Customer Reviews

Cisco-Linksys L03040 Power 2GO Inverter - Car Cigarette Lighter Power Supply

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Like all Linksys merchandise, this power inverter is well made and sold at fraction of the cost of comparable brands. I use this power inverter to run a small printer that I take with me and use inconjunction with my laptop. It powers this fine, but this is not a DC to AC inverter designed for large appliances. If you want to run something small like a laptop, lamp, small microwave, small refridgerator, it's great.

It came with the stickers all peeling off. Used it for about a month and the item failed on me. Then the bad news, it blew the fuses in my car and all my electronics stopped working. Tried it on a friends car and I blew his fuses (car and person). Look for something else. Seems to be a common problem.

UPDATE: Linksys replaced this product instantly. Works but a little worried it will fail again.

UPDATE ON UPDATE: Died again...

This product works great as we have used it a good few times
for operating a laptop in the car.
However, it gets very-very hot very quickly. Not sure if this
is normal.

Bought one several years ago for camping trips. Use it in a Dodge Caravan with a laptop and with gameboys. It takes a beating by 2 boys in the family car. Has always been reliable and worked just fine.

We have a second-hand laptop, which didn't come with it's own cigarette/car adapter. So we purchased this product.

It works great, no power issues at all. My only complaint is that it gets really hot, so if you can place it near an AC vent in the floorboard of your vehicle, that'd be a good idea.

The product not only did not work but blew out fuses in my car. The mechanic who checked my car out said the device had a dead short in it. I have written to your customer service department and asked for money back but to no avail. I will not purchase another thing from Amazon until my money is refunded.

This item worked for a while, but required fiddling (unplugging and replugging repeatedly) with the lighter socket each time I restarted my car. Eventually, however, it blew out the fuses in both my lighter sockets. Don't waste your money on this piece of crap.

Added 9/28/07: I later found that the cigarette lighter socket on my car could not supply much power, so it was not the fault of the Linksys inverter that it did not perform well in my car.

Original review: This unit failed to provide reliable power to my new Toshiba Satellite A60 laptop. It cycled on and off every 3 seconds. It powered a 100 watt lamp okay, but wouldn't start a 250 watt heat lamp at all. Product spec sheet says it can supply 400 watt surge and 200 watts for 2 min., and is rated at 140 watts continuous. My laptop power supply is rated at 2A input at 100-240 VAC, and if it drew 2A constantly I agree that it would need 200 to 230 watts, which exceeds the continuous rating of this inverter. However, even at that power demand the inverter should run it for 1-2 min., but only manages 3 sec. In addition, I doubt that the laptop power supply actually draws a full 2.0 amps continuously. I talked to Linksys support, and they suggested returning the unit for replacement or refund, so I did. It did not work for me. Maybe it would work for a laptop that only needs 100 watts, but I wouldn't recommend it for more than that.

Corrected conclusion, 10/6/2011: The fact that this inverter couldn't power my laptop was probably due to a fault in my car's wiring to the lighter plug, and not the fault of the inverter. I amended the review in 2007, and with this further amendment I have changed the star rating to 4 out of 5. Maybe I should have given it 5 stars, because I didn't really give it a fair test before returning it for a refund. The useful conclusion in this review is that if an inverter doesn't seem to carry the load it is rated for, maybe you should check to see if you are getting a full 12V in to the inverter when under load.

About a year ago I got one of these to allow me to play DVDs for my kids on my laptop while travelling. It has an alarm that sounds when your battery is getting too low -- well it sounded immediately . I figured that my car battery was not fully charged or on its last legs. I hadn't tried to use it since. Now that I'm taking another trip, I thought I'd try it out in other cars. No luck. The thing is dead -- doesn't do a thing when I plug it in.

Like others, I have used this product in a car to power a laptop and such small equipment. It works great. My only wish is that it would have an attachment for airplanes, which it does not.