Review on DieHard 71522 140W Power Inverter: Unleash Unlimited Mobile Power! by Alejandro Dabney

Plus: Safe, works, doesn't give off fumes that make me sick - yet (unlike some others). Fits tightly in the nest and will not fall out. It hasn't melted or even warmed up yet. It has over and under voltage protection that can be reset by unplugging and plugging it back in, and an indicator light. Minus: It only turns off automatically when the battery is completely discharged. This destroys deep cycle batteries. They should only be allowed to discharge to 50%, which is 12.06 volts under load, not the 10.5 volts they set for shutdown. You want to be able to start your car after use, right? Above all, it can get noisy. When it's cold. The fan on it makes a piercing grinding noise that is awful. The instructions say not to connect it to parallel batteries. But don't say why? Well I wanna know why? What will happen? I actually did this and what seems to happen is that it drains both deep cycle batteries as much as 1. Does it damage them? It doesn't speak. So when I use it I have to unplug one of my batteries. This is not stated on the packaging! Buyers be careful. It's been about a month so far and it's great. I have had many inverters of this type, various brands, and they rarely last long. If you hit this inverter at the right angle it will sometimes quiet down for a while ;) The manual says it draws I think 1/3 amp when not in use. So what is it, 12 * 0.333 = 4 watts? or 120 * 0.333 = 40 watts? Well, which one exactly? you don't speak But he draws a lot whether he's connected or not. It says it's 90% effective at maximum flow. It tells me nothing. I use about 50 watts for my laptop. How efficient is it at 50 watts? Such information is hidden, missing and would be useful. I want to know. It doesn't speak. Probably 60% like all other cheap inverters. This is a great loss. But at least as long as it works. The fan noise really annoys me. There are cheap inverters that don't have a fan and don't make any noise. It has, but the fact remains hidden from the consumer because nothing is indicated on the box. This fan also drains my batteries. Now I'm a trucker. I bought an inverter that didn't have a fan and while it didn't last long, neither did any of the others. But if that's to keep the nauseous smoke out, so be it. You don't want to end up in the cab of a pickup truck with a smelly, overheated inverter. But battery smoke can also make you sick. It has a strong odor and if you drain your batteries too quickly and don't have enough airflow you might get a headache, but that's not a problem with this particular inverter. All inverters can draw enough current to make a battery smoke if you charge them sufficiently. I don't like the fact that they hid the fact that it has a noisy fan, hid the efficiency at 50W and hid the power consumption when it wasn't. Instructions for use from the consumer's packaging, but hey, that's what happens when everything is based on the manufacturers and not on us. It's in a cheap plastic case, so no field protection. Bad. It has a USB port that works well. Brand Die Hard. I've only heard and seen good things about DieHard. Your inverter is a big disappointment. I hope their deep cycle batteries hold up better but my initial review after a month of use doesn't look good at all but from what I've heard all deep cycle batteries are cheaper. I am getting 70% of the available amp hours that I should be getting. Not great, but Sears got it 30% off, which is a hell of a deal. Sears & K-Mart sells the DieHard brand. If I could choose another manufacturer, I would. I've used RoadPro (shit), Autozone (worst), Truck Stop Yellow (shit) and many others I can't remember using and they all suck. Find out. But for the price I paid for it, I expected something a lot more than that loud fan noise. However, no fumes so far and it's worth the price. Update: After about 1 month of use, the plastic that plugs into the socket has melted and is now difficult to plug in. I have to hold the metal spring tab. when connected. I haven't used it in a long time. Only 1 hour to charge my laptop so it can be max 100w. It's good that it's melted, otherwise it might start a fire if it keeps melting, although it might still start a fire with melting that much. He didn't smell, didn't stink, and didn't warn he was melting. I still use it, but that's a bad sign. 30€ is definitely not worth it. Maybe $15.