I’m looking for a car inverter to power my laptop and batteries for my upcoming trip to the US (3 months).
Any brands and watts suggestions would be helpful.
I need to have a laptop running with the inverter not just it’s batteries charged and hopefully I can do so with the cig plug avoiding plugging to the car battery directly.
Do all rental cars in the US have cig plugs?
Thank you for your help
Posted by Carol Hyman on July 12, 2007 at 12:17 PM
Hi Emmanuel,
Rental cars have cigarette plugs (most likely with the cigarette lighter removed). You should be able to pick up an inverter for 20 to 40 dollars US at any electronics store. My current one is 350 watts, but please look to see what your laptop requires before you buy. I think the manufacturer is Wagentech and I bought it at Fry's Electronics.
Most all cars either have a cigarette lighter, or have replaced it with an accessory jack, either up front, or in various locations in the vehicle.
Almost any inverter will work for a laptop. I've seen tiny ones with the inverter and plug all together in on box, those are a little more expensive ($50-100), than the larger clunkier ones. I generally get about a 150 watt unit for about $30-50 from various electronic stores, such as Best Buy.
Posted by Sharon Menke on July 12, 2007 at 12:22 PM
I have rented some cars that didn't have an ashtray or cigarette lighter. But, I have rented some that had "power sockets" in them. You plug into them like you would a cigarette lighter. Enjoy your trip!
I agree with the others. I have a cheap inverter I bought at a gas station about 5 years ago and it's been working flawlessly. I use it to power my laptop and to charge my camera batteries on the road.
Thank you for your help. In other online forums I heard (without making my sense of it all) that inverters can easily charge laptop batteries but might not be powerfull enough to actually run the laptop depending on wattage.
Luckily I will be staying next to a fry’s store for 3 days upon arrival in the US, maybe they can help me get a good one and I can test it before taking off into the wild.
Is 300 watts overkill? Boy I know nothing about such machines.
My laptop charger has output: 19v 3.42A
And input 100-240V ~ 1.5A
You do have to be careful what you plug into a cigarette lighter, but most laptops won't overload it. I believe most cig lighter sockets are on a 15 amp circuit. If your rig has an actual "auxiliary power" outlet (cigarette lighter socket with 20 amps or better) that's what you want to plug the inverter into. My 700watt inverter runs fine off my auxiliary power socket, but will occasionally blow the fuse on my cig lighter.
Our favorite (300 watts) came from Radioshack and cost a bit more, but is well worth the dif. It has both a cigarette lighter terminal and alligator clips for connecting directly to an auto battery. It's proven really nice to be able to connect directly to the battery without turning the car on while in camp, plus use the cigarette lighter for charging while driving.
What is the model name of your inverter Hank?
When plugged in the Cig lighter the care MUST be running?
300 watts isn't that a bit too much for laptop use?
Guy do you ever rest? I think you have answered every single question I have posted here so far...
You are the walking encyclopedia.
Posted by Tom Nevesely on July 12, 2007 at 3:59 PM
"Is 300 watts overkill? Boy I know nothing about such machines.
My laptop charger has output: 19v 3.42A
And input 100-240V ~ 1.5A"
120V @ 1.5A is 180 Watts
So in this case, I'd get 300 watt model. The 300W inverter that I have has 2 plugs on it so you could run your laptop and your camera battery charger at the same time. Camera battery chargers don't use too much power so with 300W you should be ok..
Posted by Tom Nevesely on July 12, 2007 at 4:00 PM
"Is 300 watts overkill? Boy I know nothing about such machines.
My laptop charger has output: 19v 3.42A
And input 100-240V ~ 1.5A"
120V @ 1.5A is 180 Watts
So in this case, I'd get 300 watt model. The 300W inverter that I have has 2 plugs on it so you could run your laptop and your camera battery charger at the same time. Camera battery chargers don't use too much power so with 300W you should be ok..
The ignition on our truck has to be turned on for the accessory plugs to work, but the engine doesn't have to be running.
I don't recall the model number (and the truck is Washington while I'm in Alaska right now), but we got it from Radio Shack.
300 watts might be overkill for single applications, but we got it specifically because it has two outlets. My wife and I can both plug in our laptops, or when I'm by myself I can run a laptop and a battery charger at the same time. Come to think of it, more than once we have plugged in two battery chargers at once.
Truth in advertizing: We often have a DVD movie running in one of the laptops while doing photo chores with the other. Nice!
