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In basic terms, inverters are of two types - basic ones which produce "square-wave" alternating current, and sine wave inverters which have more sophisticated electronic circuitry to mimic the pure sine wave alternating current which is produced by an alternator.
As other contributors have commented, many/most electronic devices do not function well if they are supplied with square-wave AC power.
You can get a good first impression of which kind of inverter you are looking at by examining the price ticket. In this case "yer gets what yer pays for". A good sine wave inverter will always be a lot more expensive than a square-wave inverter. If you really want to buy a sine wave inverter, just take the precaution of obtaining a written guarantee when you buy it, that it really is a genuine sine wave inverter.
Having said all of that, heating elements (as in electric jugs, and perhaps OA vaporisers) just need power. If there is any electronic circuitry involved in the temperature control, then it may be very wise to ensure that you are using a sine-wave inverter. However there is another factor to consider. Heating elements can be (or have been) devised which work perfectly well in low voltage circuits, such as the small electric jugs which can be operated on 12 volts from the cigarette lighter plug in a car. If it is possible to get a vaporiser which is designed to run on 12 volts, then the use of an inverter to create 240 volts (or 110, 220, or whatever the mains supply voltage is in your country), then it should not be necessary to use any inverter at all.
People have wondered, and there has been much discussion (and so many queries), about what type of battery to use, or "what kind of inverter should I get". The problem here is that heating devices need power - lots of it - much more than devices like phones, computers, television, and the like.
Batteries can store power, but on a weight-for-weight basis gasoline and LPG gas provide much more power than batteries probably ever will.
Electrically heated vaporisers, and gas flame heated vaporisers each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Batteries and portable petrol-powered generators also each have advantages and disadvantages when they are compared against each other. The real question which needs to be considered, and answered, is "How MUCH power is needed?". The additional question that many people have is "How POWERFUL does my power supply need to be?"
Many people do not correctly understand the difference between the quantity of power required, and the rate at which power is used. In this situation, a helpful analogy can be made by comparing the electric current in a cable, and the flow of water through a garden hose. If you require a certain volume (or quantity) of water, it may not be important whether the water flows slowly or quickly out of the hose. If you have high pressure in your mains-pipe, then you may get the required volume of water very quickly. If you have a low pressure system, or just a water tank, you could still get the required volume just as quickly if you had a large enough diameter hose.
When you wish to vaporise a certain amount of OA, you will require a certain amount of heat. Thinking about water again, you could boil a saucepan full of water quickly by placing the saucepan over a hot flame. You could however just use a very small flame, and still boil the water, but it would just take a longer amount of time to do it.
When it comes to OA vaporisers, comments have been made about the amount of time which is required for a single treatment. Low power devices require more time than high power devices.
Having written an extensive answer to what started as an apparently simple question, the final decision about gas or electric, about battery or generator - each person needs to consider what is their actual requirement. I believe that gas-powered flame-heated vaporisers have the greatest portability with the least weight when many treatments are required on a given day. For those who believe that their needs are best served by using electric power, a generator which directly powers the vaporiser (rather than batteries which may or may not require the use of an inverter) will win out when many treatments are required.
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. I'd have had a hard time explaining to my factory manager why the process came to a halt because something I'd built failed in normal use because of eg noise on the electricity mains in the factory. Saving ten quids worth of additional components wouldn't have gone down well.
