Home > Consumer Reviews > Cobra CPI 1575 1500 Watt 12 Volt DC to 120 Volt AC Power Inverter

I bought this product because I have a workshop in a remote area of my property. There is no 120 volt power available without my noisy gasoline generator. I set this inverter up so that it is entirely portable. Whatever vehicle I drive over with, all my power needs are fully met with this unit. It is absolutely GREAT. I highly recommend it.

My Cobra was easy to install and worked just fine. I was disapointed that the 3000 Watt rating was the peak power rating and normal operation was only 1500 watts.

I decided to use this to power a heater in a small SUV as opposed to paying $800.00 to have the heat core replaced. It does not come with cables, so you have to find and install 4 gauge cables that are not more than 4' long to the battery, get them into the cab, and mount them to the unit with compression screws.

My first attempt was based on a pair of jumper cables the salesperson told me were 4 gauge, but are apparently 6 or 8 gauge. I can't even run the heater at 750 watts without alarms going off. Back to the drawing board.

If I succeed, I will update this rating. At this point the project is becoming more a mistake than a solution.

Update: I ultimately had a mechanic install the unit which had a cost of $150.00. Still less than $600.00 for a new heater core. However, since Cobra chose not to publish this information upfront in their information, my review remains ***. Be very aware of installation limitations!

Update: We're beating a dead horse here. I'm going back to my propane tent heater and giving up on the large inverter. I'll still use a small one for computers, etc. when I travel. This is a backup vehicle, so it's not worth a lot of repairs or upgrades. The inverter is going on eBay. I feel the product was incredibly misrepresented, and I would now only give it one star.

This product worked great I am very glad we purchased the product the price was a plus

this seems to be okay for intermittent use, but i wanted to use it for a solar system/electric hot water heater project and the instructions clearly tell you not to run it for more than an hour at full load. I would need to run it for hours at a time. Also as many have commented you need to get a cut up a pair of 6 gauge jumper cables to hook this thing up as it has internal power connectors, and it takes a pretty good battery to run it. I am going to try and run this off a pair of 6 volt golf cart batteries instead of a car battery and see if it works any better. I have not tested it out over 10 amps yet, and about any decent power tool takes that as a minimum. I also have not tried to run it for a more than an hour due to the instructions (hour on, hour off at full load) When I get more of my project set up I will update my review.