Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.
Today’s TSP Item of the day the Whistler XP800i 800 Watt Power Inverter. Long term listeners may be thinking oh this is an old one, and it is, sort of. While doing research last week I found that Whistler no longer makes the 800 Watt inverter that Steven Harris and I have both recommended for years.
So does the new Whistler XP800i 800 Watt Power Inverter stand up to the old Whistler PRO800W Inverter? Yes! Yes it most certainly does. Despite the few idiots writing low reviews (more on that in a minute) this is pretty much the same old Whister in a new body with a few small upgrades.
Just like the old model there are two AC outlets, however now the inverter has 2 vs. 1 USB port, which is great for charging smart devices while using the inverter for other things. It also still has the most important safety features including, Electronic Circuit Protection consisting of Smart Surge Control, Overload/Voltage Protection, Short Circuit Protection, and Thermal Cutoff.
What about the idiotic negative reviews? First there are a few legitimate ones where they say it is DOA, with any electronic product this can and does happen. This is why I love Amazon if anything is wrong you exchange or return it. Just consider they sell thousands of these a week, if .2% have a problem, a few will show up. The beauty is with Amazon you have no risk, print a return label and exchange it or get a refund. One reason right there I LOVE Amazon.
Most of the negatives are idiotic though. People trying to pull 500 watts but plugging it into a cigarette lighter plug which can only handle 150 watts tops. People saying that the back terminals are not threaded like the picture, well dummy that is because you ordered the 1200 watt one with heavier terminals for higher wattage. Or someone saying it won’t run a microwave, well no shit! I mean who would have ever expected that a 800 watt inverter would not be able to run an 1100 watt microwave? Keep in mind these people breed and they vote!
This inverter is what it always has been a good low cost option for back up power when you need it. It allows you with simply some extension cords and some power splitters to make use of the one or two “generators” sitting in your driveway or garage. If you are sane you can power most things in your house with one or two of these just not all at the same time, you can run a fridge for a few hours to keep it cool then run other things.
It will easily run some LED lights to keep you able to see where things are. It will of course give you all the power you need to charge all your devices, run a laptop and even a cable modem, again you just have to pick what you want to do at any time, you can’t do everything at once, but you can do an awful lot.
At 48.55 a piece I don’t know of any other single preparedness item that can do as much for under 50 bucks. I also want to say this is a big time case for two is one and one is none. This is a good product but inverters do fail, all electronics do, so keep two at least on hand. So check out the Whistler XP800i 800 Watt Power Inverter today and consider adding it to your black out kit.
Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com
P.S. – For more on using this item check out the podcast I did with Steven Harris on powering your house with your car. In fact two of them, Part One and Part Two.
