Running 12v appliances- only coolbox trips

['hanish-boy]

Hi folks,

I'm wondering if anybody can shed any light on an electrical problem I have.
I have a 3-way ciggie lighter running off the leisure battery (newly installed and checked out to be functioning correctly).
If I plug my phone charger in it works fine. Plug in the newly purchased coolbox and it trips. Plug the coolbox into my car ciggie lighter and it runs fine.
As Marvin once said "What's going on?"
Any ideas?

Thanks

[1664]

What "trips" exactly? Van ciggie lighter is designed for heavy load of heating ciggie lighter element so 15 amps. Those chinese pieces of crap you get from Halfrauds are not designed for very much load so the cool box current demand maybe higher than it can cope with.

[California Dreamin]

As he says.....those three way cigarette thingy's have the thinnest of wire powering them, they are good for a couple of amps but not the 6-8 amps needed by a cooler box.
As you have discovered, the main cigarette lighter socket is pretty capable as it normally handles a fair load warming up the lighter ellement.

Martin

['hanish-boy]

Hi, thanks for the reply.
To be more precise: I have a switch mounted on the dash to turn on/off the power to the cig is lighter. When the coolbox is plugged in, and the cig lighter is switched on the LEDs on the 12v coolbox plug & cig lighter unit light up momentarily and the coolbox unit sounds like it's starting up. The lights stay on for approx 1second then go out.
Like I said- the coolbox works fine in my car, and other 12v appliances work in the van.
Any help or ideas welcomed!
Thanks.

['hanish-boy]

California Dreamin,
Thanks for your input.
So a possible solution may be to run a separate ciggie lighter (not a 3-way splitter but more robust single unit) off my leisure battery for sole use by the coolbox?
That makes sense to me if the 3-way doesn't have the balls to cope with the cooler.
I'll give that a try.

Thanks again folks for the help. Always appreciated!

[California Dreamin]

That should do it.....I suspect the inadequacy of the 3 way socket wiring is causing volt drop and the cooler box to fail to operate.

Martin

['hanish-boy]

You are indeed correct, Sir.
I fitted a new, single cig lighter unit to the leisure circuit and the cooler now works fine.

Thanks again for the nudge in the right direction!
I shall raise a (cold!) glass to all the good 80-90 contributors when I'm enjoying a drink somewhere in north/west Scotland over the next month.
Slainte!