"AC Anywhere" problems?

[zooey91]

I'm giving my mother-in-law my 10gig ipod. She plans to use her cassette adapter for sound, and plug the ipod charger into her Belkin "AC Anywhere" power inverter (plugs into the cigarette charger and includes AC plugs; claims to allow you to plug anything into it).

Anyone ever use one of these things? I'd hate to see her fry her ipod, but it seems that they claim this should work.

Thanks.

Jim

[tanakasan]

zooey91,

I use a Vector 70w inverter with the Apple AC charging brick/dock cable. Small "Y" shaped, plugs into 12v cig/accessory outlet, provides one 110v AC receptacle. Works fine. I tried two other inverters (Prestone 140w and Coleman 400w, cause I already owned them) but they were very "noisy" electrically. Lots of interference with the music.

[dbett]

Yeah, the problem with most cheap inverters (i.e., less than several hundred dollars) is that they don't provide very clean power. I bought one for about $50 and ended up returning it after I found that (1) it introduced a hiss into the iPod's line out and (2) the actual inverter made a high pitch squeal. :(

I ended up just wiring in a second cigarette lighter jack and using the Belkin car adapter plugged into that. Works great.