I have asthma. Its under control thanks to Advair twice daily and the occasional Ventolin. But once in a while the acute attack happens. And its not pretty.
Its ok at home. I love my barrington ventures air tech nebulizer. But its 2amps. 115v x 2amps is 230w. The problem is my 2004 toyota highlander limited only has a 15amp fuuse. 15amps x 12volts is 180w. It says when all cigarette lighter ports are in use 120 watts maximun. Not sure why. But even 180 is not enough. And most cars are 120w maximum. My dads BMW X3 2004 is 30amps fuse and my moms BMW 525i also 2004 is 20 amp fuse. But most cars are 10 or 15 amps. Some auto power inverters hook up to the car battery but that is draining the battery since the car is off and it cant be while running or driving. So hooking into a cigrette lighter is the best.
But most machines are high power. Some are less but if you need it in a pinch its a must. Unless certain meds are requiring a lot of PSI like TOBI or something. But for me it doesn't matter.
So I got the Omron NE-C801 off ebay for 33 dollars and free shipping from "wholesalepointinc". The first is a pic from thier ebay page. The other 2 are mine.
It is great fro travel because it is low watts. Its 12 v x 1 amp. So 12 w total. Even the ac adapter is 12v. But the bottom of the unit says 0.8amps and the ac adapter says 1apm. Not sure why but it still very low watts. And it is good enough for my needs.
But I needed a spare for another car so and I did not want to repeat. So I started looking for other models but don't want to buy them all just to write this article. So I am borrowing photos from ebay. Not to make any money. Just to inform others who are looking for travel models. There are battery operated models but they are not as powerful. Its good to know you can use full sized ones also.
The above picture is a Pari Vios 310B0000. Not sure why it says 1.5 amps. Because 1.5 x 12 is 180 watts not 80 watts like it says in the picture. But maybe 1.5 is max amps and 80 is the normal operating watts. But if it does use 80 watts normally when running that is good and well below the 120 watts most cars allowed.
The Probasics Rite-Neb by PMI is also low watts. It is only 1.1 apms. 1.1 x 115 is 126.5 and 1.1 x 120 is 132. Slightly over and might work. Or if you have the schumacher 140 watter inverter and at least 20 amp car it would be ok. This is the one I got for my moms car.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_595185-41462-XI14___?productId=50217987&pl=1&Ntt=schumacher
According to one nice guy at toyotanation forums
"I think you'll be fine, the 120watt label I feel like is precautionary to prevent overloading. I've used a 400 watt inverter on my HL with no problems. And actually, at idle, the voltage hovers around 14v so a 15A fuse would power up to 210watts. Its just 12V when the engine is off."
If that is true then 120 is not the limit. I was just using a lower watt inverter. So that mean a 1.7 amp machine will do that opens a lots of possibilities.
