Xantrex Technologies XPower Pocket Mobile Power Source 175 Watt Inverter #813 0291

Customer Reviews

very small inverter

2008-04-09
I haven't get chance to use it, but it looks ok, it is very small that can fit in your pocket.

Very useful, works well

2008-02-17
I've found this to be very easy to use and quite useful. The only drawback so far is that the power switch indicator (blue LED with a translucent cover) can be tough to see in daylight making it difficult to tell if the device is operating or not.

Light but not a relaible product

2008-02-01
Pro -- light and works in car

Con -- Works only on American Airlines outlets; but not on any other airline. I was also disappointed that this Inverter failed after one month. I e-mailed Xantrex and their customer service rep ran me in circles for over a month until he agreed to replace my product.

Nice Unit that Works Well

2008-01-09
I bought this unit with one thing in mind. To power my laptop GPS system. This unit does that and more for a fair price. So far I have used this unit of about a year with no problems.

Perfect for laptop on road trips!

2008-01-02
My family takes our 12-inch Powerbook G4 on road trips for showing movies and doing other computer stuff on the road, but the battery would often give out after 2-3 hours rendering the laptop unusable until we could charge the battery again. Over Christmas vacation my family was mid-way through a 2,000 mile road trip, and I saw the Xantrex XPower Pocket 175-Watt Inverter for $20 in the clearance section of a local store, so I picked it up. Couldn't be happier as now we can run the laptop as much as we want. The inverter gets warm but not too hot. I never heard any noise from it, even after running for over 5 hours (looks like it has a fan on the bottom, but I never heard it running). This is the perfect inverter for us as it is very small and fits easily in the under-seat storage compartment in the van. It only has one power outlet -- if you need two outlets, look for a different model. This one is perfect for powering a laptop.

Note that this model, #813-0291, does NOT have an airline adapter, but comes with two cables, one for a cigarette lighter, and one for direct connection to a 12-volt (car/boat) battery. The product probably has changed since Amazon first started selling it. My model is black, like uploaded in the photo section by R. Liu. The silver photo must be the old model that included the airline adapter.

warning about motorola phones

2008-06-24
The product has a USB port but it is not compatible with my Motorola phone, the phone says unauthorized power supply and disconnects.
Works with ipods but I think the Motorola expects a "smart" usb port it can talk to and this must not be one.

Works as expected

2008-06-02
Got this for a road trip from San Diego to LA to charge up my cellphone. It worked great at the beginning.
After one hour into driving, my cellphone started making noise indicating the power was connected/disconnected. Unplugging and replugging the charger made the symptom went away for just a brief moment. It seems like the power went on and off repeatedly. I am not sure if this was caused by the inverter or the cellphone charger, but I've never had any problem when the charger was connected to the wall directly.
As noted in other reviews, the power indicator is not bright enough to tell if the unit is on. This is especially true when driving under the hot sun. And it gets really hot when operating.

No Airplane Adapter

2008-05-09
Be aware that Xantrex has changed the design of the product and is a lot smaller and is not as picture. It also DOES NOT have the airline adapter as stated in the description. It now only includes a cigarette plug and a car battery clamp. So if you need this product for in airplane use, the redsigned product will not meet your needs. I was able to scavenge an airline adapter from a Xantrex inverter I had.

Amazing product

2008-04-21
This is a cool product, so far I don't have any problems with this. It charges my Iphone, and any other small units. I haven't tried this in a long drive yet but I'll give you guys an update when I drive from NY to TX this summer. Well, so far so good!
Cons: The only thing I notice is that you can't really tell if it's "on" since the "ON" button's light is unnoticeable, it is just useless unless you try to wrap your hands around it to dim the area. BUt I still would recommend it to anyone I know!

Not what we expected.

2008-04-21
The power inverter we received was labeled with the name and model number of the one in the picture but did not look like the one in the picture (which is one we had before, loved, and used until it wore out over several years of much use). This must be a newer, updated model that we received but it is not very powerful, and the power cuts in and out, it gets hot to the touch in just a few minutes of (proper) use and is not worth the money. Keep shopping!!