Bought a Sailrite 240v/international version and missed the fine print stating that it will not work with 240v inverters (only shore power).
Rather than sell it, i've since bought a 110v dedicated worker box and a inverter and will have to use that setup, and swap out the workerbox every time i wish to use the machine with 240 shore power and vice versa
Total cost currently $2484USD ($3800 AUD)
Consult with Sailrite directly but i assume this will also be the case if you are wanting to upgrade your older machine to the newer WorkerB motor (240v version)
Sailrite have been unapologetic to my situation. Apparently the go to boat sewing machine does not work on boats anymore (240v/international version).
to be clear it is not my specific inverter. It is ALL 240v inverters. This is an email directly from Matt at Sailrite (the video he provides are not available on Sailrite's website):
The key statements here are that no WorkerB will run from a 12V to 230V Inverter. And if you want it to work from a 12V to 110V inverter then you must have the WorkerB dedicated 110V box. This is not ideal but these are facts. The workaround is to have both boxes and switch back and forth. But in your case you would need a new inverter that outputs 110V.
These videos will help:
www.sailrite.com/WorkerB-100-230V-Inverter-Tests
www.sailrite.com/WorkerB-110V-Inverter-Tests
How strange that a company would sell a product and then say they have no idea why it does not work on some inverters. The first video linked is bewildering. I think they are using motor controllers to regulate motor speed as they say they need full voltage in the vid. I know little about motors but it should be relatively easy to put each inverter on an oscilloscope and determine the differences in their perfromance and attack the problem that way. Well that is what I would start with. Then they would have a clue as to the problem with their motor controller.
So yeah, a bummer, and it seems the company is selling products it doesn't understand.
Hi, a couple of points if I may be so bold. 
You are reporting a problem that you have with two pieces of equipment not playing well together, one being the sailrite machine (which you concede works well on shore power), the other being an inverter, yet you are complaining about the sailrite which you have already said works well on shore power. Surely you should consider the inverter which, at a guess doesn't supply clean enough power.
Secondly, you have joined this forum to, apparently, diss the manufacturers of the sailrite sewing machine. 
Most people introduce themselves to the forum and it's members before lurching into a rant about a product with which they are not happy.
I would be suspicious of the inverter & or the battery capacity. Will it run on a generator ? . Perhaps cut out the middle man, toss the AC motor and install a DC job. I'm assuming this is a mechanical machine
Uncle Bob
I watched the video and I reckon things are strange. A company with a good name - Sailrite - is selling a 240V special machine that won't work on many inverters. They test a range of inverters and say they have no idea why some will work and others don't. When you watch the video they show that some inverters don't work, so they know there is an issue but they still sell them withouth fixing the issue. I reckon it shows the company don't know their own product, considering they don't do any waveform checking of the inverters that work. Also one of the main reason you buy a Sailrite is so that you can use it on board - as we did with a Sailrite copy.
Tymon - welcome to the forum and thanks for the heads up. Probably saves a few people from making a similar mistake.
I have a Sailrite with the worker B motor BUT it is a 110v model and I use a cheap 110v-240v converter and it works fine on mains
or inverter. I did read the Sailrite website about 230v machines having problems with inverters, they don't explain the problems very well.
maybe get the 110 v motor and swap them over.
BTW they are a good powerful machine so far I have restitched our cat tramps and made some sunshades from coreflute and fabric
plus numerous canvas repairs.
To be fair,. inverters typically don't work well with motors. The equipment needs soft start to manage inductive loads.
Granted some types of motors do have a surge on start up, the usual issues are to small an inverter and or to small a battery bank or a battery that's not fully charged. Will the machine run of a generator???
Select to expand quoteTymonb said..
Bought a Sailrite 240v/international version and missed the fine print stating that it will not work with 240v inverters (only shore power).
