Charging lap-top from cigarette lighter

Have used this method regularly with no problems. Charge time is the same.

Cheers
Jon

Takes about the same time. Got our charger from Ebay. No need for the car to be running either. The laptop was the last item that needed 240V. Now we don't even take the inverter and no need to even consider a generator.

Phil

I tried running my laptop from the Cigarette lighter when on a long trip years ago. Seem to work on the trip but when I got home the laptop power pack was burnt out - probably from under supply of current. I was using a 150w 'pure sine wave' inverter.

Also tried an after market 12v plug direct to the laptop - burnt that out too. I think the laptop tried to pull too much power and it over heated the plug in the cigarette lighter and melted it. It is weird that the charger power pack on the laptop says 45w but I have been told it will draw a lot more than that. Not sure how this blue smoke trick works.

Now I have a 1500w 'pure sine wave' inverter that has 10mm cables no longer than 600mm direct to deep cycle batteries. Only problem is the touch mouse pad does not work with an ungrounded inverter connection meaning I can't use the laptop while charging. All is fine other wise.

Serendipity

I used a 12v power supply to run my Tosiba laptop no issues. Upgraded the Tosiba to a HP but couldn't use the power supply that I had as it did not have a HP plug. Last week I looked at 120w power supplies at Jaycar that did have a HP plug and these were about $80 up and could only he used to power laptops.

I ended up buying a 300/600w Pure Sine Wave inverter off ebay for $65. Will do the same job as as the 12v power supply but have a lot more uses so I consider a good alternative.

Garry

I use a Belkin multi plug adapter that runs off 240 volts or 12 volts. It came with the car lighter adapter and also has a usb port for charging other devices. I've never had a problem with it charging several different laptops, phones or tablets. I'd be wary of charging anything for too long with the motor off simply because it is running the car battery down.

I found a 12v step-up transformer would charge the laptop batteries slowly with the engine off, more fully with the engine running.

The biggest hassle has been changing laptops and finding that the charging kit didn't have the right tip. Has happened twice. Beware of Asus Zenbooks; they have a rare socket that I could only hook up to by buying a cheap 240V charger from o/s and cannibilising the plug.

Inverters are an alternative but IMO standardising on 12v saves a lot of hassle.

Hi Have been using 12 v chargers for a long time. I prefer to plug in when running truck to charge and then run off batteries when not ( This is good for batteries . They need to cycled)

I got mine from here http://www.laptop-charger.com.au/dell-laptop-car-adapter/

Had for 4 years no problems .

Also when changing laptops needed a different plug so went tohttp://www.dx.com/ Deals extreme and found one for under $5.

Just be sure that you get Charger that meets output specs of AC charger.