Hi, I own a hatsuyuki hc-8e, 115 volt version. I'm having a really difficult time finding an inverter. I know what I need according to specs, however, I've tried multiple inverters and still the electrical surge at startup is too much for any inverter to handle.

I even tried a 5000 continuous/10000 watt surge modified sine-wave inverter. WAY MORE than it should need to run off 12 volt deep cell batteries. No go.

Am I missing something? We've tried multiple brands, multiple kinds/brands, etc. The only think I can think of is to find out what make and model other people are using because we've tried everything just short of the exact same model that someone else may be using.

Any help would be most appreciated. We are tired of shlepping the machine and heavy batteries around. In the meantime, we've purchased a 12 volt model. However, we want to be able to run the 115 volt as well.

I know this post is old. However the information may be of some help to someone in the future.
Your inverters may be fine. If the cables going to your batterys or the number of batterys are too small then you may not be able to pull enough amperage through the cables/batterys to supply the inverter during start up of the motor on your ice shave machine.

You need very large cables interconnecting your batterys supplying the energy to the inverter.
I have ten 6 volt batterys using 00 copper cables I had the cables made at the golf cart battery shop for my interconnects. I use 00 cables going up to a bus bar where the fused link cable to the inverter connects.
I kept the lenghts as short as possible for the low voltage cables. When the output becomes 120V, standard wire sizes wire sized based on distance can be used. In other words regular house type wiring methods.

Also use 6 volt golf cart batterys if you can. They are designed with heavy thick lead plates designed to supply the high amperage over a longer period of time before being recharged without damage to the battery.

12 volt car batterys have lots of thin lead plates and can deliver very high amperage but are only designed to do so for a very short period of time. They are designed for shallow discharge depths and by design to be recharged right back up after the engine is started.
They will work but their life will be shorter. I used two walmart Marine batterys in my first solar setup.
I managed to get over two years life out of them by limiting their discharge depths.

We could run a couple of lights and a TV and sometimes a fan.We used all of the daylight building the cabin and would camp out at the site when the weather allowed during the weekend.

The lights strung overhead allowed us lots of light for bathing, cooking, doing dishes and we still have enough power to watch TV a little each night.

Water from a 55 gallon drum refilled a toilet in the outhouse for flushing. Water from a hand drilled well was pumped with 12 volt pump to refill it.

Offgridman
Off the grid since 1998
Solar power works. I know!