Anybody with any electrical knowledge... please help?

Question

I have a mini car power inverter thing, which you plug into the car cigarrete lighter, and enables you to power mains plug appliances from the car battery, so long as they need 230v or less. I have some hair striaghteners that I would like to be able to use from this power inverter in the car, however on the plug it says 240v. I tried anyway, but the power-on light on the inverter kept flicking on and off, and the hair straightener LED light kept flashing on and off- like it was sending mini surges of electricity rather than a constant flow- presumably cos of the voltage needed.

Anything I can do, at all, to get round this problem and get them to work?

Answer 1

Hair straighteners use far too much electricity for your mini-inverter. So you'd have to get a different inverter.

Additionally, your lighter outlet is likely rated at either 120 or 180 watts, and past that you'll blow a fuse. You could use a bigger fuse, but you run the risk of starting an electrical fire, depending on your wiring.

If you need to learn about how to install higher power inverters in your vehicle, you can visit

www.empowerthyself.com/ node/2531

Answer 2

Yes, the other answerer is right.  Your hair straightener uses way too many watts for your inverter.  You need to go out and buy an inverter that has "enough watts" to handle the straightener.  It will be larger and more expensive than the inverter you have.

Your straightener should be labeled with how many watts it uses.

Answer 3

a 240V unit plugged in to the invertor should be fine... there has always been some confusion of the mains voltage...

the main cause of the problem is probally the Power rating of the inverter it should say how many WATTs  it is rated for and if the hair straighteners are a higher Wattage then it wont be able to supply them with enough power. and it will constantly pulse