Running electric motors with an inverter

 I tried to run a couple of Taco 005 circulator pumps from a 12 VDC battery
and a dime-store (e.g., Walmart) inverter and couldn't do it - the pumps
hummed or  buzzed or something but never seemed to run as smoothly as they
do when plugged into the house's AC system. The pumps are 1/25th HP with a
.5 amp rating and I would have thought that they'd run fine on the inverter.
I tried two different invertors, both of which work fine otherwise and also
tried
running one pump at a time. The invertors are rated at 400 and 700 watts.

What's going wrong and how can I fix it? The objective is to be able to run
the pumps from lead-acid batteries as part of a  wind/solar powered system.
Are the inverters that are usually spec'd for solar systems, like
Xantrex/Trace, able to run motors?

 

Most likely not enough surge capacity to start a pump.

Did you try the pump dry. Pumps start underload.

 

I believe those motors do not like the square wave output from the
inexpensive inverters.  They will run, but will be less efficient (and run
hotter).  I do not know if this will harm them in the long run.

We have a forced hot water heating system and, I think, five of those
circulating pumps.  They all seem to run smoothly powered from my SW5548's,
which has a "pseudo-sine-wave" output.


-- ron  (off the grid in Downeast Maine)

 Ron Rosenfeld wrote:


I ran my Dremel tool off of my cheap 300W inverter once,it worked
alright,but it was making noises like the bearings were going out,and
coming loose inside the case! grinding/buzzing/rattling noises..
It still works just dandy on mains power,and I don't intend to try it
again on any square wave inverters!
Motors really don't like the harmonic prone square wave inverters..

 Actually, the inverters purportedly are modified sine-wave (aka modified
square wave).



battery

inverter.

system.

SW5548's,