I have a 2013 f350 and im wondering if the 110 outlet plugs from the inverter produce pure sine wave power or modified sine wave? I cannot find any stats/specs on the inverter anywhere and was hoping someone here might have a clue, thanks for the info.

 

I think it is. Here's why.

My makita 18v battery chargers don't work with most inverters (cig lighter type). They do work when I plug them in to the truck outlets though, so I'm inclined to think that the power is of good quality.

I don't have a scope anymore, we used to have them lying around back in the early 90's though, lol. I'm sure someone here could tell you for sure though.

 

Take your laptop power adapter and plug it into the truck. Listen very carefully to the adapter and if it makes a buzzing noise it is not a pure sine wave inverter.

 

thats guaranteed to have that effect if its not pure wave? Square, modified and whatever other versions are out there will all make it buzz? any other way to tell which of the 3 it is?

 

The sure fire way to tell is to put an oscilloscope on it and see what the wave form looks like

 

they look somewhat pricey, i was hoping ford had a data spec sheet on it somewhere that would say what it is someone could link. google wasnt helpful in this case, it doesnt fail me often.

 

It is suppose to be. Ford advertised that you could use your laptop with it.


I have with no issues.

 

I havent had any issues either, but most laptops work with the non pure wave inverters as well so its hard to tell based on that. Would love to see some official documentation regarding it but cant find anything online, might have to call a dealer or corporate to find out for sure. Just thought someone here might know as there seems to be a few ford employees on this site. I was kinda guessing it wasnt, since the pure wave ones cost more, but maybe im wrong and they splurged for pure wave inverters.

 

I re-read the info in the owners manual.


It is pretty vague on the subject of laptops.


It does caution against a few things that require stable power but a laptop is not one.

 

this seems to suggest that square wave inverters are older and have the most issue while most devices work with the modified wave inverters that are more common today. Still the reason i want to know is for charging battery packs for something and they seem to suggest that some will work and some will have issues so id really love to know for a fact in case it might damage them.

Inverter frequently asked questions

 

I also asked this question in the superduty heavyduty forum and got a response there, based on the things they caution against i guess its safe to say that its indeed a modified wave inverter and not a pure wave one. Matches the info in the inverter FAQ link i posted for what may not work with modified inverters as well. Now all i gotta do i guess is somehow figure out if my battery/charger is one of the types that will work without issue on the modified wave inverters.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ve-or-not.html

 

Plug it in and try it

 

I have and it works just fine, however some people claim modified wave inverters might be damaging to the charger or the battery since its a switched mode power supply type charger, just trying to confirm if it is or not because the batteries cost $200 each and i dont want to prematurely damage or destroy them if at all possible

 

Test it with your fluke meter. If it's msw, it won't read 120.

 

Then him up a meter and check the frequency and voltage. Or, get a scope and be done with it.

You are over thinking this...