Safe to use a 12V Power inverter with my Prius Prime Advance?

depends on the draw. you have a 10amp fuse. if it blows, you can run an inverter off the 12v, leaving the car 'ready'

 

1) The crock pots I have researched specifically warned against using them with an inverter.

2) The Prius I am aware of have a 10 amp fuse on the cigarette lighter. (120 watts) I do not believe even one crock pot can stay under 120 watts.

"4 months ago
What is the maximum wattage draw? I drive a truck and would like to use one, but i'm limited to a 300watt inverter that plugs into the 12volt outlet

· 4 months ago

This slow cooker uses approximately a maximum of 170 watts. We do not recommend using our slow cookers with inverters and this will void the warranty. They are only for household use. The slow cookers are only for use in a standard 120V AC outlet. Thank you." - Crock-Pot® Manual Slow Cooker, Silver at Crock-Pot.com.

 

sounds like a crock...

 

Here we have one of the inherent limitations of the EV/PHEV.

In a conventional vehicle, you could just run the engine and put your food on the exhaust manifold to cook. See: Engine cooking - Wikipedia

Possibly, you could try running your Prime in "charge mode" so that the ICE would run until the traction battery reached 80%.

(Many years ago, when I lived in Maine, the local lobstermen were pretty adept at cooking a lobster for lunch on the exhaust manifold of their boat engines. I understand that the practice persists but that it's now common to wrap the lobster in aluminum foil prior to attaching it to the manifold. I blame this on Martha Stewart.)

 

As others mentioned, the power from the cigarette lighter is limited.

You could connect the inverter directly to the 12V battery, with a couple caveats:

• The car has to be in Ready mode to keep the 12V battery charged off the HV battery
  • In "Accessory" or "Ignition on" mode you will quickly drain the 12V battery.
  • When the HV battery is drained, the engine will automatically start, so don't do this in a closed garage.
• The DC-DC converter that powers the 12V system probably puts out about 100A max. I don't think I've ever seen an exact number.
• The Weber Auto videos show about 25A load on the 12V system when the car is in ready mode but no major accessories are running, so you could use about 75A continuous without depleting the 12V battery or overloading the DC-DC converter. That's about 900W. If your inverter is 80% efficient that's only 720W available to the load, so enough for one crock pot or maybe two on low.
• IIRC there is a current sensor on the 12V system that keeps track of how much power is being used. You need to hook up the inverter on the correct side of the sensor so that the DC-DC converter puts out the correct amount of current to match the load. I don't know how it needs to be hooked up, but I'll need to do more research.

 

As I understand it, there is a 125 Amp Fuse. You should not get close to that. 1000 Watt inverter is about max.

 

Just to toss it out there- you can get 12v crockpots and skip the inverter altogether.

Note that most of them don't look anything like the familiar home appliance. Typically it's an insulated bag that collapses for stowage, and a sort of hot-plate gadget meant to sit in the bottom of the bag. You would put your own casserole tray on the plate in the bag.

Because these are meant to run directly from the car's 12v, you eliminate the inverter and gain efficiency.

I can't say how well they compare for actual cooking- it's been years since I've used one.

Commonly sold at truck stops and of course amazon.