A customer of OutsideSupply.com called a few days ago and was wondering why he could not use a 1000 watt power inverter through his cigarette lighter socket.

The following information is what I gave the customer in response to their inverter question.

This customer called OutsideSupply.com and wanted to find out what the best power inverter size would be to run a blender at a party they were having at the outdoor volleyball courts in his area. He said they normally had power, but there was construction going on and power was cut to the volleyball area. He advised it was too far to run an extension cord.

Here are the power inverter suggestions I gave him:

This OutsideSupply.com customer wanted a mobile office in the back of his work van. He wanted to print forms on his laser printer for his locksmith business. He had a power inverter but it would not run the laser printer. I advised him that some laser printers require True Sine Wave power to operate properly.

12 Volt Inverter Questions

I recently had an OutsideSupply.com customer contact me with a few question on 12 Volt Inverters.

Below you will find the inverter questions and answers:

Can I build a power inverter?

Yes many people have successfully built their own power inverters. They usually save about 50-60% off of retail prices when building one. They need a lot of knowledge of electronics and it may require specialized equipment, but building a power inverter can be done. Most people build modified sine wave power inverters.

I had a non customer/ potential customer of Outside Supply call today. He had bought a power inverter at a big box. It was a 2500 watt off brand power inverter. He said it was working but had some additional questions. We started talking about cable sizing and fuses for this power inverter.

Can pop up campers use a power inverter?

Many power inverters are used in Pop Up campers. Pop up campers are great for a variety of reasons. They are light and easy to tow. They also usually have tent sides and smaller bathrooms.

They are however packed full of features. Adding a power inverter to run A TV , laptop, or DVD player while on vacation can be a great addition to the pop ups functionality.

Can I run a plasma TV on an RV inverter?

This is a question we get asked quite a bit on OutsideSupply.com. Many people are concerned about hooking up their plasma TVs to their regular RV coach inverter. This is because their RV inverter is a modified sine wave inverter. In this case I usually suggest that they purchase a true sine wave inverter and run it from the 12 volt cigarette outlet usually near the Plasma TV.

I get a lot of questions on Outside Supply about mobile applications for power inverters. Power Inverters can provide a great source of mobile power. There are however some factors to keep in mind. A power inverter merely inverters the DC power to AC power. It cannot create power from nothing. It must use a battery. Batteries and Battery banks have finite amounts of power. This is important when considering large continuous loads on a mobile power inverter. Mobile Power Inverters can run loads in Excess of 3000 watts. However you will need a ton of batteries (Literally) to get decent continuous run time on these batteries.

We received a call the other day from a lady who wanted to be able to run her laptop and printer from her Horse trailer. I told her that Outside Supply carried a variety of power inverters that can convert her 12 volt DC battery bank into 120 Volts AC power. She was looking to be able to track vitals and stats on a couple of her horses. She already had a good sized battery bank in the horse trailer and had a nice secure dry place to install the power inverter.

Today we had a customer call at Outside Supply about using a Power Inverter for their Boy Scout Troop's camping. He needed a power inverter he could install in their equipment trailer that could provide him the ability to run a blender and food processor. They plan on making omelette's and Milk Shakes. He already had a battery bank in the trailer. He wanted to make sure it would have GFCI for saftey since they would be cooking.

I had a question from an Outside Supply customer today with regards to using her power inverter in her car. She has our 150 Watt True Sine Wave Power Inverter by Go Power!.

She wants to know if she can use the inverter to charge her laptop as she drives to work in the morning. You see she works late at night and her laptop battery is often depleted by the time she goes to sleep. She has a one hour commute and would like to take advantage of the charging time. She has had times where she had no power for her early morning meeting as their conference rooms have no power outlets for laptops.

I get many questions at Outside Supply about the best power inverter for your car. Well there are many answers to this question. This is because so many people use power inverter for so many different reasons in their car.

We have customers who use power inverters to run 32" Dual Screen Xbox Gaming systems in a Ford excursion to customers who simply want to power a laptop in a Burger shop parking lot. While others want to run an oxygen concentrator to reduce extra oxygen bottles on a trip.