This appears to be the latest version of our inverter, though I can't determine from the site that it has both the cigarette lighter terminal and the alligator clips. Its notable features are a fuse rather than circuit breaker for protection, low voltage alarm and overload alarm. Because this one is 375 watt, I'm now wondering about my recollection that ours is 300 watts (It's over 3000 miles away right now). Other that a switch from silver color to blue, I can't see that anything else is different.
I should add that when we first went shopping for an inverter I consulted with an old and savy ET on the issue of voltage regulation and safety for my electronics. This is the model he recommended.
Thank you Hank most grateful for your efforts. All you guys are great here, I’m really happy to have found such a great community.
I was actually looking into the tripp lite inverter from the link that Carol posted.
So it looks like I found a winner.
I have a 350watt inverter from Wal-Mart for about 35.00 if I remember correctly. It has 2 outlets, but I plug in a 6 outlet power strip into one of them which gives me 7 usable outlets. This allows me to charge batteries from my camera as well as my portable hard drives (Epson 4000 and Flashtrax80) all at the same time, since battery chargers don't draw a lot of current. I haven't tried running a laptop in addition to the battery chargers at the same time, so can't say whether that would blow a fuse or not. I'm normally charging while driving
Discussion
16 repliesAny brands and watts suggestions would be helpful.
I need to have a laptop running with the inverter not just it’s batteries charged and hopefully I can do so with the cig plug avoiding plugging to the car battery directly.
Do all rental cars in the US have cig plugs?
Thank you for your help
Rental cars have cigarette plugs (most likely with the cigarette lighter removed). You should be able to pick up an inverter for 20 to 40 dollars US at any electronics store. My current one is 350 watts, but please look to see what your laptop requires before you buy. I think the manufacturer is Wagentech and I bought it at Fry's Electronics.
Check out:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10166_7-6225899-1.html
Carol
Almost any inverter will work for a laptop. I've seen tiny ones with the inverter and plug all together in on box, those are a little more expensive ($50-100), than the larger clunkier ones. I generally get about a 150 watt unit for about $30-50 from various electronic stores, such as Best Buy.
Guy
Luckily I will be staying next to a fry’s store for 3 days upon arrival in the US, maybe they can help me get a good one and I can test it before taking off into the wild.
Is 300 watts overkill? Boy I know nothing about such machines.
My laptop charger has output: 19v 3.42A
And input 100-240V ~ 1.5A
You do have to be careful what you plug into a cigarette lighter, but most laptops won't overload it. I believe most cig lighter sockets are on a 15 amp circuit. If your rig has an actual "auxiliary power" outlet (cigarette lighter socket with 20 amps or better) that's what you want to plug the inverter into. My 700watt inverter runs fine off my auxiliary power socket, but will occasionally blow the fuse on my cig lighter.
When plugged in the Cig lighter the care MUST be running?
300 watts isn't that a bit too much for laptop use?
Guy do you ever rest? I think you have answered every single question I have posted here so far...
You are the walking encyclopedia.
My laptop charger has output: 19v 3.42A
And input 100-240V ~ 1.5A"
120V @ 1.5A is 180 Watts
So in this case, I'd get 300 watt model. The 300W inverter that I have has 2 plugs on it so you could run your laptop and your camera battery charger at the same time. Camera battery chargers don't use too much power so with 300W you should be ok..
My laptop charger has output: 19v 3.42A
And input 100-240V ~ 1.5A"
120V @ 1.5A is 180 Watts
So in this case, I'd get 300 watt model. The 300W inverter that I have has 2 plugs on it so you could run your laptop and your camera battery charger at the same time. Camera battery chargers don't use too much power so with 300W you should be ok..
The ignition on our truck has to be turned on for the accessory plugs to work, but the engine doesn't have to be running.
I don't recall the model number (and the truck is Washington while I'm in Alaska right now), but we got it from Radio Shack.
300 watts might be overkill for single applications, but we got it specifically because it has two outlets. My wife and I can both plug in our laptops, or when I'm by myself I can run a laptop and a battery charger at the same time. Come to think of it, more than once we have plugged in two battery chargers at once.
Truth in advertizing: We often have a DVD movie running in one of the laptops while doing photo chores with the other. Nice!
I should add that when we first went shopping for an inverter I consulted with an old and savy ET on the issue of voltage regulation and safety for my electronics. This is the model he recommended.
I was actually looking into the tripp lite inverter from the link that Carol posted.
So it looks like I found a winner.