BCI 1500 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter / 12VDC to 110VAC

Over the weekend I hardwired my inverter to my Bolt EV’s 12v battery (positive terminal) and jump start stud (negative), and run a full-sized fridge on it for 3 hours. The car is set at Neutral position, with AC/lights/main screen off. Everything worked as expected. In the 3 hours, the fridge consumed 0.3kwh, and the car itself consumed 0.5kwh, so total power consumption is 0.8kwh. At this rate the car can drive the fridge for 9 days if fully charged! The inverter runs cool at 90F case temp, its fan didn’t even turn on. The temp at the cable and all connections are all about 5F above ambient temp, which is great. In theory you can use the inverter with ICE cars too. But with EVs you can set it up in garage with no fumes and noises!The included spec sheet is out of date; so I contacted BCI customer support and they emailed a new one very quickly -- great customer support. The one more thing I wish to have is an instruction manual.

As soon as I hooked up 12volt power, the inverter started smoking.

The good:True pure sine inverter. No more buzzing of electronics and power is clean.The bad:Anytime the ambient air temp is above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, the unit shuts down. Even putting a fan directly on the unit still sometimes results in a shutdown. This is a real problem for me, as the area that it is placed in is not easily accessible. The unit shuts down and then automatically comes back in after 5 minutes. A real bummer.UPDATE: 1-10-20:Unit died overnight and wouldn’t come back on. Support seems to be nonexistent. For that reason, I cannot recommend this product.

I’ll top my review with a quick overall impression. The unit works like it should so far. I’ve used this to power a pole saw, charge power tool batteries, recharge portable power banks, etc. This 1500 watt version puts out power and it seems to be nice clean power.Ok so now the more in depth review. The bad is as follows:The USB charge port is only active when the inverter is on. That’s pretty inefficient.The voltmeter is wildly inaccurate for the first minute after turning on the inverter. It seems to be consistently low.The inverter gets pretty warm even with nothing plugged in. I expect some heating, but not quite as much.The connection wires that came with it are laughable. Just bake the cost of connection wires into your overall cost.Ok now the good:Unit is pretty robust. I keep it on a hot shed and it doesn’t seem to mind at all.Heat is actually pretty consistent whether the unit is under load or not. The cooling fans seem to keep the inverter at operable temps even in a hot environment.Connections are really solid and easy to use.

Before I bought this inverter I was researching inverters on Amazon, eBay, and asking questions in different Facebook groups for months. I chose this one because I just had a good feeling about it and because it was cheaper than other pure sine inverters of the same strength. I use this inverter for a 2006 Toyota Prius that I converted into a camper. I have a 700 watt microwave hooked to this power inverter which is connected to the 12-volt battery and it works pretty much perfectly I think. There's no funny sounds or lack of power or anything. I've never had a power inverter so I don't really know what to look for but it appears to be working just fine. When the car is on, the voltage reader says 13.6 volts and when the car is off it's usually about 12.4 volts which I believe is pretty accurate. 13.6 is the charging voltage and 12.4 is about what a 12 volt battery should be when it's fully charged, maybe a little bit more. I have a voltmeter and it gives a slightly different reading but that's okay, it doesn't have to be 100% accurate. It gets really hot when I use the microwave but the fans are also blowing inside of it to cool it down so I think that's normal.It appears to be a good company. I sent them an email with questions about the inverter and they responded within a few days which is good. The cables that come with the inverter appear to be very high-quality, they are very thick and sturdy, I just wish they were a little bit longer but they work great.Edit on October 2, 2020: so something happened with the inverter: the positive and the negative cables were touching each other and they started both melting and smoking while using my 700 W microwave. I didn't know that wires could melt each other like that just by touching each other, it was a horrible smell and there was smoke everywhere... dangerous! Now the inverter is shutting off at times while using my microwave, I don't know why. I replaced the cables and it still shuts off at times. I'm going to keep using it and if it gets any worse then I'm going to get a refund... I don't know if the included cables are really cheap quality or what.

Great addition to my camper's PV system!