CPI 480 - 400 Watt Power Inverter - COBCPI480

The Cobra easily handles hair driers and all of our electronics in our camper. The two 110vac receptacles are handy. We have it wired directly to the camper batteries, haven't tried the cigarette lighter plug. It doesn't get very warm with the loads that we've applied so far. We haven't used it for very long, but so far, so good!

I bought this to keep in the work van as we sometimes bring in a laptop for invoicing and long road trips. It works flawlessly. The fan only kicks in when needed and is never on more than a few seconds at a time for my use. It may run more with a larger load. The included battery cables are great for outdoors/camping fanatics who may need a little power here and there. The unit is fairly small and as such can be tucked out of the way. I only recommend the fan not be blocked when running. The price point is fantastic. For the similar 25-30 dollar price range I only found 75-150 watt inverters. The 400 watt cannot be found for anywhere near this price anywhere else. As usual, the site to store shipping was very fast. I am very pleased with this product and would recommend it to a friend or buy another one if needed.

I bought this one thinking it will let me plug in my home vacuum cleaner so I can clean out the car without going to a car wash. But it's not powerful enough for it. But, it says it's powerful enough for computers, so this should be great for my trip in two months.

When measured with a voltmeter, it was only measuring around 95vac, but upon further reading it appears that non RMS devices can't measure a modified sine wave inverter accurately and are usually 5-15v off. This would put it right in line with the 5%+- of the rated 120v. All in all, it seems like a decent little inverter. It is relatively quiet, even with the fan. For my first test, I plugged in a radio and a 150w lamp and it handled the load just fine. I couldn't even notice the running if it was even on. For $25 it's a pretty good deal. My only complaint is that no mounting hardware is included, and the cutouts on the inverter to stick screws in are right under the bottom edge of the inverter, so it is impossible to use a screwdriver to tighten screws. I just wound up using Velcro to mount it in my trunk.

Works great for small appliances in vehicle or camper when AC power is otherwise unavailable. Can't beat the price for an inverter of this size. Comes with both cigar lighter plug and battery clips. I also use it to measure ampere-hour capacity of deep cycle batteries by using sufficient incandescent lamps to produce the rated 12 Volt battery current load (with an ammeter inserted in 12 Volt positive input lead to the inverter) and measuring the elapsed time from start until the low battery alarm sounds.