VW cigarette lighter port - weird voltage?
About 4 years ago, my wife and I went to Europe and got a VW Polo as a rental. Our navigation tools in Europe include a PC with an USB-connected GPS, which obviously needs power.
We brought our 12V inverter to power a laptop (we used this every day for ~ 7 months (1 1/2 and 5 1/2) stretch in early 2013 and 2013-2014) and had used it previously on road trips (our Toyota Corolla and a rental Nissan Maxima in North America, Citroen Berlingo (5 months), FIAT Punto (6 weeks), MB A-class, Nissan Qashqai, FIAT 500 and other non-VW vehicles in Europe. At any rate, we used it for ~2-3 hrs the first day and then it quits on us about 2 hrs in the next day in Corsica (bought fuses - micros which I had never seen before - thinking it was the fuse but alas it wasn't). I thought it was age of the inverter so took some time shopping for another unit (not easy to find). Found one in Sardinia until it too died the next day after we got it. Didn't have another one for the rest of the trip.
So we bought another when we got to North America 3 years ago and it worked when we required it but then the two GPS units died of heat - black and sitting on the dash - and old age) and we ddn't a reason to use it on a 3 week trans-Canada RV trip. Haven't had to use it for a road trip but I think it'll be o.k.
Just wondering if there is some funny feature in VW 12V supply that would have fried the inverters?
We brought our 12V inverter to power a laptop (we used this every day for ~ 7 months (1 1/2 and 5 1/2) stretch in early 2013 and 2013-2014) and had used it previously on road trips (our Toyota Corolla and a rental Nissan Maxima in North America, Citroen Berlingo (5 months), FIAT Punto (6 weeks), MB A-class, Nissan Qashqai, FIAT 500 and other non-VW vehicles in Europe. At any rate, we used it for ~2-3 hrs the first day and then it quits on us about 2 hrs in the next day in Corsica (bought fuses - micros which I had never seen before - thinking it was the fuse but alas it wasn't). I thought it was age of the inverter so took some time shopping for another unit (not easy to find). Found one in Sardinia until it too died the next day after we got it. Didn't have another one for the rest of the trip.
So we bought another when we got to North America 3 years ago and it worked when we required it but then the two GPS units died of heat - black and sitting on the dash - and old age) and we ddn't a reason to use it on a 3 week trans-Canada RV trip. Haven't had to use it for a road trip but I think it'll be o.k.
Just wondering if there is some funny feature in VW 12V supply that would have fried the inverters?
Cream rises to the top. So does scum.