Rather than sell it, i've since bought a 110v dedicated worker box and a inverter and will have to use that setup, and swap out the workerbox every time i wish to use the machine with 240 shore power and vice versa
Total cost currently $2484USD ($3800 AUD)
Consult with Sailrite directly but i assume this will also be the case if you are wanting to upgrade your older machine to the newer WorkerB motor (240v version)
Sailrite have been unapologetic to my situation. Apparently the go to boat sewing machine does not work on boats anymore (240v/international version).
to be clear it is not my specific inverter. It is ALL 240v inverters. This is an email directly from Matt at Sailrite (the video he provides are not available on Sailrite's website):
The key statements here are that no WorkerB will run from a 12V to 230V Inverter. And if you want it to work from a 12V to 110V inverter then you must have the WorkerB dedicated 110V box. This is not ideal but these are facts. The workaround is to have both boxes and switch back and forth. But in your case you would need a new inverter that outputs 110V.
These videos will help:
www.sailrite.com/WorkerB-100-230V-Inverter-Tests
www.sailrite.com/WorkerB-110V-Inverter-Tests
It would be cheaper to keep the standard set up and buy a suitcase generator.
Being a designer of these things I can provide three clues. First clue. The AC mains supply is meant to be and usually a sine wave. That means its smooth and roundish in shape and AC equipment (such as I assume the Sail rite Machine) is designed to run from it. High power inverters try to generate that smooth shape by a sequence of ON/OFF square waves. The idea is if you supply 50V, then shortly later 100V then shortly later 150V etc you can "fool" the equipment you are supplying into thinking its a sine wave. Some equipment doesnt like those square waves and dies. But if you make the jumps undetectably small it can work. (Called "true sine"). Second clue. To make the high power inverters work without generating a lot of heat they use parts called MOSFETS. They switch power completely ON or completely OFF super fast. (To generate the discrete voltage steps) So they are almost never in a half ON half OFF state during operation and getting hot. The side effect of this super fast switching is a high level of radio frequency and other electrical noise is generated. The designers (me often) try to get rid of that with filters but some remains. It gets into the wrong place by whats technically called "radiated emission" and "conducted emission". If that RF noise gets into some equipment that equipment might have errors, crash or stop. Last one. As mentioned above motors draw random huge currents, inductive and capacitive, for short terms and transformers can often cope just be getting warm. Its really hard to design a cheap (for marketing purposes) MOSFET inverter that can handle that. You need to do the design with at least double what you think that peak load will be then plus some. Result = expensive and big.
So I would surmise Sailrite are "indemnifying" themselves by saying dont use inverters. Actually a big enough well enough designed "true sine" inverter produces exactly the same power as AC mains. I think they just want to avoid all the tech support.
Select to expand quoteTrek said..
Being a designer of these things I can provide three clues. First clue. The AC mains supply is meant to be and usually a sine wave. That means its smooth and roundish in shape and AC equipment (such as I assume the Sail rite Machine) is designed to run from it. High power inverters try to generate that smooth shape by a sequence of ON/OFF square waves. The idea is if you supply 50V, then shortly later 100V then shortly later 150V etc you can "fool" the equipment you are supplying into thinking its a sine wave. Some equipment doesnt like those square waves and dies. But if you make the jumps undetectably small it can work. (Called "true sine"). Second clue. To make the high power inverters work without generating a lot of heat they use parts called MOSFETS. They switch power completely ON or completely OFF super fast. (To generate the discrete voltage steps) So they are almost never in a half ON half OFF state during operation and getting hot. The side effect of this super fast switching is a high level of radio frequency and other electrical noise is generated. The designers (me often) try to get rid of that with filters but some remains. It gets into the wrong place by whats technically called "radiated emission" and "conducted emission". If that RF noise gets into some equipment that equipment might have errors, crash or stop. Last one. As mentioned above motors draw random huge currents, inductive and capacitive, for short terms and transformers can often cope just be getting warm. Its really hard to design a cheap (for marketing purposes) MOSFET inverter that can handle that. You need to do the design with at least double what you think that peak load will be then plus some. Result = expensive and big.
