In car power converters

muddyl

Hi all.

Can anyone recommend a power inverter for the car to run a laptop from that's not too
Expensive?

I'm taking the kids on a trip soon and I was going to get an in car dvd player but them thought that if I use my laptop, I could also use a free view dongle and get more use.

Any suggestions or opinions welcome.

Notmyrealname

£30 150W one from Maplins will do the job.

muddyl

Cheers. Is 150w on the low side?

Rav3n

150w should be fine for a laptop. Look at the sticker on your laptop power adapter, it should tell you how much power it uses. Make sure the inverter you get exceeds that amount.

Notmyrealname

And also make sure the current rating for the 12v supply doesn't exceed 80% of what your cig lighter socket can provide. I'd not want to be buying one that needs anything above an 8A feed if you're planning on running it from the cig lighter socket.

muddyl

Does anyone have experiences of ebay ones?

They seem considerably cheaper than the likes of maplin i.e. For £30 maplin do a 150w one, but on ebay the same gets a 1000w (that's with uk only selected, not that that stops the cheap foreign ones creeping in).

Notmyrealname

muddyl wrote: »

Does anyone have experiences of ebay ones?

They seem considerably cheaper than the likes of maplin i.e. For £30 maplin do a 150w one, but on ebay the same gets a 1000w (that's with uk only selected, not that that stops the cheap foreign ones creeping in).

Yes. Here's two 1000W inverters.

First is a typical £30 Ebay one:


Here's a proper one.



Notice the difference between the size of the battery terminals on them which supply power to the unit.

This one from Maplin has a ONE HUNDRED AMP input current.

Looking at the 12v power cables and connectors for those cheap ones on Ebay, do you seriously think that they are actually any good?

downhillfast

If it is just the laptop that you want to be able to power from the car it would be better to just buy a low voltage DC power connector for your laptop (the exact voltage requirement should be displayed on the laptop somewhere.) By using an inverter you will be stepping up the car voltage to circa 240v to then have your laptop power supply step back down to circa 15-17v... not very efficient at all really. You should also be aware of the safety implications of inverters - they have been responsible for many vehicle fires due to people not understanding the risks.

alanrowell

I would have thought something like the following would be a better option

http://www.maplin.co.uk/150w-laptop-car-adaptor-223723

NeverAgain_2

Buying an inverter just to run a laptop is over-complicating matters.

It's a solution if you cannot get a simple 12v charger to suit the laptop, but if you can they are smaller, neater and will save you taking the mains laptop charger away with you.