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12v laptop car charger – powering my laptop without an inverter

Last Updated on July 9, 2020 By Tom 19 Comments

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I use my laptop a lot, for work, editing photos, internet and most often for producing music. For this reason, I need a reliable laptop charger in my van. Something I can use daily that doesn’t kill the van’s leisure batteries.

Powering my laptop from my van's 12V leisure batteries

Powering my laptop in my van.

I also wanted a laptop charger that runs without the use of my inverter, so needed one that runs directly off 12V, using the cigarette lighter socket. I certainly can use my 1000W inverter, and plug my original laptop charger into it, but this is overkill and not very energy efficient, so I started looking into powering a laptop from a car battery (or leisure batteries in my case).

My requirements were:

  • 12V to 19V laptop charger (for my Acer Aspire laptop)
  • Plugs directly into a cigarette lighter socket (I have multiple in my van)
  • Energy efficient
  • But still powerful enough to charge my laptop quickly
  • Quality – it needed to power my laptop without it interfering with my audio equipment

I started digging, reading many forums, and even learning about DC-DC converters to get a better understanding what it was that I needed. After a lot of research, I found a Universal 12V laptop charger (Amazon).

This charger certainly seemed like it fit the bill. It looked well built, had 90W of power output (more than enough for most laptops), plugs straight into a cigarette lighter socket and even has 2 USB sockets to power tablets, phones or whatever other 5V USB device you might have. So I took the plunge and bought it off Amazon.

I’ve had it for a couple of months now, and use it every single day. I must say that I’m very impressed. I can now power my laptop straight from my leisure batteries without the use of my inverter, which is more energy efficient and a lot more convenient.

A note about inverters: 

Inverters change 12V DC to 220vAC (110V in some countries), and do this in one of two ways. 1 is modified sine wave (MSW), which is not the same as mains power in your home, and 2 is pure sine wave (PSW) which is the ‘clean’ type of AC power, similar to what you have at home. 

Unfortunately, the cheap inverters are almost always modified sine wave inverters, and this is a problem when it comes to laptops. In some cases, a cheap MSW inverter will cause your laptop screen to flicker when plugged in, which pretty much renders your laptop useless, so these aren’t a practical solution for laptops. 

A pure sine wave inverter works just fine with laptops, but even so, inverters aren’t very efficient for charging laptops. An inverter steps up your 12V to 220V (or 110V), and then the laptop charger will step the power back down to  18.5V, 19V, 20V etc. depending on your laptop.

In each of these steps, there’s a power loss. Also, if you leave your inverter switched on, even when it’s not charging your laptop, it is still draining power from your battery.

So even though I have a 1000W pure sine inverter in my van, still wanted something that was efficient (and convenient) for charging my laptop.

Let’s take a look at the 12v laptop charger that I have:

12v-laptop-charger-no-inverter

The ZOZO 12V Universal Laptop Charger is well built and suitable for most laptop brands.

This charger comes with 14 ‘tips’ and a data sheet to help you locate the correct connection and voltage for your device. All you need to do is find the voltage and current on your original charger, and cross reference this along with your laptop’s brand to the data sheet. Once you have the correct tip, connect it to the end of the cable and plug in.

Technical info

Input: 11V DC – 15V DC
Output: 18.5V/ 19V/ 19.5/ 20V DC
USB output: 5V 2.1A, 5V 1A

Tip details and compatible brands:

TipVoltage & CurrentSizeCompatible Brands
M115V, 4A/5A/6A6.3*3.0mmTOSHIBA
M316V, 4A 6.5*4.5*1.35mmSONY, FUJITSU
M418.5V, 3.5A/4.9A4.8*1.7mmHP
M519V, 2.37A/3.42A/4.74A5.5*2.5mmTOSHIBA, ASUS
M619V, 3.16A/4.74A5.0*3.0mm with pinSAMSUNG
M819.5V, 2A/3.9A/4.7A6.5*4.4mm with pinSONY
M919.5V, 3.34A/4.62A7.4*5.0mm with pinDELL
M1120V, 3.25A/4.5A7.9*5.4mm with pinLENOVO/IBM
M1218.5V, 3.5A/4.74A7.4*5.0mm with pinHP
M131.58A/2.31A/2.37A4.0*1.7mmTOSHIBA
M1819V, 2.1A/2.37A/3.42A3.0*1.0mmAcer, SAMSUNG, ASUS
M19 19V, 2.37A/3.42A4.0*1.35mmASUS
M2019V, 3.42A/4.74A5.5*1.7mmACER, GATEWAY
M2119.5V, 2.31A/3.33A4.5*3.0mm with pinHP
M2219.5V, 2.31A/3.34A/4.62A4.5*3.0mm with pinDELL
M2720V, 3.25A/4.5A11*5.0mm Square Yellow TipLENOVO
M2819.5V, 2.31A/3.33A 4.8*1.7mm with step plasticHP

Final verdict:

This laptop charger works well for my needs. The only gripe I have is that the cable is a bit short. At 4ft, it just doesn’t reach as far as I wanted. This isn’t a major issue, and I just bought myself a cigarette lighter socket extension (Amazon) to solve this problem. If you need one of these, make sure it can handle a higher current – 10A will be plenty.

It’s worth noting that here’s also a “brick” version of this product. Although it’s bigger, in some vehicles the “plug-in” one that I have will not fit into your cigarette lighter socket, depending on where it’s located, so just keep this in mind.

