This little guy is GREAT. The shape allows it to sit in your cup holder out of the way unlike the bigger odd-shaped ones that fly all over the place while you're driving.This device is perfect for road trips. It handled my laptop and cell phone charger at the same time, and the USB port let me charge my iPod too. The plug fit just fine, and the low-power alarm is quite effective.
The only bummer is when you have a real cup of coffee and no where to put it...
The concept is great, having a place to put the inverter that is convenient and doesn't dangle or shift around, yet also isn't a big device that has to plug right into the accessory outlet (which isn't always placed to facilitate a device like this, and also precludes being able to simultaneously use the outlet to power anything else.) And enough people have left good reviews that I assume they're not all so prone to quick failure. Nevertheless, I will not buy another PowerLine. I previously had the PowerLine 0900-36A which also failed (though I did get more than 20 minutes out of it). So I just don't consider them reliable, and I don't know how long other reviewers have had their units.
Luckily, there are numerous other cup-holder-sized inverters to choose from, just do an amazon search for "inverter cup"
UPDATE: I purchased the Black & Decker PI100CB. It only has one outlet instead of two, but at least so far, it's working perfectly. It is possible that the Powerline failed quickly because of a design flaw other reviewers have noticed... the Powerline needs air around the fan toward the bottom of the unit and that air flow will generally get blocked once the device is actually placed in a cup holder, possibly leading to overheating and failure. The Black and Decker has a clever design which solves this problem. It comes with a rubber insert that goes in your cup holder, and the device in turn goes into the rubber insert. The smart thing is that the rubber insert itself is designed to make sure air flow to the device's fan is not blocked.But the instructions say to not cover any of the vents while in use. That makes putting the inverter into your cup holder (as it was seemingly made for) a big no-no. The bottom of the cup is filled with vents and you can feel air blowing out when it's in use. So, they market this cool inverter that fits into your cup holder, but then give instructions that discourage you from putting it into your cup holder.....
When I put it into my cup holder, the light ended up turning red, meaning it was turning itself off.Used this inverter once so far. Clever design. I was hoping I might be able to leave it in the car, maybe stick a disk of paper on the top to hide the outlets, and thieves would think it was just a coffee cup, but the white cord sticking out the back near the top makes that hard to pull off. Still, I love the design. Charging my shaver and my iPod at the same time was no problem, and the fan did not come on, at least not audibly. Will have to try some higher powered devices and see what happens. I have some concern, like others have, that tucking it into a tight cup holder will not leave enough breathing room for the bottom vents, but with the fan not even turning on for my typical uses, I'm not too concerned. If it ends up being an issue, I can always stick a small piece of wine cork on the bottom to give it some additional space. The 12V plug has a two-position switch to adjust the tightness of its fit in the socket, a nice touch.
UPDATE: recently when my iPhone was nearly dead, the USB port on this device appeared to not be able to charge it. After 30 minutes of charging, I still had the iPhone displaying a red "depleted battery" graphic. The graphic normally goes away within 10 minutes of initiating charging. Subsequent tests using the Apple iPhone 3G AC adapter in the inverter's 110V outlet, then the USB iPhone cable in the AC adapter, exhibited no problems. Either the 500mA provided via USB is not enough, or the iphone is picky about its USB power source. There is some info on the web suggesting the iPhone is just picky. Google "iPhone reference voltage"Let's see..the description says 200 watt continuous 400 watt peak..Well, I bought this inverter to power my coleman inflater (170 watt)..SO I plug it in and plug into my coleman and there it goes, right? NO!! it can't handle the load..What?? isn't 170 less than 200..Why yes it is, except in powerline land...All kidding aside, if you're looking to power something close to the 200 watt range look somewhere else..if you're looking to power something less i.e. under 170 watts than this might work, but who knows..What I do know is that it WILL NOT power 170 watts so saying 200 continuous is a stretch...THANKS
