6 months with the AIMS 2000 Watt Pure Sine Inverter Charger

[trekerboy]

I'm in the process of renovating our 1979 Airstream Excella 500 31' camper from the ground up. Starting from the bare bones we had the option of redoing the aging electrical. Part of that process was selecting and installing a new power converter. We opted to add an inverter to the mix and the search was on for a cost effective and reliable unit that would meet out needs.

Despite the advice of the forum here (see this thread), I decided to take a risk on a relative unknown: AIMS 2000 Watt Pure Sine Inverter Charger.



There were almost no reviews on the unit at the time, so it was hard to gauge whether not the unit was any good. Even Lewster said "MADE IN CHINA, BEWARE". Nevertheless, talking to a tech at the company (based in Nevada) and learning a little more about it's features I decided it was worth the risk given it's low price. It's definitely the cheapest option out there for 2000w Interverter, 20A charger, and built-in automatic transfer switch. So I bought it, and installed it.

That was 6 months ago.

We've been using it daily for during the renovation as a power source (mostly in pass-thru AC power mode, but occasionally use the inverter mode just for fun) to run vacuums, drills, saws, lights, and anything else you can think of. Haven't had a problem yet! So far, I have to saw, it's been really reliable and performed as expected. Highest continuous draw yet was 1800w and it worked fine.

Given that there just weren't a lot of reviews out there for this unit, I wanted to add one voice to the mix, and a positive one at that.

Here's a picture of it installed (excuse the mess of wires that still need to be wrangled).

[trekerboy]

Update: I've had the AIMS unit for over a year now. Still good, no problems aside from a single sustained unexplained voltage draw that seems to have a fluke related to switching from shore power to batteries. Only happened once and was remedied by turning the unit off then on again. Currently using it to keep the batteries charged while being stored for the winter. So far so good!

[Tincampers]

Thanks for the update. Any idea how much current it draws while idle and turned on?

[trekerboy]

Originally Posted by mrprez

Thanks for the update. Any idea how much current it draws while idle and turned on?

It's about 2 amps

[nskinner]

This is the perfect thread for me right now. I'm mid re-model of a 31" 79 Sovereign and am also considering what to do with the existing electrical in terms of upgrades. Reading this I realize that my understanding of what I have right now and what I am looking for is a little lacking.
As it stands I have what I thought was an inverter, the cover is faded and very hard to read, I can make out the model as "PC45A Power Source". From my reading I now wonder if this is in fact a converter and not an inverter. Forgive my ignorance but now I'm not sure if I'm converting the 110V AC to 12V DC or the other way around? I'm not even sure how this system charges the battery as it does not seem to be a charger at all, is this correct? Does that mean the battery only charges from the tow vehicle?
I had been thinking that replacing this set up with an inverter / charger, with at least 1000W and 2000W surge would be the way to go. I would appreciate any thoughts. Thanks.

[trekerboy]

Originally Posted by nskinner

This is the perfect thread for me right now. I'm mid re-model of a 31" 79 Sovereign and am also considering what to do with the existing electrical in terms of upgrades. Reading this I realize that my understanding of what I have right now and what I am looking for is a little lacking.

As it stands I have what I thought was an inverter, the cover is faded and very hard to read, I can make out the model as "PC45A Power Source". From my reading I now wonder if this is in fact a converter and not an inverter. Forgive my ignorance but now I'm not sure if I'm converting the 110V AC to 12V DC or the other way around? I'm not even sure how this system charges the battery as it does not seem to be a charger at all, is this correct? Does that mean the battery only charges from the tow vehicle?

I had been thinking that replacing this set up with an inverter / charger, with at least 1000W and 2000W surge would be the way to go. I would appreciate any thoughts. Thanks.

Sounds like you do indeed have a converter and not an inverter. A converter takes your standard household (or campground) 120v electricity and converts it to 12v for the purposes of charging your batteries. A converter does NOT convert 12v to 120v so you can use normal household items without being plugged into shore power; that's the job of an Inverter.

The AIMS unit that is the subject of this thread is a combination unit. It has both inverter and converter capabilities, coupled with an automatic transfer switch to change between the two functions automatically when needed.

If you're in the middle of rewiring I'd definitely recommend deciding what kind of charging and/or inverting device you want because it'll impact how you wire system.

I hope this helps!

[nskinner]

thanks, that is helpful. I'm not really considering re-wiring per se. Everything has been checked and is functional. I may be adding some 12V task lighting, USB ports etc, nothing terribly fancy or complicated.
Would swapping the existing converter to something like the AIMS unit require significant rewiring from original? This is likely not a task i'll undertake on my own so I will need to weigh costs / benefits and my sense is that a full re-wiring will tip the balance, with cost outweighing benefit.

[trekerboy]

Originally Posted by nskinner

thanks, that is helpful. I'm not really considering re-wiring per se. Everything has been checked and is functional. I may be adding some 12V task lighting, USB ports etc, nothing terribly fancy or complicated.
Would swapping the existing converter to something like the AIMS unit require significant rewiring from original? This is likely not a task i'll undertake on my own so I will need to weigh costs / benefits and my sense is that a full re-wiring will tip the balance, with cost outweighing benefit.

If you swapped out the existing converter for another converter that should be relatively straight forward, however if you wanted to swap the existing converter for a combination unit (like the AIMS that is the subject of this thread) it would require some rewiring to wire the inverter to your AS's 120v wiring and shore power connection. It's a bit off topic for this thread, but if you decide to do it there are plenty of folks here on the forum who have gone through that process; start a new thread and that'll attract the right people.

[Monza]

Any other updates on these inverters/ chargers??

[trekerboy]

Originally Posted by Monza

Any other updates on these inverters/ chargers??

Mine is still going strong. No problems.

[trekerboy]

It's been nearly 5 years since my original post and just wanted pop-in and say still no issues with the AIMS 2000 Watt Pure Sine Inverter Charger. Our Airstream is parked now, not much moving around, but the AIMS unit survived everything we threw at it during our 3 years full time on the road.

Definitely recommend this unit if you're looking for an all-in-one unit that's cost effective. Only downside is that the built-in battery charger is only a 20amp charger, which means it takes quick a while to fully charge our 400AH battery bank from 0 (lithium).

Job well done AIMS!