All in all, I’m very happy with this charger, it’s made my life a lot easier.

I hope you enjoyed reading my review. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. If you want to go ahead and get yourself one now, you can get the charger from Amazon right here (Amazon).

Update (9 July 2020):

Some people have asked me about Macbook car chargers, so I did some research and found a couple. The first one is the BatPower USB C car charger (for newer Macbooks that charge via USB C) which can be found here.

If you have an older Macbook that uses the magsafe charging cable, this version is perfect for that.

Note: I don’t own any of the Macbook chargers (although keen to get one), so please note that the links to Macbook chargers are for information only. They seem to have good reviews, but I can’t comment personally on them since I’ve not used them myself.

Filed Under: Accessories

Comments

  1. Darron Mark says

    July 14, 2017 at 10:16 pm

    I’ve been looking at this issue too, problem being that these aren’t very Mac friendly for my photographic/video needs.

    Reply
  2. Anna says

    July 30, 2019 at 11:36 am

    Thanks so much for this! I was a bit worried about getting one of these as I know someone who got a cheap sh*tty one that melted! It’s great to have a positive review from someone who also uses their laptop a lot! Yay for efficient energy use!

    Reply
  3. Phillip Vowles says

    May 5, 2020 at 3:55 pm

    Many thanks for your review.
    Please can you confirm that it will keep a Laptop fully charged even when the laptop is being used. I.e. it doesn’t just charge the battery when the laptop is switched off.

    Reply
    • Tom says

      May 19, 2020 at 11:54 am

      Glad you liked the review Phillip. Yes I can confirm that, I have it plugged in while working and it stays charged no problem.

      Reply
  4. Alberto says

    June 8, 2020 at 2:26 pm

    Thanks for your article, really helpful.

    I see you have a screen on your van. How do you power it? 🙂 Is it special monitor?

    Reply
    • Tom says

      July 1, 2020 at 8:14 am

      You’re welcome Alberto!

      The screen is an external computer monitor. It’s the Dell U2414H model. I power that with the inverter when using it. It’s great for work or just for watching Netflix. I have a Chromecast connected to it and also an HDMI extension running underneath the bed to connect the laptop.

      Reply
  5. Mike H. says

    June 9, 2020 at 6:51 pm

    Nice article. Conceptually it seemed silly to me to go from DC car cigarette lighter to AC inverter back to DC for a laptop…….

    Reply
    • Tom says

      July 1, 2020 at 8:15 am

      Yes exactly, it is pretty silly. Also not efficient use of your energy.

      Reply
  6. Luke Scott says

    June 16, 2020 at 3:15 pm

    Great review! Just wondering if you’d have recommendations for mac book chargers?

    Thanks

    Reply
    • Tom says

      July 1, 2020 at 8:16 am

      Thanks Luke! I don’t unfortunately, but I am on the lookout for one myself as I’ve recently got myself a mac. I still use the windows laptop for work though so not a big deal for me.

      UPDATE: I found a couple of Macbook chargers with great reviews. Here’s the magsafe version, and the USB C version can be found here. Hope you find this useful.

      Reply
  7. John says

    July 5, 2020 at 8:36 am

    Hi, i want to do my zoom maths lessons from my moho using my laptop and the cigarette lighter for power tethered to my phone for wifi,so what you propose is exactly what i need,but the amazon link gives lots of chargers, can you please send me a link just for the one you recommend

    Reply
    • Tom says

      July 9, 2020 at 12:04 pm

      Hi John. I would recommend this 90 watt charger. It has plenty of power to charge your laptop quickly. It also has many adapter ‘tips’ that fit most laptops.

      Reply
  8. Carol says

    July 6, 2020 at 8:55 pm

    Just read a review on this on amazon and one reviewer said its burning through fuses which worries me also. Any ideas why?

    Reply
    • Tom says

      July 9, 2020 at 12:06 pm

      Hi Carol,

      I don’t have these issues with mine, but I suspect that they are talking about the car’s fuse for the cigarette lighter socket. It might be that the fuse amp rating is too low for a 90W charger.

      Reply
  9. ROB says

    December 11, 2020 at 4:18 pm

    Very cool, these devices make solar conversion more efficient if one has a battery bank!!

    Reply
  10. Joe says

    April 2, 2021 at 6:56 am

    Far out! I did not know these were existed and were so easily available!

    Thanks, saved me a lot of trouble.

    Reply
  11. Sparks says

    April 15, 2021 at 3:49 am

    Really need to get this. My inverter makes a ton of RF noise that is not acceptable while operating my Ham Radio. The link comes up in a foreign language…

    Reply
  12. Winston says

    August 8, 2021 at 7:31 pm

    Dude, You nailed it! I was about to begin what I thought would be another complex mission – 12v to 16.5v DC to DC thing for my VW (I have older MacBook) to avoid invertor completely (on health grounds primarily ‘cos I have ES but also for efficiency!) so I start with a little R+D on google and BOOM I find you and this amazing article. I salute you for experimenting, solving and sharing. Can I buy you a beer? Or a case of beer even! So dam helpful. THANKS a bunch x

    Reply
  13. Frank O’Callaghan says

    September 21, 2021 at 12:32 pm

    Fantastic, thank you for this genuine ‘hands on’ review, all the answers to all the questions I had.
    Great work Tom

    Reply

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