Customer Reviews

Powerline By Original Power 0900-78 140/200-Watt Pivoting Inverter with USB Charging Port

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

 

 

I purchased this item at Wal-mart while on a business trip. I left my charger for my GPS at home and the GPS uses a mini-usb charging port. It worked perfectly for the GPS which draws a very small amount of power. I then used it with my laptop which uses a 70 watt adapter, well below the rated 140 watts. The unit fried in less than an hour. It burned out two fuses in my car. I foolishly tried it in a second cigarette outlet after it blew the fuse in the first one.

The unit smelled of burned electrical circuitry. I thought that perhaps I just got a defective unit until I read a review on Amazon about another Powerline brand inverter where the customer had the same experience with two units.

The unit is very compact and light. It easily fits into my computer bag and is 1/3 or less the weight of the typical converter. In that respect the unit is perfect but don't expect it to last long running a laptop. If they make it more durable for a laptop or any device pulling over 50 watts, this would be a great item.

Works great, powers whatever. The fan built-in keeps it cool and working strong. The fan noise can get a little high when drawing power from both ports, but it's worth it!

I bought it from Walmart. I was playing music in my car for about 2 hours with the engine off. I then decided to plug the inverter into the cigarette lighter to charge my iPhone. When I connected the iPhone via the USB port, I could smell the unit burning and it blew the 20 amp fuse for the cigarette lighter/radio.

A few days later I opened the unit and I could see some type of white frothing that looked like whip cream but it was hard. I could not tell if this occured when the unit was frying since the smell was gone. The unit has a 25 amp fuse which was still intact which explains why the current by passed it and blew my car's 20 amp cigarette lighter fuse.
I think the amps on this should be less than that of cigarette lighters so that the unit should burn out first. I am no electrician but I believe this could start a fire starting at the unit.

I only got to use one time and it quit working. Wouldn't buy this again! Although it was very inexpensive, you get what you pay for.

This product works exactly as expected. It is great for road trips long and short, and with the number of electronics in our daily lives you'll definitely get your moneys worth from this product. One potential negative is its bulkiness. This has not been a problem from me since I own a '09 Corolla my car has an extra outlet inside my center console which is out of the way and that is were this product stays plugged in 24/7.