EverStart 400 Watts Vehicle Power Inverter

Very small, but wonderful for camping or road trips. 125 watt max on a cigarette lighter port, or 400 watts directly wired to the battery. I bought a red one years back and it worked like a champ as a back up ac power source in the Semi truck, great for everyday life too!

This little gadget works like an extension cord, but goes from your car's battery to your house. It can power up to 2 USB powered devices, like tablets and cell phones, and 2 electric ones. It can only handle 400 watts of output, but instead of jump starting your car, your car jump starts your house. It won't provide much power for very long, but maybe enough time to get some fuel to run a heater or finish a text to someone who is important; I've never seen anything like it. I tried it on my tablet but I think the charger on my tablet is going bad, so it didn't charge it very fast, but other small appliances like a toaster or coffee potwould be long enough to cook it. I think it's a fabulous gadget, and would highly recommend it.

The Everstart 400 watt power inverter is a handy piece of equipment to have. I actually have a good amount of experience using power inverters like this. I have had bigger ones, and smaller ones. But I actually like this one the best so far. It depends entirely on what you want to use it for, but if you don't actually have a need for the 400 watt maximum capacity, this one is great. It has a couple features that make it nice. For the average person, they're probably just going to want a couple extra outlets for plugging USB chargers into. One of the benefits with the Everstart inverter is it has 2 USB charge ports. It also has two 110v power outlets, the same as you'd find in your home. There's a power switch for turning on and off. It has the option to plug into your 12v power adapter that most cars come equipped with, in older cars that would be the cigarette lighter port. It can also be plugged directly into your cars battery. If you want to get the full 400 watts from it, you have to hook it up to your battery. You can usually assume about a 10% or so loss in efficiency with one of these, so you're probably only actually getting about 350-360 watts from this at full load hooked up to the cars battery. Hooked up to the 12v power port, the maximum power draw is around 150 watts. You try to pull any more than that and you're going to blow a fuse. You definitely do not want that. That is something you need to keep in mind. If you have a high power draw device, try to find out how much wattage it requires so you don't exceed that 150 watts. Where the cords connect, there's a threaded post that requires a Phillips head screw driver. So that's something to keep in mind if you plan to make changes on the road, carry a screw driver. This power inverter has two 30 amp fuses, always nice to have a redundant fuse. They're the same type of fuse you'll find in most modern cars, so if one does blow, you'll be able to get one at any auto parts store. This power inverter also has a cooling fan. Devices like these tend to get warm, so the cooling fan is a nice addition. If you're running one of these directly from your battery, be aware that it can drain your battery to the point your car won't start. You'll want to start your car occasionally and let it run for a bit to let the alternator charge your battery. Riding around some should charge your battery faster. Your alternators charge capacity typically corresponds directly with engine RPM, the higher the RPM, the more it can charge your battery. Which is why sitting at idle will take longer to charge. Actually, leaving your car sit idling is not a bad idea if you're going to use this at its maximum capacity for any long period of time. What I used to use mine for a few years back was to power an Xbox 360 and a computer monitor so I could play video games in my car. It worked perfectly, although the one I used to do that was a 550 watt power inverter. This 400 watt inverter could probably power just about any game console and a monitor. The only thing you'd have to do is hook up your xbox to your car stereo, or wear a headset if you'd rather just do whatever is easier. This is a great little compact power inverter with a lot of useful features. It's capable of doing a lot of cool stuff if you have the imagination for it. I see no reason not to give it 5 stars, I don't really have anything negative to say about it.

I got this little Everstart inverter to run a small thermoelectric cooler in my car while on a trip. It worked fine and also charged two phones at the same time( it has USB in addition to the electrical outlets). It will run about 120 watts plugged in to the lighter, or up to 400 if connected directly to the battery. I also plan on using it in an antique car that has no a/c; it will run a fan to help cool and ventilate it in the summer. I had no problem using it, but be aware that the manual is mostly concerned with safety issues and doesn't really give any guidance in using it. It may be confusing to some that the device comes with two different types of cords, but contrary to what the pictures on the website and box shows, only one can be connected to the device at a time. If you wish to change from the lighter plug to the battery clips, you have to loosen two screws and remove one cord and then attach the other. Simple but it's not mentioned in the manual. Anyway it works fine and could prove to be useful in a variety of situations.

