This 12 volt inverter is smaller than I possibly could have imagined. At 4x2.5x1, it's about the size of a deck of cards. It weighs only 4oz so it's almost as if it's a hollowed out piece of plastic. Impressive! Previous inverters that I've used were about the size of a brick (and weighed almost that much). I was completely surprised when I saw how small and light this was.
While it advertises 175W support, that is white lie told by the marketers. The product clearly states it can *peak* at 175W but in normal operation, it is rated for 130W. This is a small but important difference. I wish they'd just tell the truth and call it a "130W inverter" but exaggerating and advertising peak values seems to be an industry norm. An example where this little lie might get you: the charger that came with my laptop is 150W and would not work with this inverter. That said, I never bring along my huge 150W laptop power supply when traveling.
This inverter seems to have a small fan which is inaudible unless you hold the inverter up to your ear. During 20 minutes of formal testing, the inverter reached an external temperature of about 100 degrees. If I shined my thermometer inside the air vents, I was able to get readings of 108 degrees. I'm guessing that this inverter gets quite warm to the touch after extended operation. I doubt that it is any different than other products like laptop power bricks. If I notice higher temperatures in extended usage, I'll update my review.
My kill-a-watt noted that the Duracell inverter provides 115.5 volts. This is a little less than I get in my house (118 volts). The power hertz was way down from what I get in my house. At home I get 59.9hz but the inverter provided between 24 and 37hz. The faceplate says it will 120volts @ 60hz but I'm not sure if this is an issue with the kill-a-watt or the inverter. I'm not a physicist so I don't really know what applications are impacted by the difference in frequency.
My first test of the Duracell inverter was to make use of its USB port to charge my phone. There wasn't much to this testI plugged the cell phone into the USB port and it started charging. I count this as a success.
My next test was to plug in my laptop using the aforementioned 150W power supply. The laptop did not show that it was charging and the inverter's green power light started flashing. It appeared to be protecting itself from drawing too much power. Another success.
Next I plugged my laptop's 60 watt power supply into the inverter and confirmed that my laptop was now charging. The kill-a-watt showed I was drawing about 40 watts and the laptop indicated that it was plugged in. More success.
My final test was my CPAP machine. I've always wanted to be able to sleep in the car when on long trips but I have sleep apnea and require a CPAP machine. I wasn't crazy enough to plug my heated humidifier into this but I did test the CPAP and it worked fine. The machine draws 25 watts when operational so it's a fairly light load. Still, I was quite happy to see this work as this could definitely be something I use when on long drives.
Overall, I think this inverter is a steal. The small size will truly fit in your pocket and it seems to have enough capacity for almost anything reasonable that you will try to do in your car (charge a laptop). It also includes a set of clamp cables that could attach directly to a car or marine battery. This would be a great, inexpensive power solution for someone that lives in a place that sometimes loses power. Of course, you'd be very constrained on the wattage you could use so I think this would only work in the case of emergencies. But if you were an avid camper and could some how drag along a battery, this might be a handy way to plug in something like a CPAP machine when in the middle of nowhere.
This small and lightweight inverter is ideal for charging a laptop and a USB-powered iPod, cellphone or similiar device. It runs on the quiet side and fits nicely inside a laptop carrier or inside a car's glove compartment. It's one of the smallest devices I have owned for my electronic gadgets while traveling and performs excellently. I use it both for a small 10" notebook and to recharge my Kindle.
Although it comes with 12-volt cable clips, using them while driving would be impractical but are an added bonus at a campsite where a more powerful electronic device would need to be charged, but then make sure the car battery doesn't get depleted. The manual states a two-hour run time off a car battery while idle, but why tempt it?
I appreciate the added safety features on this small inverter. It has an electronic overload protection with automatic shutdown (the ideal range is 130-170W of combined devices), a non-user replacable 25 A fuse, low battery voltage shutdown and high-input voltage protection with automatic shutdown. Although I haven't had this happen to me yet, it also comes with an overheat protection with automatic shutdown. All these features help prevent blow-outs and destruction of electronic cigarette lighters and other outputs.
Its one weakness is the cigarette lighter plug itself. It stands about three inches long, so if your car's cigarette lighter is positioned in a tight spot, this device may be awkward or impossible to use. If your car's lighter is in the front dashboard with no obstructions, though, and you have only a laptop and iPod/iPhone to charge, this little gadget is ideal. It comes with a three-year limited warranty.
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The product works fine, but it fails to mention on amazon that this is 175 watts PEAK. On the device it reads 130 watts continuous, 175 watts peak. I bought this to charge my dell lattitude work laptop in my car and even with the laptop powered off it is unable to charge it. My laptop requires 150 watts so I thought I'd be covered with 175 but 130 isn't enought to get it done. I've been able to find other uses for it, and it works fine for charging camera batteries and handheld devices, but the ad is a little misleading.
Update: After re-reading the description, it does say "up to 100 watts compatability", but I still feel that should have been mentioned in the first line right next to "175". Still misleading, but I didn't read carefully enough.
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This is my third inverter, and (just based on one test) this one is way, way, way quieter than my cheesy inverter from Walgreens and the cheesy (CyberPower) one from Walmart. As I understand almost all the noise is from tiny whiny fans, and the others sounded like high-pitched Dust Busters. By comparison this one was (for five minutes, at 40W) practically silent.
On the other hand, the box says it's 175 watts, but only if you hook it up directly to the car battery using the enclosed tiny jumper cables. Probably not what most people had in mind. The box says 175 watts peak power, 130 watts continuous (apparently with the jumpers), 120 watts (peak? continuous?) from the lighter socket. That's fine with me, but that's what it is.
Update: Year later, occasional use, still silent. As a 120-watt (peak?) inverter my experience is five-star. Just a truth-in-labeling issue.
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I wanted something for charging my phone and to run my laptop in the car which this did adequately. Kudos and thanks for that. 5 stars in this application.
THEN I discovered I could use it while camping while attached to a car battery to power LED lighting and an audio system it did this but with significant issues. Assuming you are pulling 100W or less (I'd say keep it below 50W constant to avoid overheating), this thing still only puts out about 115VAC/50Hz, which is low compared to your home's 120-125VAC/60Hz. While this may be fine for the power supplies that charge your phone and laptop, some electronics are sensitive to this and will perform strangely or not at all with this kind of power.
100 feet of color changing LED string lights pulled a total of about 9 Watts, but the color patterns and cycling were all strange and distracting all of the pretty "fades" were very messy and distracting "steps". I've seen my 2.1 sound system (about 18W draw) have the volume function not work on occasion, volume had to be controlled at the source device. I had a 60W home theater with subwoofer running off this thing rather successfully, but the buttons controlling the amp would act weird or not at all. Returning these devices to clean house power or to my inverted generator power would yield perfect operation.
I suppose it could fry small motors or fragile electronics with it's low power over long term use, but it does do what it's meant to do quite well charge your small electronics off of a 12v system. Also note that it draws less power from the 12v source if it does not need it which conserves a 12v battery.
If you intend to run audio systems and LED lights off this thing and a 12v battery I'd recommend getting a more solid unit.
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