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Tested: Best Power Inverters for 2023
If you need more plug options for your road-trip gadgets, pick up a car power inverter. We tested five of them to find the best.
As occupants of a vehicle—both driving and riding—our list of plug-in gadgets is ever-growing. Gotta charge your laptop on the way to the office? Need a charging port for that. What about that plug-in coffee mug to keep your morning fuel piping hot? Hmm, gotta find a plug for that too.
Thankfully, most vehicle manufacturers have heard our cries and are including multiple power ports in their vehicles, including USB, 12-volt cigarette lighter, and even AC outlets. While this is great, not all of us drive new cars with all of those bells and whistles. Or maybe you do and you want a few extra plug-in options. Whatever the scenario, buying a power inverter adds electrical ports to your vehicle for a plethora of things.
But which one should you get? To aid in your power inverter buying process, we put five of the top-rated options to the test. We analyzed each inverter through a range of parameters in our Gear Team gauntlet. Here's what we uncovered.
Our Top Picks
How We Tested Power Inverters
We tested power inverters as practically as we could, plugging in common devices to see how much juice each would deliver. We tried a variety of electronic accessories ranging from iPad chargers to a hair dryer and a blender. To get a sense of which power inverter works best for any given situation, we tested the following parameters:
- Supported devices
- Cord length
- Weight
- Number of ports
- Surge protection results
- Usability
We assembled our notes and testing data to decide which power inverters were the best for certain situations. Our data contained both objective and subjective observations and, surprisingly, none of these units had the smaller USB-C ports that are used by a lot of the latest electronic devices. Here are our picks for the best power inverters.
Collin Morgan is an Associate Commerce Editor at Hearst Autos, where the former Rust Belt mechanic and gadget enthusiast presents the best gear for your automotive endeavors.
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