I have mixed feelings on my decision to purchase this inverter. I decided to purchase the LiTime inverter because I had the LiTime battery and LiTime shunt/monitor. I figured if my whole system was from the same company it would all work together great. Well....

First the inverter. The install is pretty straight forward and simple with a couple of suggestions. First, Giving the torque settings for the connections would be nice so I could ensure a tight connection without fear of breaking something by overtightening. Second, the connections for hard wiring are pretty poor and small. Being a 3000W inverter I had to use 10 AWG wire and it was not easy to get the wires connected. That said, when the inverter is on it works great. The AC power is clean and the voltage is correct. It is quiet and has handled all the loads I have thrown at it. Works great... when IT IS ON. Getting this thing to turn on was a challenge. The manual and customer support were absolutely useless. To their credit, customer support answered my email questions quickly. The problem was that my long, detailed email questions were answered with one or two sentence replies that provided no real help, were confusing, and did nothing to solve the problem.

As another review commented. When turning this thing on, it only turns on for a split second with a Hi HOOH A1 message. The manual was useless. The two-sentence customer support reply was both useless and confusing at the same time. So off to trial and error and Google. From what I can tell it appears that when you press the ON button there is a huge power rush as the inverter tries to charge the capacitors. The battery BMS sees this as a short and cuts off power. It also appears that the capacitors discharge when you turn the unit off (even if it is still connected to the battery) So this happens every time. A design flaw in my opinion. Other brands of inverters keep the capacitors charged when the unit is off.

So.. how to use this thing. I found that if you hold the power button on for 1-2 minutes it will start up. I also found that if I'm hooked up to shore power with the converter on it will turn on with a single push of the on button. I'm thinking the converter must handle the power rush to charge the capacitors so it all works. Not sure why holding the power button for 2 minutes works but it does.

So, bottom line. This is a good inverter at a great price. It works great when it works. You would think the company would have worked to ensure that their own batteries and inverters would be made to work together but sadly NO. Or that they would have designed their inverter to keep the capacitors charged once hooked up to a battery so that you only have to play the capacitor charging game once at initial hook up (using a resistor to pre-charge the capacitor for example). However, if you know your taking your RV out and will need the inverter, turn it on at home while hooked up to shore power or play the hold the on button for two minutes game.

And to LiTime... how about training your customer support people to provide actual detailed, useful responses instead of cryptic one or two sentence answers? I would gladly wait 2 or 3 days for a useful response than get a useless one in 24 hours!

Had customer service (Mavis) reach out immediately to remedy the issue. Had a few back and forth emails with my concerns. Was immediately sent a return label and received a new unit with out the scratches. Has to be the best customer service I've ever dealt with...... Everything went seamlessly.....Again, high praise to their customer service! Very nice to be confident with a brand such as Li-Time...Will continue to be a customer in the future for sure....Much appreciated!

Was sent used unit. Not wrapped in plastic, led screen scratched up. Unsure of whether it works or not, don't have batteries yet. Very, very disappointing. Had heard lots of good about Li-time.

First impressions are that this thing is excellent. We have installed four LiTime 12v 200ah batteries on our boat in the last year, and needed a new pure sine wave inverter. Shopping around, I really couldn't find a better price on any comparable inverter. I did have some questions about the specs in the inverter and used the chat function on LiTime's website. They actually answered my questions in only 10 minutes, and with detailed technical replies. I'd like to see any other brand do that! So far, I've been really impressed with the batteries and now the inverter from LiTime. The build quality seems as good as any first-rate manufacturer. If I had to be brutally honest, the only thing I've noticed is that the fans on the inverter are a bit loud. It's not really an issue for me as it is installed where I don't notice the noise usually. That's it. Obviously, I hope to get many years of great service from the unit, but only time will tell on that.
LiTime has been in business for about 15 years as far as I can tell. They also stock their products in 3 different American warehouses, so shipping (and I'd guess warranty, service or returns if ever needed) happens here, not across oceans. I personally find that reassuring. I have a few other things I want to install on my boat, and I'll probably be getting them from LiTime. Aside from our Victron charge controllers which we purchased before the batteries, the rest of our system components are now LiTime. I guess we're a LiTime boat now! Better than gambling on an XYZ brand by far!

G

reat to work with