I received a call at Outside Supply from an individual wanting to run a couple different video game systems when they tailgate football games. He only wants to run one video game system and a 20 " TV at any given time. He was real leery of modified sine inverters and was looking for an inverter that would provide cleaner more reliable power for his expensive video game systems. We recommended a true sine wave 300 watt inverter for him to use on his vehicle. He wants to direct wire the unit and is hoping to use the inverter off of the extra battery he will install in his truck.

A customer wanted to get a recommendation for a power inverter from Outside Supply. The inverter was going to run a portable electric Grill and a TV set when Tail Gating. Price was not an issue according to the customer. The customer said that this is their favorite past time and would rather have the best power inverter than have something cheap.

Read more to see what power inverter we recommended for their Portable Grill.

I recently had a customer call in to OutsideSupply.com enquiring about a power inverter setup for her Ice Cream Truck business. She decided to start an Ice Cream Truck / Ice Cream Van business. She has gotten an Ice Cream Distributor and has purchased a freezer. So she wanted an Inverter to power the freezer while on the road. She also needed a charger to recharge the battery at night. Here is what she got for here Ice Cream Truck.

Here is a question I am often asked at OutsideSupply.com

Can I run a 1000 watt inverter from my Car Power Inverters Cigarette Plug?

The answer is pretty simple, NO. This is because the loads required to run a 1000 watt power inverter would quickly blow fuses in car cigarette lighter plug circuit. The DC load can reach almost 100 AMPS on a 12 volt DC inverter rated at 1000 watts. Of course and inverter only draws power based on the actual load, a large load will cause problems.

Here is a great inverter that work well with Car Cigarette Lighter Plug connectors.

Here is a question I am often asked at OutsideSupply.com

Can I run a 1000 watt inverter from my Car Power Inverters Cigarette Plug?

The answer is pretty simple, NO. This is because the loads required to run a 1000 watt power inverter would quickly blow fuses in car cigarette lighter plug circuit. The DC load can reach almost 100 AMPS on a 12 volt DC inverter rated at 1000 watts. Of course and inverter only draws power based on the actual load, a large load will cause problems.

Here is a great inverter that work well with Car Cigarette Lighter Plug connectors.

Outside Supply gets plenty of customer looking to purchase pure sine wave inverters to run their laptop to use while parked in their RV or car. Pure sine wave inverters produce a much cleaner and a smoother type of power than modified sine wave inverters. This makes our small pure sine wave inverters perfect for creating that mobile office using your laptop.

An OutsideSupply.com customer called in and wanted a power inverter to run a chainsaw. This chainsaw was used outdoors near their cabin. They have plenty of power coming from a hydro station they have in a river some battery power was not too important. They also wanted to use the inverter to carry other backup loads when not on generator.

I suggested the 2500 Watt Go Power Modified Sine Wave Power Inverter.

I get a lot of questions about Power Inverters at Outside Supply. Many of these relate to choosing the proper power inverter. I have created this short video to cover a few of the topics often touched on by our customer including how different power inverter brands market their inverters differtently and how to choose an inverter based on your load.

A customer wanted to know about buying a 12v Car Power Inverter from Outside Supply.



The specific questions about the 12v Car Power Inverter were:

Question: What is the best 12v power inverter to run a cell phone charger and possibly a camera harger in my car?

A customer asked a question about powering a few devices in there car using a 12v power inverter. Most of the devices like camera charger and camera charger would have been great on a modified sine 12v power inverter. Then they added a laptop to the list of devices and my recommendation for 12v power inverter changed.

At this point I recommended a true Sine Wave 12v Power Inverter.

This is because laptops are sensitive electronics and modifed sine inverters do not produce high quality electricity. If you are running your really exspensive laptop on a cheap modified sine inverter stop and watch our true sine wave 12v power inverter video below.

Power Inverters

Power inverters are great devices that  can really make a lot of applications easy and quiet for the RVer. A lot of time when an Rver wants to run his or her  microwave when drycamping, they need to power up their generator. This is both noisy and requires fuel. Once an RVer installs a power inverter in their unit, they can just go ahead and run that microwave off their RV's batteries. Outside Supply carries a full line of power inverters and accessories to get the job done right with strong reliable equipment.

A power inverter is a device that converters DC power to AC power, or in simple terms, Battery Power to Household Electricity. A good clean power inverter will allow you to run a variety of electronics ranging from laptops, TVs, Microwaves, Coffee Pots and more off your batteries.