LF: Car Charger for Laptop

[mmike]

Does anybody know where to get a Car Charger for a laptop? Going on a road trip, and battery won't last that long so want to plug it in the car. Where's the best place to get one (w/o spending arm & leg)? Many thanks, Mike.

[Prospect]

The cheapest alternative is to get an inverter. It plugs into the lighter and provides AC power to the laptop. You can use the laptop and it will be charged at the same time. XScargo has them at extremely affortable prices. Make sure you get one that has a wattage rating higher than your laptop. Something like this will do

http://www.xscargo.com/product.php?dept=search&action=search&item=08476&index=0

[itsmypostoffice]

i agree with Prospect, it's much cheaper to purchase a reliable power inverter vs. a car adapter. most inverters have built-in fans but you won't notice it with the radio on. most importantly, they offer surge protection to prevent damage to your laptop -- purchase a higher rating than your laptop requires if you're going to charge your laptop on a regular basis.

[rfdrfd]

Just make sure the Wattage is enough to power your laptop. Or else you'll blow the fuse to the cigarette lighter in your car. Check the specs written on your A/C adaptor of the laptop.

And if your laptop allows it, unplug the battery while you're plugged into the car. This way, it will use up less wattage.

If you want to charge the battery in the car, then best to turn OFF your laptop, then charge it. Again to avoid too much power draw from the small wattage cigarette lighter plug.

Some of the invertors you see with 30 Watt at Chicken Tire say are for laptops, but that is actually not enough. Get a 75 or 100 W at least.

[mmike]

Thanks everybody for the advice.

The AC Adapter for my Acer laptop has the following rating:

In: (100-240V) ~1.5A
Out (19V) ~3.16A

So I guess the max it could use is 240V*1.5A = 360Watts. Wondering if I could get away with using the 175Watt one (17.99), or do I need to buy the 400Watt (29.99)?

Thanks again, Mike.

[rfdrfd]

Math looks right. Definitely get the 400 W one. You don't want to (1) blow your car fuse, (2) provide not enough juice to your laptop

$29.99 isn't that bad.... think of how much the laptop cost when you bought it.




Thanks everybody for the advice.
So I guess the max it could use is 240V*1.5A = 360Watts. Wondering if I could get away with using the 175Watt one (17.99), or do I need to buy the 400Watt (29.99)?

Thanks again, Mike.

[weesur]

Thanks everybody for the advice.

The AC Adapter for my Acer laptop has the following rating:

In: (100-240V) ~1.5A
Out (19V) ~3.16A

So I guess the max it could use is 240V*1.5A = 360Watts. Wondering if I could get away with using the 175Watt one (17.99), or do I need to buy the 400Watt (29.99)?

Thanks again, Mike.
I don't think yr math is right. You are calculating the input of the adaptor. But really output of the adaptor is input of laptop so it is 19*3.16 =60 A.
But since 400 W will be much more useful than 175 W it is always better to get 400W