The performance characteristics of four different inverter schemes employed in slip-energy recovery drives have been analysed and compared. The effects of supply impedance upon inverter current and voltage waveforms have been fully accounted for, including the effects of recovery system losses and commutation overlap within the inverter bridges. All three unconventional recovery inverters were found to give markedly better performance than the normal three-phase fully-controlled bridge. In particular, the problems of poor power factor and highly variable reactive power consumption are significantly reduced.