Thursday 30 September 2010

Interior Accessories - power inverters, car adapter


I bought this item a few months ago and I love it. Provides enough power to run my laptop and GPS at the same time (I have my GPS hooked up to the USB port and laptop hooked up to the AC port). I Have had no problem with it whatsoever. I would highly recommend it. Duracell 813-0291-07 175 Watt DC to AC Pocket Power Source Inverter

I bought this little gem a few weeks ago. I travel extensively with a travel trailer, and when my partner is driving, I like to be on my 17" MacBook Pro. I allowed my battery to drain to 50%, then plugged into the Duracell 175. Initially, the inverter kept cycling on and off. I strung my MackBook cable over the sun visor so the inverter was hanging in front of the air conditioner vent. It stopped cycling on and off, and it completely recharged my battery while using the MacBook. The following day, I put a few strips of Velcro on the back of the inverter, careful to not cover the cooling vent, a few of the opposite velcro strips on the side of an air conditioner vent and wa-la. This little unit has no problem keeping up with using the MacBook Pro, and charging the battery at the same time. I'm totally delighted with this unit, and you can't beat the price.

I just completed a 4500 mile road trip, and we used this invertor many hours each day to power a laptop running DVD movies for the kids (and their parents!). Operation was flawless: The unit doesn't get too hot, it's quiet, and supplied plenty of power.



My only negative comment would be about the power button and power indicator light. The button could be more prominently marked and the light could be brighter; after all, this is made to be used in a car, where lighting is never ideal. Overall, though, the quality is excellent, especially compared to some other units that I looked at which appeared to have been made in someone's garage.

I haven't used this much yet. In fact I just used it once for about an hour, but worked perfectly for my Dell Inspiron E1505 Laptop. It got warm but not burning hot. It didn't make any discernaable noise that I can recall. Feels compact and solid in your hand. Small enough to keep in my laptop bag (although I'm starting to create a small electronics and accessories store in there). Please note that the picture is deceiving. It looks like the power cord is extremely short, which concerned me regarding placement of the item while in use. It is in fact plenty long (over 24" from end to end) and allows plenty of flexibility as to having room to find a good spot to sit it while in use.

We were doing realtime blog and twitter updates (www.thequietones.info) on a 2500 mile road trip.

Initially we used the Kensington Inverter which was disappointing because of constant fan noise.

That was not the case with this Duracell Inverter, which performed well under high use with a MacBook Pro and Iphone.



Though the Kensington is recommended by Mac in stores and online, it is not a superior product compared to the Duracell.

In addition, the Kensington is priced higher.



What was most impressive was the ability to run the laptop and the Iphone, without interruption while they were still being charged.



We highly recommend this unit.

Good Product, compact and quiet. It was able to charge my Macbook Pro 15" laptop when it was turned off. However, if I play a DVD movie with max brightness, the battery could not get charged, and the power supplies continuously shift between battery and the Power Adapter. This probably happens because battery is getting used more than it is able to get supplied by the adapter. Even though it is a 175 watt, don't forget it only provide a max of 120 watt if you are using car port. 175 watt max come from outside car battery.



I guess some power is better than nothing.

We bought this for a 6 hour road trip. We recently had a baby and my wife would have to use a breast pump during the trip. The pump will run on batteries, but it is very weak so we got this to power it in the car. My wife said it worked like normal and everything was great. I then tried to charge my iphone via the USB port while she was pumping and she said she could tell the sucking power in the pump diminished immediately as I plugged in the phone. This is why I only gave it 4 stars. Other than that everything is great.

Duracell DC tp AC Pocdket Power Source Inverter 175 watt.

Product is very compact and adequate as a power source. Size is the main selling point in my case, I have another inverter and it is 3 times the Duracell size.

Based on the excellent reviews I bought this to power a small medical device with an electric motor (CPAP machine). The machine uses on average about 15 watts of power, but spikes up to instantaneous power usage of up to 30-50 watts for short periods. This should be easily handled by this inverter, but it is not. The inverter cuts out momentarily on some of the spikes, turning the machine off. This may also be the issue with laptop charging. A bigger inverter I had lying around runs the machine perfectly from the same source.



Other than that, this is a nice little inverter. It is really tiny, much smaller than it appears in the photo. It has a small and very quiet fan which runs much of the time. I may be able to find a use for it elsewhere.



I'm giving it only 2 stars because it simply doesn't even come close to powering a device that it should be able to based on the 175 watt spec which is what the consumer should be able to rely on. It can't handle a load that jumps from 5 watts to 50 watts. - Car Adapter - Inverter - Power Inverters - Car Charger'


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