Plug-in 12 volt power inverter

I'm just looking for nothing special... something to literally plug into our cigarette lighter so we can power stuff - namely just blowing up an air mattress.

Would something like this work?

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Produc...=0&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1

Is there any disadvantage to having a plug-in versus something else? A guy we went camping with last weekend literally hooked his up directly to his battery when he wanted to use it. Seemed ridiculous and overkill

 

Yep. I like the fact it has a 12-ft cord that way if you are camping you can power everything and not have to run those cables into your cabin. Most of the newer ones include both a cigarette socket plug or and direct cable to the battery. I didn't read the details on the one you posted, but either way would work. If you have the cigarette lighter plug though you can charge things in your cabin while you're actually driving.

 

Good for an inverter up to about 150 watts beyond that you should think about hooking it up direct, 150 watts at 12 volts is about max for the lighter circuit.

 

Thanks for the tip

Any recommendations on a direct hook up inverter? The one I linked is strictly a plug in.

I searched the forums and got 5 pages of threads that didn't give me much to go off of.

 

You could probably find a heavy duty one that would hook directly to the battery from a truck stop or somewhere similar. Down here we have Flying J's. they have massive inverters for the truckers

 

If it only comes with the 12volt cord, you can cut the cig lighter end off and strip the wires to connect to a relay, then run the relay accordingly with a toggle, etc. It says, it has battery terminals too, which sounds like it comes with direct power hookup. You can hard wire that way also. If you decide to use any type of switch to turn it on and off, you really have to run a relay.

I bought a 750 watt inverter from Harbor Freight for a little less than the one you posted.