Electrical/car buffs

[aagiants]

Quick question. I have a AC power adapter. Took it into my 02' passat and tried using my cell phone charger on it. Unfortunaly it made the fuse blow in the CAR not the power adapter...

Im assuming the power adapter took too much power from the car fuse... how do i check to know that i don't do this again in a different car?

[TonyT]

The adapter is probably shorted or bad if this is the type that plugs into a lighter port. Car lighter usually have a 20 amp fuse. The adapter won't draw any amps until it is plugged into a device that uses it.

Or do you mean ypu have a power inverter; plugs into lighter port and converts 12 volt dc to 110v ac?

[aagiants]

power inverter

[downhill]

How's the power inverter hooked up? Is it through the lighter socket?

[Far-N-Wide]

I've found if you leave the inverter on for a min or so it will take a load better then when you 1st plug it in. They are also rated at what is called "Average Load". When you 1st plug something in it will peak. This peak is higher then what it will be after it's warmed up... this is in miliseconds. If you have the 300 watt inverter, this could be your problem.

But it sounds like you have a cheap or faulty AC adapter. Look for a cell phone adapter that is directly plugged into your lighter. This way you won't have to have the inverter. I found my cell phone adapter at a truck stop on some road trip for about $8.00

[Rainbow]

Most cheap inverters will NOT handle a transformer type load.

[twwabw]

Most cheap inverters will NOT handle a transformer type load.

Yep. Most are modified square-wave, and are tough on transformers. I had a 1000w in my old boat- some things it liked- some it didn't. Replaced it with a true sine-wave inverter, and everything worked great (except my wallet ). lol