inverter fail/generater?

. Inverter wattage is irelrvant. The week link is the outlet. 14v*15a=210watt. Anything over 210 watts won't reach it's peek w/o blowing a fuse. If he charges while truck is on the laptop won't try and charge while truck is off. He could also just use laptop batt. As voltage drops while truck is off, so does max wastage . 12 v*15a=180 watts. Keep on mind these numbers are dc input watts. Ac output will be 10-30% less depending on modle

 

I've had no problems charging laptops while truck is off for 10 hours.

I also run a lot more then just my laptop. I have printer and tv. and sometimes a fan.

I hear you on the math. but our accessories don't pull as much as you all think.

myblaptop, printer, tv combined only pull 100 watts. tv being the most.

 

If one reads the little paper pamplet that comes with the inverter

it mentions 1 hr of use before a possible melt down

 

A laptop could use as little as 35 watts or as much as 150 if a gaming laptop. The worst draw is charging and using at same time. If op,s truck is speced with 10 amp fuses he only has 120-140 dc watts to work with. By the time he converts to ac he prob has less then 100. If it is a low power laptop. It could be bad inverter... But if it is a powerful one, he will have trouble

 

So what's the wattage of your laptop.

mine says 18 vdc 1.75 amps. comes to 31.5 watts. according to Google math.

but mine isn't gaming.

at one point and time I was actually streaming movies from my laptop to my tv. using roku and mobile Hotspot. that's 3 devices. but I don't remember the watts on roku and tv.

 

Also, don't underestimate "peak wattage" at startup of many devices. Also, a high-end nVidia graphics card and an Intel I-7 chip alone in full speed operation while gaming is enough to practically max out a 300 watt lighter-plug inverter. And make no mistake, a lot of the new[er] drivers out here will not leave home without their gaming laptop or their xBox. These are power hungry even at "idle"

 

I've seen faulty inverter overcurrent protection before from a truck stop special. Annoying when you have to power down and back up to reset it then it works fine.