Yay Cobra

I bought a Cobra CPI 2500 inverter in December 2007-- in fact it was one of the first things I bought for the van, even before I'd bought the actual van (solar panels and batteries were the next things I bought, a week or so later). I installed it, and used it mostly to power my LCD panel display, but since switching to a netbook I don't even have the LCD in the van anymore (it's in storage), and I use the inverter only for occasionally running a flourescent work light or a vacuum cleaner. It worked, until it didn't.

The inverter just died a few weeks ago. Stopped working entirely. So I boxed it up and shipped it back to Cobra. I don't know what kind of warranty it came with, but they sent me back a brand-new unit of a totally different model, a CPI 2575 with a bunch of new digital bells and whistles (voltage/wattage indicator, USB power port, etc.). It's a lot smaller than the old unit too, which is nice, but it's also of a lot more cheap/flimsy construction-- this one is mostly plastic when the other one was almost all aluminum. And it's noisy, not only when running, but it emits a crazy and obnoxious set of beeps whenever it starts up and a short one when it shuts down.

But the new one works, and they didn't charge me a dime, even though the old dead unit was quite possibly out of warranty. Nice job Cobra. I hope this one lasts a lot longer.