EA81

Got a small electric tire compressor as an early Christmas present and in the manual for the thing it says that is is for use with “modern 15A cigarette lighter ports... do not use with older 8A ports”. Went out and looked at my fuse for the lighter port, and it says it’s a 15A which means it’s probably the old 8A type port (not really surprised by this, since the car is 33 years old.) so my question is, does anybody know why they put this warning on it and if it would really hurt it to run it on it on my lower amp cig lighter? Other than running slower from the reduced current flow.

Edited December 23, 20178 yr by Sapper 157

The risk is that if the lighter socket and wire to it are not really up to 15Amps, they may overheat.  Especially since the run time is likely much longer than the original purpose.  Worst case of the risk is starting a fire under the dash.  You may even get away with it for a number of times, before a connection gets overheated and corrodes enough to completely fail.  If the socket isn't rated for longer runs at the current required by the compressor, find a better way to power it.

 

Theoretically, the fuse rating is chosen to protect the wiring and the devices attached enough to prevent a hidden fire.  But run time can be a factor with things like lighters.

The risk is that if the lighter socket and wire to it are not really up to 15Amps, they may overheat.  Especially since the run time is likely much longer than the original purpose.  Worst case of the risk is starting a fire under the dash.  You may even get away with it for a number of times, before a connection gets overheated and corrodes enough to completely fail.  If the socket isn't rated for longer runs at the current required by the compressor, find a better way to power it.

 

Theoretically, the fuse rating is chosen to protect the wiring and the devices attached enough to prevent a hidden fire.  But run time can be a factor with things like lighters.

Okay that makes sense. How about running it off the battery? The kit came with two jumper cable type jaws for running it off a battery, shouldn’t be a problem to just run it off my battery right?

Sapper wrote:  "How about running it off the battery? The kit came with two jumper cable type jaws for running it off a battery, shouldn’t be a problem to just run it off my battery right?"

 

Yes, that would not cause a problem.

Sapper wrote:  "How about running it off the battery? The kit came with two jumper cable type jaws for running it off a battery, shouldn’t be a problem to just run it off my battery right?"

 

Yes, that would not cause a problem.

Cool. I didn’t think it would but figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask. Thanks Dave. You da man.

You're welcome