Does anyone know if these turn off after a while or stay on all the time. For exampe I wanna leave a inverter plugged in so when I start the car it turns on. But i am scard maybe the cig light port is always live. can anyone tell me. seem slike they are all 12v and alwasy on.

 

I think they are switched so they go off after a while. As long as you don't have a draw on the inverter it shouldn't drain the battery.

 

I use an inverter in the back seat of my SUT for a portable DVD player. No problem as long as the DVD player is turned off. From what I can tell, the inverter is "live" all the time (little green light is always on).

 

With the H2's ignition off, I've used the one in the rear (behind the third row seat) to operate my 12volt air compressor. I'm sure that they're always 'live' so that they can be used to recharge cellphones and laptops while the vehicle is left parked. BTW, I too periodically utilizea power inverter (to operate my wet/dry vac), but I do unplug the inverterwhen it's not being used.

 

I used to camp out in my H2 for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week (security work) and I can tell you first hand that if the truck is off, the Inverter would auto shut off after 20 to 30 minutes of use.


I would have to unplug the inverter, start the truck, and plug it back in to a different 12v port to get it to work. It may have been the truck, it may have been the inverter, but I had to do that several times a night.

 

Well, this certainly makes sense to me, as I've always only used them for less than 30 minutes at any giventime. Maybe they're all programmed to turn-off likethe radio does after awhile. The one in the front ofmy Chrysler's console also shuts-of the in the same manner, but the one inside the front center console is always 'hot' in order torecharge cellphones, laptops, etc. [sm=icon_cheers.gif]