GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I am a new '06 Vibe owner, and new to this forum.I'm not sure about the 115v button beside the power plug. Is that basically just an "on/off" switch? Also, can I use that plug without the car running? How long before I need to worry much about killing the battery?Tom

Yes, it's an on/off button for the household plug. You'll need to have the car in the on position to use it.

welcome!exactly what newneptune said it comes in real handy with laptops, camera's and cell phones that you have to charge quick on the road.

Quote, originally posted by NewNeptune »Yes, it's an on/off button for the household plug. You'll need to have the car in the on position to use it.Exactly what was said.Welcome to Genvibe!

Welcome to GenVibe!+1 comments above. No hair dryers!

How long would you plug in, say, a laptop, with the car in the "on" position (but not running) before you would get concerned about running the battery low enough where the car might not start? (Then how long would you run the car to recover from this?)

That depends on your battery...I'd say you need to know how many watts your battery can produce and plan accordingly...A battery at 660 CCA (cold crank amps) is intended to deliver 660 amps at 0 deg-F for up to 30-secs. Assuming system voltage is 12V, then it stores about 7.9 kW, allowing a little over 2 hours at 100W. However, I don't know why you would want to use the charge feature without running the engine...I suppose I could see it for brief things, but most applications I can foresee wouldn't require charging while the vehicle is off....

that stupid thing can't even power a house vaccum. it sucks! i tell yah. it sucks!!actually it does, somewhat. You have to rev up the engine don't ask me why i know this.

Quote, originally posted by mcgusto82 »that stupid thing can't even power a house vaccum. it sucks! i tell yah. it sucks!!actually it does, somewhat. You have to rev up the engine don't ask me why i know this.I works great with my coffee maker. What can I say...I like to maximize time in the morning, ha ha ha

From experience, I can run my laptop off the power port for about 25 minutes before I kill the battery. Also from experience, it will take about 30 minutes of waiting before you have enough juice to start the engine if you kill the battery this way. I learned this the hard way one day when I left the laptop plugged in with the key turned to "on".If the key is in "ACC" the inverter is off.I'm now in the habit of charging my laptop while I drive from appointment to appointment and making sure that the power port switch is off before I turn the engine off.

What do you mean "30 minutes of waiting before you have enough juice to start the engine if you kill the battery this way."? I assumed that if you kill the battery then it's dead until you boost the car and let the engine run for a while.I am still confused about the point of that button beside the plug. If the plug will only work when the ignition is in the "on" position anyway, what is the point of that button? Is that plug using power just by being "on" even if nothing is plugged into it?

The one and only time I drained the battery down, I only got the clicking sound when I turned the key. I waited 30 or so minutes, and the battery had barely enough to turn the starter motor and start the car. My assumption is that by removing the draw (power port) allowed the battery to have just enough to start the car.The point of the on/off switch is so that you only power the inverter when you need it, 'cause apparently it draws enough that if it were left on, you'd have a dead battery in a hurry. The battery will power the car's accessories (radio, power windows) for quite a long time (couple hours, I bet). Imagine if you wanted to sit in the park and listen to the radio and eat your lunch. With out the switch, you'd be calling for a jump start.And, yes, the plug is energized if the switch is on and nothing is plugged into it.

My cover on the recepticle reads 100W maximum...........2005

Hey pacerman. Is Climax Saskatchewan about 35 minutes from Foreplay?

We've used the AC outlet to power our laptop for movies running a couple hours on several occasions without any ill effects on the car battery. Our laptop uses about 50 W of power and a good car battery has a fully-charged capacity of about 50 Amp-hours at 12 V, or 600 Watt-hours. Based on that one could run the laptop for about 12 hours before fully discharging the battery. But you certainly don't want to run the battery down that far and the inverter circuitry also isn't 100% efficient, so I wouldn't want to run the laptop for more than about 4 hours without starting the car and letting it recharge for a bit. And I'd reduce that time even more if the outside temperature is low (in which case running the engine would be good for providing heat as well), if the battery is already weak, or in a situation where a dead battery would be particularly inconvenient. I'm surprised to hear of the inverter resulting in a discharged battery in only 25 minutes and wonder if the battery may have already been rather weak.BTW, the CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) capacity of the battery is somewhat different since that's intended to measure the ability of the battery to dump lots of current to the starter in a short period of time rather than delivering a small current over an extended time.If you do plan to frequently use the AC inverter outlet (or the 12 VDC outlet) with the engine not running then it would be good to have a battery that's designed for more extended discharge cycles than usual. The Optima "Yellow Top" is one example.

Quote, originally posted by Sunny »Is Climax Saskatchewan about 35 minutes from Foreplay?Don't know, but going in the other direction, Climax, Mn. is only about that far away from Fertile, Mn. - so be careful. [Both are near Grand Forks, ND.]

I modded mine to allow me to use it without having to have the key in the ignition. I don't know how long it will take to run the batery down if you are actually powering something with it, but I have accidentally left the inverter on overnight with nothing plugged in to it, and didn't have any trouble with the car starting the next day.

Another trick you need to know....use a grey grounding adapter, most computer cords have a wider 'head' and will break the door off. The adapter moves the 'outlet' for you.

Mine don't work anymore. Do anyone know where i could find the fuse for it ?