I often work in the car/out door and need to charge my laptop, ipads, phones often, power banks sometimes are not enough, so I bought this Inverter. The Everstart 400 watt inverter is very handy to have in the car when you need 120 volts of power on the go. It plugs into the cigarette lighter or connects directly to the battery and gives you the ability to watch tv, use your laptop run a fan or anything else that requires household current when none is available. I also use it for printing labels when shipping packages to my customer. It comes with an led screen on the front of the inverter to tell you the output power percentage, battery voltage or a warning if there is an overload, over heated, low battery or even wrong battery. It has a maximum continuous power of 400 watts and a surge peak of 800 watts. There are two ac ports and two usb ports that share 3.1 amp. The installation is very simple, Just need a Phillips screwdriver on hand to loosen the screws to attach whichever cables you need. My only complaints- the cords could all have been longer. Do not use cigarette lighter plug if using for extended time with devices that need 120 watts or greater. If device needs 120 watts or greater to operate then the inverter needs to be connected directly to the battery to protect the socket and wires of the vehicle from overheating. This is a handy device to have and its small size can be stored easily out of the way when not needed. Everstart is a great brand and has been in business for many many years and stands by this product with a one year warranty.

This is my second power inverter..........for my boat! We own a Tracker Bass Buggy 16ft with a Mercury 40HP Bigfoot. Small pontoon with limited electronics. I installed one of these inverters for those overnight trips on Lake Fontana. Our pontoon has three batteries, two deep cycle for the trolling motor, but no way to charge up cell phones or flashlights. I tried one of those plug-in cheap inverters which died quickly. And then I went to one of these industrial strength inverters. The first one, due to my stupidity, got trashed from leaving it out in the weather. This time I intend to install this under the steering wheel console. Most likely I will hardwire the unit because I just never did trust those lighter plugs. Unfortunately the boat is at a Marina about 1,000 miles away so I cannot take a picture of this unit installed as we will not be headed up there until fishing time begins next April. The nice thing is that you have two easily accessible 30 amp fuses so I feel comfortable running anything from additional lights to a small battery powered cooler. Three 12 volt batteries will run/charge for a good amount of time. And every few hours you just take a ride and let the alternator charge up the starting battery. If either of our autos did not have inverters built in, which most newer models do, I would install one in both of them. And with the supposed "chip" problem, USB plug-ins and all that might not be as common in the near future.

I wouldn’t recommend this Everlast inverter despite the good price and helpful display. It’s plagued by poor design choices, like an underpowered 12A fuse that I had to upgrade to 15A just to get it to function. The attachment method is tedious; you have to unscrew terminals rather than using a standard quick-disconnect. The physical layout is also frustrating. The AC outlets are upside down and too close together, meaning you can't plug in two items at once if they have a ground peg or are slightly wide. Mine even arrived in a previously opened box with broken parts. Ultimately, the lack of flexibility and likely "modified" (not pure) sine wave make this a "pass" for me.

I was very annoyed that it did not come with the cigaret lighter plug as that’s the whole reason I bought this particular unit even though it’s featured in the majority of the pictures 😡

The Everstart 400 W Power Inverter does exactly what the manufacturer claims, but the usefulness of the device depends on exactly how you want to use the inverter. If you want to use the inverter from the cabin of your automobile while driving down the road and the power load of the devices you want to power are 120 Watts or less, you are alright using the cigarette plug. If the device power load is between 120 and 400 Watts, the inverter must be clipped directly to the automobile battery which requires the hood to be open and the car parked. Operation is easy. Simply plug the devices you wish to operate into either of the two AC power jacks then turn the inverter using the power switch. A LED indicator shows that the inverter is turned on. The User Manual is one of the worst manuals that I have come across. Simple things like how to assemble the dc power cables to the inverter are non-existent. Figuring out how to unsnap the screw cover took a fair amount of effort because I did not know what unsnapped and what did not unsnap because the manual had no instructions. With a little care not to break anything I finally sorted things out and connected the wires to the screws on the inverter. The Owner Manual is filled with all the expected warnings, a little bit of operating instructions but to how to gain access to the input power screws. The only place I found the AC power limitations for the cigarette lighter plug connections was on the box that the inverter came in. Non-existent in the manual. Overall, this Everstart 400 W Power Inverter is a mixed bag. Depending on your AC power loads and your desired mode of operation the Inverter rating could be anywhere between unacceptable to outstanding

Save your money and go with a proper brand. This thing worked for less than 2 weeks. I was told at the customer service that one had been brought back the day before that burned up. This company cost me an expensive piece of equipment when this thing quit. This brand completely lost my business