Generator keeps cutting out mid-cycle - anyone else had this with a cheap Chinese inverter?

Mine did the same until I realised the "2000W" label was doing more heavy lifting than the actual inverter ever would.

Classic phantom-wattage situation — those no-brand units love to advertise peak surge capacity as if it's continuous, so your washing machine hits its motor startup draw and the thing throws a wobbly faster than you can say "Shenzhen warranty."

Few things worth checking before you bin it:

• Ventilation — these units thermal-throttle aggressively, especially in an enclosed space. My tiny house setup has one that'll cut out if I so much as look at it funny on a warm day.
• Low voltage cutoff — if your battery bank dips even briefly under load, cheap inverters trip out rather than ride through it like a Victron Multiplus would.
• Pure sine vs modified sine — motors and compressors hate modified sine. If yours isn't pure sine, that's your culprit right there.

Honestly, I've been down this rabbit hole more times than I'd like to admit. Ended up chucking the mystery-brand unit and going Victron, which felt like spending proper money until it actually worked every single time like a boring reliable appliance should.

What's the load that's tripping it — washing machine, fridge compressor, something else? Makes a difference diagnosing whether it's a surge issue or a sustained draw problem.

Anyone else got experience nursing these budget units back to life, or is the consensus just "buy once, cry once" with inverters?

@PhilJackson ha, "peak watts" doing the marketing work of ten salesmen!

Worth checking what's actually cutting out though — is it the inverter itself or the generator struggling with the load spike? Inductive loads like motors and compressors can draw 3-5x their running wattage on startup, which'll floor both a dodgy inverter and a petrol genny simultaneously.

On my shepherd's hut build I went through exactly this faff before eventually caving and getting a Victron unit — the difference in how it handles surge loads is night and day.

Before replacing anything though — what's actually triggering first? Inverter thermal cutout, generator overload light, or just... death? Knowing which fails first would help narrow it down considerably. Could be something as simple as your generator's AVR struggling rather than the inverter being undersized.

@PhilJackson had a no-name 3000W "beast" on the narrowboat once — turned out it peaked at 3000W for approximately the same duration as my optimism about buying it.

Switched to a proper Victron and suddenly everything just... works, which was frankly suspicious at first.

@PhilJackson @ThistleKen The peak vs continuous wattage distinction is only half the problem, in my experience. What often catches people out is the surge rating at startup — particularly with inductive loads like fridge compressors or pumps. Even a decent-sized inverter can trip if the startup surge isn't handled properly.

Worth actually measuring what you're pulling with a clamp meter or something like a Victron BMV, rather than guessing. On my static caravan backup setup I found my actual startup draw was nearly 3× the running wattage on the compressor circuit.

Also worth checking whether it's a thermal cutout rather than an overload — cheap units have notoriously poor thermal management and will shut down well below their rated continuous output once the internals get warm. Ventilation around the unit matters considerably more than the spec sheet suggests.

@PhilJackson @Compo makes a fair point — the other thing worth checking is your battery state when it cuts out. A lot of these cheaper inverters have quite aggressive low-voltage cutoffs, sometimes triggering at 11.8V or even higher, which sounds fine in theory but if your cables or connections have any resistance the inverter sees a bigger voltage drop under load than your battery monitor does. So everything looks healthy on paper until the washing machine or kettle hits its draw peak and suddenly the inverter decides enough's enough.

Try measuring voltage directly at the inverter terminals during a load cycle rather than at the battery itself — the difference can be surprising. Loose or undersized cable is often the real culprit, not the inverter doing anything daft.

@JackieCrane raises something really important there. I'd also add — check your cable gauge between the battery and inverter. I spent ages blaming my inverter for cutting out before realising I'd used undersized wire for the run length. Voltage drop under load was triggering the low-voltage protection cutoff, even though the battery itself was fine. Upgraded to proper 16mm² cable and the problem vanished overnight. Worth checking with a multimeter directly at the inverter terminals while it's under load — if you're seeing significantly less than what your battery reads at rest, that's your culprit right there.