Power converter

[adrian]

Too be honest, I know little about electricity. How do I get my wife's coffee maker to work in the camper. I have a Hawk with solor panals and dual battery system. I have never had to use the plug-ins for my-self. This time my wife is going with me, I am glad. Some of our camping will be off grid, is why I ask. A friend mention I may need to install a power converter. Another friend suggested to just purchase a 120v appliance, if I could find one.
So if anyone can HELP that would be great.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

I use a 12v to 120v ,150w max convertor.
That size will allow me to charge camera battery,laptop,DVD player,phone,
and use my coffee grinder. It's all I need.
I think if you want to use something that draws more then 150w you need a bigger
convertor larger then 150w.

My solar keeps the 100a battery nicely charged.
Frank

 

[craig333]

Inverters range from cheap to very expensive. What kind of coffee maker? Generally its best to make coffee on the stove. Electric coffee makers pull a lot of amps. You can make an inverter work but its terribly inefficient. I have a 1500 watt inverter to run my microwave and other small items but it only runs a few minutes at a time. A coffee maker thats on for twenty minutes is really going to drain those batteries down.

 

[5outta6]

On another thread I inquired about running a coffee maker off an inverter; wisdom said they draw too much current/battery, etc.

So being one who fools with this stuff all the time, I couldn't resist and bought a reconditioned 1500w inverter ($50 at inverter.com) and a $12 coffee pot (on sale at bed bath beyond) which only draws 600 watts.....

I connected it to my diy 'solar generator' which has a 35ah battery.

For this experiment I used some old 6 ga. cables with jumper clamps from a crappy harbor freight battery jumper setup, which I took apart since it was a POS....

It took about 7 minutes to make 5 cups of coffee.

What I did notice was the cables to the battery became a little warm.
voltage on inverter read 11.7 volts at the start and about 11.6v at the end.

(I have some 4 ga. cables I will be using in the future so it should be ok. )

Oh well...

 

[Jon R]

I think the advice was that this probably was not the most efficient way to make coffee if relying on a camper-sized electrical energy storage and generation system. Clearly it’s doable, though, as you showed. It all comes down to priorities. I have had stages in my life where the most important thing in the morning was where my coffee was coming from and what was its quality, so I get the focus on coffee making. I think others were trying to say that propane is a more efficient way to carry heat generation capacity.

 

[5outta6]

I think the advice was that this probably was not the most efficient way to make coffee if relying on a camper-sized electrical energy storage and generation system. Clearly it’s doable, though, as you showed. It all comes down to priorities. I have had stages in my life where the most important thing in the morning was where my coffee was coming from and what was its quality, so I get the focus on coffee making. I think others were trying to say that propane is a more efficient way to carry heat generation capacity.

Me too on the coffee...

(i've tried many ways to make coffee: coffee 'tea bags' , perculator on the stove, boiling water on the stove to make instant coffee, french press, etc) I'm just lazy.....

I may mount the inverter and tie it into my camper battery/solar system....always something to play with.