inverters and toothbrush chargers

[homer]

I have "blown" two electric toothbrush chargers when running them off the inverter and thought it was just bad luck. But then I met another yachtie with the same experience. It seems there is an incompatability but can anyone explain why?

 

[fergie_mac66]

Is the inverter a pure sine wave inverter

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Fred drift, but I use an AA battery powered toothbrush.

 

[john_morris_uk]

I have "blown" two electric toothbrush chargers when running them off the inverter and thought it was just bad luck. But then I met another yachtie with the same experience. It seems there is an incompatability but can anyone explain why?

It's almost certainly because the output of your inverter is not a pure sine wave but a sort of 'stepped approximation' to a sine wave. The toothbrush charging circuit can't cope. It's a common problem with inverters that aren't pure sine wave outputs.

Either change your toothbrush to a battery one (they are available and it's what I use) or change your inverter. The battery toothbrush change will be cheaper, but be careful plugging things into your invertor. Lots of products struggle with non pure sine wave inverters.