I cannot plug my AC180 into my Peugeot Van Cigarette lighter sockets. The contact on the sides of the barrel of the plug, don’t push inot their sockets far enough to make it fit. I am writing about STANDARD European/UK sockets. Does anyone else have this problem???
I could just snip the useless Bluetti plug off the wire and solder a “proper plug” onto it…but having paid good money for the AC180 I was hoping that Bluetti might get the message that their kit is not 100%.
Here in AU no, all ok. However, I have a variety of in car (Toyota), power station, extension lead, and multi adaptor cig sockets. As well as probably even more cig plugs and they are all different in dia and depth, both plugs and sockets.
Depending on country, manufacturer and quality, there’s no real standard.
One way of fixing is to find a short extension lead socket to plug, where the plug fits your car and the socket fits the Bluetti lead, that’ll save you cutting soldering etc.
As an aside, I have a 4x4 and with rough off road tracks here, I generally cut any cig plug off and fit a 50A Anderson. Cig plugs tend to vibrate loose, get hot, even with as low as 3A loads and I’ve seen them melt (poor quality). I have an auxilliary battery with Anderson plug outlets. Rather than cut OEM cables, I bought a cable with the AC180 barrel on one end, as well as the XT60 for other power stations, regardless of the other end’s connector and fitted Anderson plugs to both.
I should have also noted, I don’t use the vehicle 12V system anyway as it takes too long driving to do any good.
Although intended to run from the start battery, I use the Charger 1 for a 500W charge to the 180 and 560W to the Elite 100, among others. My Charger 1 is powered from the Aux battery in the rear, which is already DC-DC charged from the start battery. I find this a better way as the Aux battery acts as a buffer to the alternator load. Sometimes, I need to throttle back charge to 200-250W, depending on the Aux Bat SOC and or how long I’m driving. This is the benefit of the adjustability of Charger 1.
I also only charge the AC180, AC70 in Silent mode, just under 300W, kinder to their batteries.