Wagan 2402 200W Smart AC USB Inverter

• Powers laptops, mobile appliances and other AC and USB appliances
• Comes with one USB port and two AC 120 volt outlets
• Overload protection, short circuit protection and built-in surge protection for car start up and shut down
• Can operate with the engine turned off
• Continuous Power: 200W; Peak Surge Power: 500W; DC Input Voltage Range: 10-15V DC

This inverter is compact and does exactly what it is intended to do. The USB slot is a nice feature. I have used it on 8+ hour roadtrips powering cell phones, laptops, DVD players and other items. Never a problem.

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Very nice, I use it in my SUV, then hook my notebook up to it, runs a little hot but not too bad, I also charge my cell phone off it, small, and has an on/off switch with a green power light, I like it.

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I don't really see how you could get a better product. I took it cross country MA to CA and back, it worked like a charm always for all my charging needs. The USB is really handy for cell phones leaving two ports open for larger plugs like laptops or cameras.

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We went through two of the Wagan EL2402s. The first arrived and a piece of solder fell out of one of the vents. May have been extraneous, but better to be safe than sorry, Amazon was great and overnighted a replacement. At best I can only give mixed reviews. The is supposed to be able to handle 200 Watts with a peak of 500 Watts.. Fairly substantial in print. In reality, things like battery chargers, cell phone chargers, etc., all seemed to be fine. Where the problems began were on more "specific" devices. We wanted the device for my wife to run a 35 Watt Chi hair straightener. It would not even turn on. The description says power tools, so I thought I'd given a try to a couple. First a sabre saw, again well under peak and normal wattage to be handled. Nothing, a blip when I pulled the trigger, then nothing. A Dewalt hand drill... well kinda sorta.. If you started out VERY slowly on revolutions and worked your way up, you could get to full speed. I didn't try that under a load, but I assume it would work to a point.

I called Wagan, and they assumed some of the failures cames from the fact that AC devices are used to and built for a sine wave output. The Wagan (and I assume some others) don't produce the exact same sine wave (calling it a modified sine wave). So, your own mileage may vary. Some Notebook AC Chargers may be more sensitive than others, so you probably can't be sure. Again, I don't know that Wattage alone is the delimiting factor. It may that your particular device just won't work.

My advice, read the reviews.. If you have a particular device or devices you are thinking about running, perhaps check with the manufacturers of these different inverters. Remember electronics are pretty sensitive devices when it comes to power. While I may be willing to try a Chi hair straightener, I may not be as comfortable with a notebook.. Best bet there is to see if your manufacturer has a DC supply (Car/Airplane) adapter.

I have an Odyssey deep cycle battery in my car. I ran my power hungry Dell desktop replacement laptop off this charger for 2 weeks, no problems. The laptop has a 90W power brick. I also ran the 90W laptop power brick + a 50W external laptop battery charger at the same time. If your car's wiring is protected by a 20A fuse, then 200W continuous is the most you're going to safely pull through your cigar lighter. I picked this unit because it's 200W continuous. Many of the other available "200W" products are just full of marketing slime and don't give 200W continuous, they give 200W peak power for a few minutes and can only handle ~150W continuous. Small annoyances: the user manual claims it has an airplane plug adapter but it doesn't, and the plug is so long that it's not the best fit for my car's cigar lighter. I have to carefully align the flexible springs on the plug to get it to stay in, but if so aligned they do stay in.

Update July 2012. The unit gave me no problems for 2 years. Then I plugged an ungrounded 2-prong Dekcell universal battery charger with a laptop battery attached to it, and the unit fried. I had used that same Dekcell charger with the unit before, but I hadn't done it for 2 years. I don't know what happened. Maybe has to do with the order in which you plug things in. The unit has a perfectly good 20A fuse inside it, that didn't blow. What's the point of a fuse if it won't protect the unit from trouble? Which direction was that fuse supposed to protect from, I wonder?

So, since it died, I can't rate it as more than average. I'm shopping for something else. One thing positive I will say for the Wagan, it's quiet. Lots of units I'm finding in retail stores have noisy fans. I can't stand that and keep returning them.