So I would surmise Sailrite are "indemnifying" themselves by saying dont use inverters. Actually a big enough well enough designed "true sine" inverter produces exactly the same power as AC mains. I think they just want to avoid all the tech support.
Thanks Trek, great explanation!! I knew about the mosfets when I had one of my inverters apart trying to find a fault.
Do you reckon you could "whip me up" a 4000 or 5000w inverter in your spare time for a few hundred bucks?? Size doesn't matter!!
I was thinking about how much beer I could get for that :-)
Meantime - this inverter seems to have the muscle. But its not possible to tell whether the Sailrite machine would work OK with it without trying. You need 43A from your 12V batteries.
www.ebay.com.au/itm/195858280061?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110013%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIMRXI%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20201210111452%26meid%3D50f04d23db8a429b999c561959b47089%26pid%3D101196%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D166379546901%26itm%3D195858280061%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D4429486%26algv%3DPromotedRVIPbooster&_trksid=p4429486.c101196.m2219&itmprp=cksum%3A19585828006150f04d23db8a429b999c561959b47089%7Cenc%3AAQAIAAABAJsbtOKd5uIU0OgsJNCgXCNB4GhMJOfvqFU9BU%252BioNjehzAtjuxf1qDPQyHcAk5w5xmJ4BDKA%252Fox8a6CFEPRKS07PzCe3LvHGMcxOnP3XFQ4IfG4oH1s9I0dEYEoM1y1Fs3URcss1XXMJTKxa6z1OwwCK5ebecH2SzNq6c7hK0j36AQxXSaeSKjfwhlov65%252BK4DLfSTO97kzcjhSwddanc4XuojkQlLogXl93quKm6i1%252FQh2gviME3NdQqJnhujAH2oi%252FnEb7BdM7TxjzDjQRxWOiw%252F333Ths7Z5ruKmmVRDnQhmjAPvjp7PFpfy9CpzGrw6VXbLguKtzw--GBRQNjM%253D%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A4429486&itmmeta=01HPQQ8T4A0XC0TR9PQRD8R4TR
Thanks Trek for the explanation and bump to the (20 kilogram, $1990) inverter.
Way down my list of things to have aboard.
I like Ramona's genny solution.
gary
Select to expand quoteTrek said..
Meantime - this inverter seems to have the muscle. But its not possible to tell whether the Sailrite machine would work OK with it without trying. You need 43A from your 12V batteries.
www.ebay.com.au/itm/195858280061?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110013%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIMRXI%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20201210111452%26meid%3D50f04d23db8a429b999c561959b47089%26pid%3D101196%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D166379546901%26itm%3D195858280061%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D4429486%26algv%3DPromotedRVIPbooster&_trksid=p4429486.c101196.m2219&itmprp=cksum%3A19585828006150f04d23db8a429b999c561959b47089%7Cenc%3AAQAIAAABAJsbtOKd5uIU0OgsJNCgXCNB4GhMJOfvqFU9BU%252BioNjehzAtjuxf1qDPQyHcAk5w5xmJ4BDKA%252Fox8a6CFEPRKS07PzCe3LvHGMcxOnP3XFQ4IfG4oH1s9I0dEYEoM1y1Fs3URcss1XXMJTKxa6z1OwwCK5ebecH2SzNq6c7hK0j36AQxXSaeSKjfwhlov65%252BK4DLfSTO97kzcjhSwddanc4XuojkQlLogXl93quKm6i1%252FQh2gviME3NdQqJnhujAH2oi%252FnEb7BdM7TxjzDjQRxWOiw%252F333Ths7Z5ruKmmVRDnQhmjAPvjp7PFpfy9CpzGrw6VXbLguKtzw--GBRQNjM%253D%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A4429486&itmmeta=01HPQQ8T4A0XC0TR9PQRD8R4TR
Thats a nice looking piece of kit!!
just a tad over this old pensioners price range though!!
