Power Inverter to power a laptop
 

Anyone ever use a power inverter to power a laptop using your 12v dc outlet in your truck/car? I found one on Walmart, http://www.walmart.com/ip/Belkin-F5C...#ProductDetail, that I'm thinking of picking up for an upcoming roadtrip but not sure about it. It says it will kick out 110-v current (household current) but I had one of these before and I thought it was roughly the same power and it couldn't even power my air pump to inflate my air mattress.

If you've had success with a power inverter before what brand and model did you buy? Any recommendations are appreciated.

You need to know how many watts your laptop is that you
want to power and match the wattage of the invertor to that.
The one in thelink is only 140 watts ,my laptop takes appx. 1200 watts
to run

Justin, need to look out the power supply for your computer; mine draws 2.4 amps on the 110 side which equals 264 watts (Watts = Amps x voltage) - I would need at least a 300 watt inverter to power my notebook. Your air mattress pump probably drew more current (amps) than a laptop.

I have a black & decker 400w. It was only 40-50 bucks at wally world. Works great for running laptops, phones, and ipod players. Used in in the boat to power a bose player when the stereo was on the fritz.

I wouldn't go any less than the 400w.

I have cheapo ones that have worked in the past. Except a long time ago I had my last laptop hooked up in my car and it actually drained the car battery empty while I was driving at night in the rain (computer was being used for music, and I had used up all the battery doing work after school), and all the electrical in my car cut out temporarily. Scary situation, haha.

I have a 1000 watt modified sine wave inverter in my pontoon boat. It powers everythign from phone chargers, laptops, TV, blenders, fans. It was on sale at HD for aroudn $50....great price. I had a 400w before that, but pikced the bigger one up just in case. There is debate over using modified sine wave vs true sine wave. True sine wave is much mroe expensive and is needed for "sensitive electornics" wahtever that means???? True sine wive is identical to the power at your house ( viewed thru an osciloscops ( sp?). I've been happy poewring everything with the cheaper modified sine wave inverter

good advice, I found a 400w for pretty cheap but I will have to check my laptops wattage. i know nothing about this type of stuff which is why i turn to WW. thanks everyone...

just tried checking and couldn't find any volt/amps/watt info for my HP DV9000......


oh well..

justin i use a power inverter every day. the computer i have is a dell very fast and tons of memory to power most laptops a 150 watt inverter is plenty . my printer is were i need more i had a 400 watt that would run my computer and dot matrix printer,but when i got a laser printer i had to move up to a 750 watt which i got at northern hydraulics. any marine store or camping dealer would have a decent inverter. any inverter over 400 watt would be overkill for just a laptop. i run my laptop all day long but i have 2 deep cycle batteries that the inverter draws from. if your vehicle is running you won't have any worries if not you should be okay for a couple of hours.

I've never tried a laptop but I could run a Ps2 and a 22 inch CRT TV on my 400Watt.

Justin it is prob listed on power supply but it will only have voltage and amps
Jim posted formula for finding wattage(Watts=voltage x amps)
a 400 watt invertor should cover you

Oh and I meant to say my laptop used 200 watts

Greg - glad to see you corrected yourself. I was a little worried when I saw in your profile that you are an electrician and you thought your laptop used 1200 watts.