12v car inverter for mobility scooter battery charging - Snake oil or not?

[PaulC70]

Having recently got a travel mobility scooter for the Mrs I'm still pondering how to charge the batteries on longer trips and came across one of those inverters you can plug into your cigarette lighter which I always thought were crap but its listed on a large mobility scooter site and wondering if that gives the idea some credence or not?

In-Car Inverter

The In-Car Inverter Mobility Scooter Accessory connects to the cigarette lighter in your car, so you can charge your scooter battery on the go.

www.careco.co.uk

Anyone got any thoughts?

 

[stevec]

First thoughts. Will your 12V socket deliver the 12 amps plus that this will need if it draws it's full wack. Whats the consumption of your mains charger on load? My 12V sockets are fused for 10A max.

 

[mitzimad]

personally i hate cigarette lighters as a connection for anything as they are so unreliable but the charger is only 2 amp so it will take a while

 

[PaulC70]

my mains charger says its a 24v 3.5amp lithium charger?

 

[autorouter]

I have a 150W inverter, a different brand, that I have used to power a 12V 5A charger (= 60W) to recharge a 12V lead-acid battery. It works fine. I tried a 100W inverter, and that didn't work. Your 24V 3.5A charger (= 84W) is a bit more powerful, equivalent to a 12V 7A charger, so it's worth a try, it will probably work.

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[stevec]

As it's a lithium charger it will output 29.4V or there abouts.

 

[PaulC70]

So this could be worth a punt for charging on the go then?

 

[autorouter]

It's hard to be sure. As stevec says, if the charger puts out 29.4V at 3.5A that's 103W, and allowing for charger inefficiencies that would be more like 115W, which is getting near its upper limit. If it's a good inverter it will be fine, if it's not then it might refuse to work.

Is there any way you could ask the company if it will work with your charger, so you can send it back if it doesn't work? Or go to a showroom to try a display model? There are several showrooms in England, but according to the map only one in Scotland and Wales.

 

[PaulC70]

It's hard to be sure. As stevec says, if the charger puts out 29.4V at 3.5A that's 103W, and allowing for charger inefficiencies that would be more like 115W, which is getting near its upper limit. If it's a good inverter it will be fine, if it's not then it might refuse to work.

Is there any way you could ask the company if it will work with your charger, so you can send it back if it doesn't work? Or go to a showroom to try a display model? There are several showrooms in England, but according to the map only one in Scotland and Wales.

Thing is the mobility scooters a different make, seems a bit cheeky to do that. But ive found others on amazon that have even higher wattage.

 

[autorouter]

I'm sure a 200W or 250W inverter would be fine, but there is a limit to what can be powered by a cigarette-lighter socket, and 150W seems to be the maximum. At full power a 150W inverter would draw about 15A, which is about the limit of a cigarette-lighter socket, and you may find that some are fused at 10A or even less. A 200W or 250W inverter would have to be powered from the leisure battery either directly, through a fuse, if you wanted it built-in. Or through something like an Anderson plug/socket if you wanted it to be removable. Not especially difficult to do, but not plug-and-play like a 150W through a cigarette-lighter plug.

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[DBK]

My experience running just a compressor cool box from a cigarette lighter socket was not good. I think it might work if you were using the dash mounted socket in our Ducato which faces upwards, but wall mounted sockets where it plugs in horizontally were problematic. The issue was the contacts in the socket became hot and then softened which made the connection even worse.

My suggestion would be to fit a better socket and plug arrangement instead of the fag lighter system.

There is a smaller diameter DIN plug but I found they were no better than the larger version. I'm currently using a small plug and socket with flat pins but it isn't perfect either. I'm still on the hunt for the the best 12v plug and socket.

 

[PaulC70]

Problem with using the upright one is it's in use already on the go :-/ Hmmmmm maybe not such a good idea after all. May have to go back to one of my other options of simply using a site every 5/6 days with ehu and charging that way and at least I'll also be able to refill with water, dump waste etc all at the same time.