury is out on this one folks, but only some actual road testing will tell, but I think its a Dodo.I bought a 1st one in 2014. 8 years later, it stops working (cannot be recharged, keep beeping, etc...). I thought it is because it was too old. Bought this this year and it does the same after 1 month.Easy install, works great. No problem running my orbital sander, jigsaw etc. on my boat. The GFIs go bad once in a while which you have to change or it won't run. Kind of wish they would get rid of that. Otherwise has been great. Second one we have had.4th one over 4 years. Not sure of the other issues but this time it lost its ability to recharge the battery when hooked up to 110 volt in while sitting. Time will tell.I installed this in my Class C motorhome to replace the converter. It did take me a few days to install because of the recommended wiring. If I could have used the existing wire it could have been much faster. I used a 2/0 welding wire to go from the unit to the batteries, and #10 to go to and from the electric panel. I also moved the location from under the couch to an under coach storage close to the battery as recommended. This has the added benefit of quieting the cooling fan on the unit. (it would have been pretty noisy under the couch). I do like the very fast transfer switching feature. My satellite receiver used to have to reboot every time I changed from electric to generator and back. Not any longer, the Freedom hf1800 takes up the slack time and my Directv keeps going. My only complaint is the display has bright red letters. I have the display mounted by the door in the living area. The kids sleep on the couch and glow with the red light.I've been researching inverters and chargers for sometime for my camper/trailer and trying to come up with a simple single solution for camping and recharging my battery. I had an inverter but always had to drag out another device to charge the battery after a weekend of use. It was cumbersome to disconnect the inverter connect the charger then put everything back together after charging. This device has a built in transfer switch so it does both. When your on batteries it acts just as any inverter does and gives you 120vac but this device also allows you to plug it in. When plugged in it passes the 120vac through for you to use just like the inverter but also charges your battery at the same time. This device also provides some nice features such as being able to charge all sorts of different battery types and even has technology that allows it to even charge batteries that other chargers are not capable of recharging due to the battery being to far depleted. Another feature that I liked is the remote mount of the display so you can easily place it so you can view the status of your battery. It's a nice all in one good quality solution.I've owned it fr a few months now, and I have it installed on a sailboat that's kept hooked up to shore power in a marina. Installation and operation instructions are clear, and the connections are straight forward. The 110VAC convenience outlets are...convenient... to the point where I've deferred wiring in std outlets elsewhere on the boat.A few notes:- You will need a 3.5mm slotted screw driver to open the 110VAC wiring clamps. There's no way around that- I tried every possible tool I had before I gave up and went home to grab my slotted screwdriver kit.- The display and convenience outlets are removable but the documentation neglects to mention that additional screws must be removed on the side. Not difficult but not user friendly either.- Recommend wiring an AC Main upstream and a AC distribution downstream-Mounts easily on the side and in a cabinet provided it's adequately ventilated.We replaced the exact same unit so it was easy to replace. Was a little nervous when it arrived because the box was beat up and the cardboard was broken. But it is installed and seems to be no issue. I will update if there is one later.I love this unit! It’s 1800 Watts which is a little overkill for my use but still does the job! I’m currently using it with my sump pump and battery backup. The battery is a group 27 deep cycle marine battery. I have made a battery cable using booster cables which connect to the 1800W unit and the other to the battery. I then used a computer power cord with the female plug cut off and the wires stripped to fit into the units AC input (see photos). I’m also using a proteus wifi sensor to alert me when the water level in the sump pit gets too high. My sump pump is a 1/3 HP pump. Current rating is 3.48 Amp. I am very happy with this power investor auto charger unit! I almost forgot, it comes with wall mounting brackets too!This is the second inverter charger of this make and model. The first one is 9 years old in use at my off grid cabin.I bought this one for an off grid rv. It works as well as my current one.Seems to be a very durable product, we run a generator to charge 8 6volt batteries. We operate : coffee makers, skill saws, vacume cleaners, a tv and dvd player regularly with no issues. If we overload it, the alarm sounds and we simply turn it off to reset and good to go.Works great, very well made, I wish the removable display had a little bit more function or a few more display options.So easy to operate, amazing product! Prompt shipping from Supplier!I like the inverter but it was too big for the RV so I sold it to a friend. I must say I wish that it came with a cord that could be put on it if the user wishes because most likely it will have to be plugged in instead of direct wired. We had to take the plug off the old one.