Black & Decker PI100AB 100 Watt Power Inverter

Warning, the cooling fan inside this inverter is way too noisy to be used in a car. I can't believe Black & Decker can sell something like this without violating a noise safety level regulation, the fan is entirely too loud and the white noise it generates will slowly drive you crazy. It's especially bad if you have a dashboard where the 12V cigarette lighter is close to the steering wheel or heating/AC vents and not far from your ears, like I do. I used it during a 2 hour road trip and my ears were very unhappy by the end of the trip. No amount of music, road noise, or max fan speed setting on the AC could drown it out.

The physical design of the unit is great and the single AC and USB outlets are exactly what I needed. 100W is perfect for laptops, cell phones, and mp3 players, I've had no trouble using any of them with this inverter. I also like the way the neck bends 45 degrees in either direction, that helps get it out of the way somewhat (again, that depends on the placement of the 12V output on your dash).

I guess if your 12V cigarette lighter is near the floorboard this inverter might work for you, but the noise level of the fan is so bad that I would advise everyone to skip this and find something else.

We bought this to power our laptop and cell chargers while on a road trip to the Grand Canyon. This unit was compact and easily packed in with the laptop. It worked flawlessly and saved our sanity by giving the kids power to "entertain" for some of the less senic drive times. The only minor complaint is the cooling fan, it just added a little white noise noticable at less than cruising speeds. On the plus side it also reminded us that it was sucking power when we would shut down the car. Overall we are very pleased with this purchase.

I've had other inverters before and this one isn't louder than any of the other ones i've had. It does it's job and is cheap. It's nice to be able to charge my iphone and laptop at the same time.

Purchased this PI100AB inverter because it is inexpensive and has both 120V and USB. However, when I plugged it into the car, it sounds like a hair dryer running on the low-speed setting (even without anything connected to the inverter). I did not see the fan mentioned on the box. We returned it, and will look for another product.