Now that I have my power back 5 days after Hurricane Irene, can someone recommend me a good car inverter at a reasonable price? I need it to power basic stuff like cell phone chargers, laptops, etc. But I also possibly want to power an LCD tv. Obviously the higher the wattage, the better. I just don't know who has the best deals online.
I picked on up for under $20 at a Black and Decker outlet. Worked fine, but being a ham radio operator (W3FIS), it produced too much "hash" and RFI/EMI. Would nicely handle my laptop, etc. Any good marine or auto parts store should carry something, maybe even Walmart?
You really can not run much off an inverter unless you have a reasonable battery bank and a way to recharge them. A samll generator is the right solution for extended periods without power.
I got all mine at Walmart. Can't beat that return policy.
I haven't looked in ages, they used to keep them back in a corner in "Automotive" by the tires and car stereos. You wouldn't just trip over them wandering the aisles. -----
- gpsman
Another option would be to just power the items from 12V and avoid the loss and crappy power from a cheap converter. The cable that fits all of our cell phones was $8, The small LCD TV came with a cigarette lighter cord. I forget how much the 12V cord was for the laptop but it wasn't much.
I've found the easiest way to pick this stuff is to look at the Amazon reviews. If there are enough reviews you know what you're getting. You can do price checks after pinning down what suits you. You don't want to buy solely on price.
--Vic
Can you tell me where to buy a laptop 12v cord? Then I wont even need my inverter. I have an IBM (Lenovo) laptop. I suppose Lenovo has them but they'd probably cost more than the computer did. Hell, they wanted around $30 for a system battery replacement for it. (special battery with wires on it).
Pretty well any of the mass market (walmart-esque0 equipment will be noizy crap. Xantrex and a few other companies make pretty clean full sine wave inverters. Most square wave units and "stepped sine wave" units are extremely noisy/dirty.
What's wrong with buying locally from a specialty shop? You get what you need - you can see it in operation, and they are there to support you. Worth paying a bit more, isn't it????
? 2011?9?2????UTC+8 ??8?13?18??Mikepier ??
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Alice...go get bent!
I've found a good ramp inverts a car very quickly and efficiently.
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