Whistler PI-200W 200 Watt Power Inverter

Sun, Mar 21, 2010

200 watt continuous power, with 400 watt peak power
Electronic circuit protection and cooling fan
Overload, short-circuit and temperature protection
Low-battery alarm
PI-1200W, PI-2000W and PI-3000W does not include battery cables

Product Description
200 Watt Mobile Power Inverter Converts 12V DC to 110V AC provides 400 Watt peak power. Provides various kinds of Protection like Voltage protection, Short-circuit protection, Overload protection to Devices. Main FeaturesManufacturer: Whistler Group, IncManufacturer Part Number: PI-200WManufacturer Website Address: www.whistlergroup.comAmazon.com Product Description
The Whistler PI-200 200 Watt power inverter allows you to run s… More >>

Whistler PI-200W 200 Watt Power Inverter

3 Responses to “Whistler PI-200W 200 Watt Power Inverter”

Anonymous Says:
March 21st, 2010 at 22:47

I’m 13. last year, we had to dive to Maine from Virginia. I had an idea. we had this old TV that was small, and you could plug a Play Station in it. it plugged into the car. I was happy when i realized that you needed something to power the Playstation, too. I looked on amazon and got this four days before the trip. I prayed it would get here on time. It came in three days and worked fine the hole trip.
Rating: 5 / 5

R. Hughes Says:
March 22nd, 2010 at 00:14

I love the small size. It works well and doesn’t drop out during startup of car.
Rating: 4 / 5

R. Kreis Says:
March 22nd, 2010 at 00:37

Like all other DC inverters in this price range, this unit produces a square wave output. Sensitive electronic devices may not be happy using this power source, and the instructions that come with the inverter were written by a lawyer: The liability for incompatibility is all yours and none of theirs.

True sine wave inverters of this capacity are priced in multiple hundreds of dollars, just so you know.

I got this device to recharge my laptop, a Sony Vaio with a power brick in the line cord. I measured the no-load output of the brick using both power from the mains and when attached to the inverter, and output was identical. There was an insignificant AC voltage component when first measured, and it quickly went to zero. Like I said, it was the same for both power sources. The Sony brick is rated for 100-240 VAC 50/60 Hz input, a broad range, so I figure it should be able to accomodate the non-sine input. (But, what do I know?)

My laptop pulls just over 50 watts at the mains when operating and charging at the same time, and about 18 watts when charging only. It takes around 4 hours to recharge the battery, but when it is finished, the current draw drops off to nothing. Isn’t 20W about what the parking lights on my car draw? Would my car start after leaving the parking lights on for four hours?

When running the laptop at full load, the inverter immediately starts buzzing alarmingly when drawing from the tiny battery of my Miata, when the engine is off. With the bigger battery of my Camry, It complains much less, but it still whimpers a bit. Engine-on solves the problem on both cars. I believe the inverter has a feature to turn itself off (instead of just buzzing) after a certain voltage drop, theoretically leaving enough juice in the battery to start the engine. This is a feature I would rather not have to test. I would feel a lot better using this inverter attached to a hybrid car with its robust battery capacity.

I think it will be ok for me to use this inverter to power my Sony Laptop from the car, but only when the engine is running. I will update this review if I have further experience to report.
Rating: 3 / 5

Anonymous Says:
March 21st, 2010 at 22:47
I’m 13. last year, we had to dive to Maine from Virginia. I had an idea. we had this old TV that was small, and you could plug a Play Station in it. it plugged into the car. I was happy when i realized that you needed something to power the Playstation, too. I looked on amazon and got this four days before the trip. I prayed it would get here on time. It came in three days and worked fine the hole trip.
Rating: 5 / 5

R. Hughes Says:
March 22nd, 2010 at 00:14
I love the small size. It works well and doesn’t drop out during startup of car.
Rating: 4 / 5

R. Kreis Says:
March 22nd, 2010 at 00:37
Like all other DC inverters in this price range, this unit produces a square wave output. Sensitive electronic devices may not be happy using this power source, and the instructions that come with the inverter were written by a lawyer: The liability for incompatibility is all yours and none of theirs.

True sine wave inverters of this capacity are priced in multiple hundreds of dollars, just so you know.

I got this device to recharge my laptop, a Sony Vaio with a power brick in the line cord. I measured the no-load output of the brick using both power from the mains and when attached to the inverter, and output was identical. There was an insignificant AC voltage component when first measured, and it quickly went to zero. Like I said, it was the same for both power sources. The Sony brick is rated for 100-240 VAC 50/60 Hz input, a broad range, so I figure it should be able to accomodate the non-sine input. (But, what do I know?)

My laptop pulls just over 50 watts at the mains when operating and charging at the same time, and about 18 watts when charging only. It takes around 4 hours to recharge the battery, but when it is finished, the current draw drops off to nothing. Isn’t 20W about what the parking lights on my car draw? Would my car start after leaving the parking lights on for four hours?

When running the laptop at full load, the inverter immediately starts buzzing alarmingly when drawing from the tiny battery of my Miata, when the engine is off. With the bigger battery of my Camry, It complains much less, but it still whimpers a bit. Engine-on solves the problem on both cars. I believe the inverter has a feature to turn itself off (instead of just buzzing) after a certain voltage drop, theoretically leaving enough juice in the battery to start the engine. This is a feature I would rather not have to test. I would feel a lot better using this inverter attached to a hybrid car with its robust battery capacity.

I think it will be ok for me to use this inverter to power my Sony Laptop from the car, but only when the engine is running. I will update this review if I have further experience to report.
Rating: 3 / 5

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