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Note - this thing is much smaller than the Amazon page says - maybe 6"x4"x2" and easily fits in my center console. Using it to power a 19" LCD TV in my truck, the TV draws 40 watts and my truck (1500) has 20A accessory plugs. Works great, no problems.
I needed a replacement inverter since my last inverter was not "coffee proof". They would often shut down when the laptop was plugged in.
The Tripp Lite has no fan and plenty of power for the laptop. Larger inverters with fans can be noticeably loud.
We take a lot of trips, and the laptop always goes with us. The small 100 watt inverters that plug directly in the 12 volt outlet were not enough power - barely.
We use it on the road for GPS, and also for Internet when near a wireless hotspot (which are easy to find).
I did not want a large inverter since my only need is to power the laptop.
I only hooked up my laptop to it. Never overloaded or abused. It just died (blows the fuse when turned on). I have used this unit occasionally. Used for less than 10 hours total within year and half since I bought.
used it to charge digital camera batteries via their standard AC chargers last trip. works just fine.
The unit has a maximum efficiency of 90%. This hum may not be audible in cars that are not as quiet as mine (2002 Toyota Camry Solara hard top) or with different loads (I am using the inverter to drive a very quiet air filter which is probably more suceptible to the PWM transients). I tried to get efficiency figures before purchasing the unit but was unable to find same.I am happy with the performance of the device. Product works as advertised. The pulse width modulation (PWM) switching approach has one drawback: at low driving speeds, there is a hum which is audible above the road noise of the car.
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