Microtek lithium inverter and battery: a plug-and-play 1 kVA home backup you control from your phone

This is not a solar product; it is the ordinary home inverter that keeps the lights and fans on through a cut, in its lithium generation. We reviewed the Hykon lithium unit earlier; this is Microtek's answer, a made-in-India combination of a 12 V lithium iron phosphate battery and a WiFi-connected inverter. We unboxed both on camera and this is what they are.

The battery

A 12 V LFP pack of 1,280 Wh, with a built-in battery management system. That BMS is the reason lithium needs no maintenance: it stops the cells being overcharged or over-discharged, so there is no topping up with water and none of the corrosion at the terminals that every tubular battery owner knows. The brand rates it at around 3,000 charge and discharge cycles, against roughly 1,200 for a conventional lead-acid battery, which for a home that sees a cut or two a day translates to an expected life of eight to ten years. Warranty is five years.

It weighs about 10 to 12 kg. A tubular battery of similar capacity is around 55 kg. That is the difference between a battery that sits in a trolley on the floor and one that hangs on the wall from a bracket supplied in the box, which is how this one is meant to be installed. There is no separate switch or display on the pack; just the terminals.

The inverter

Model 1400, which is a model name, not a rating; the unit is a 1 kVA inverter, enough for lights, fans, a television and the router, and the maker says it will run a mixer, a washing machine or a cooler. It has a display for load and battery state, a 10 A breaker on the back that cuts the mains on over-voltage, a cooling fan, and a bypass switch: if the inverter ever fails, the owner can flip the house onto direct mains without an electrician. It works with lithium or lead-acid, on 12 V only, and a 12 V inverter must be paired with a 12 V battery. Warranty is three years on site.

It is a transformer-based design. The next generation across the industry will be transformerless and smaller again, but even with the transformer it is much lighter than the old conventional units, and the pair is light enough to take on a trip or to a campsite.

What the app does

The reason to choose this over a plain inverter is the WiFi. The app shows grid voltage, battery voltage and current, the load, and any fault, and keeps a log of power cuts so you can see how often and how long the supply failed last month. It can switch the inverter off remotely, has a holiday mode for when the house is empty, a turbo charge mode when the battery has been drained by a long cut, and it lets you silence the buzzer. With a lead-acid battery it also reminds you when to top up the water. Being able to check the inverter from your phone rather than walking to the wall is a small thing that owners use every day.

Price, with the usual caution

We do not normally quote prices in articles because they date. For the record, on the day we filmed, in early 2026, the combo of this inverter and battery was ₹28,500, delivered anywhere in Kerala. It will have moved by the time you read this, so ask. The trend it belongs to is not in doubt: the leading Indian brands have all now moved their home backup ranges from lead-acid to lithium, and for a household replacing a tubular battery for the second or third time, the maintenance-free option with three times the cycle life is the better buy.