A DC to AC converter is a useful thing to have in your car. All of us today use a lot of gadgets that are power hungry. If you have a mobile phone, tablets or laptops, it can be frustrating to run out of battery power just when you need it the most. In some instances, it could a situation of getting help versus being stranded on a dark lonely stretch of road with a breakdown or calling for help.


While you can get different individual car lighter plug in adapter to charge your gadgets, a better option in my opinion is an DC to AC converter. The reason is that such a converter is usually a bit larger and can charge several gadgets at the same time. The output is AC or alternating current so you just plug in the usual charger that came with your phone or your laptop.

Small cigarette lighter chargers are not that efficient since what they do is to lower the 12v in your car to 5v that is usually required to charge your gadgets. Some are not well regulated and that might mean a gadget that’s fried with 12v from your car battery.

Further more, while this will work for small items like your mobile phone, a laptop will usually required much higher voltages to charge, usually in the region of 14v or even higher. This means that you will still need a DC to AC converter if you intend to charge your laptop.

It makes better sense to just keep a converter in the car. With this type of converter, you can charge all your gadgets with the supplied charger without buying all kinds of adaptors. Some of the adapters are of questionable quality and may overcharge your gadgets and damage either the battery or the built in charging circuits.

If you change to another gadget a few months later, you can still use the converter without again looking for suitable car charger. In the long run, it saves you money and you’ll have a lot less battery chargers lying around. Besides the normal gadgets you usually carry, this converter will also be able to charge the batteries for you digital camera or AA batteries for your camera flash unit as well.

Once you have decided to get a converter, the next question is how much capacity should you buy one. The power required is quite low for small gadgets like mobile phone or tablet and pretty much any converter will do. Your laptop however will require quite a bit more power as compared to your other gadgets, especially if you intend to use if while it is being charged. Check the maximum amp draw because some units cannot provide enough max current draw to your power hungry gadgets.

From your laptop manual, you can get the power required in terms of Watts. You can also look at the laptop charger that will have the numbers there Add another 20 to 25% to the figure and that should be the continuous power. If you plan to use your car as a mobile office with a printer and scanner, then add that into the total power you’ll require and size up accordingly.

It is better to have some extra capacity when it comes to what the converter can power so that in future, should you get a larger laptop, you will not over stress the converter. Get one with a sine wave or simulated sine wave output for efficiency as well as ensure your gadgets will not be damaged. Cheaper converter usually do not generate sine wave output.

One last point. If possible, make sure your inverter has ‘low battery’ and ‘overload’ shut-off protection – this ensures that you don’t kill the car battery if you leave your equipment running too long with the engine off or damage the converter if you overload it.

In summary, here are the points when you look for a DC to AC converter

• input output voltage (voltage)
• max and continuous output current (amps)
• max and continuous power output (watts)
• sine wave
• low battery and overload shut off protection

By the way, you can get it on Amazon here or your local electrical shops that sells electronic parts.

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