any better 12 volt outlets?

[reiner]

The BMW plug and socket somebody spoke about come from Hella
Hella 12V socket #4915
Best 12 volt plug and socket system around. Very reliable and a sound connection . Well worth a closer look.

Reiner

[noelex 77]

As others have said I would not change all of them.
Some products have electronics incorporated into the cigarette lighter plug. You cannot cut these off and just replace plug.
On board at the moment I a have 2 phone chargers, a miFi charger, I pad charger, iPhone charger, and laptop charger all using this sort of plug.

[hellosailor]

"Some products have electronics incorporated into the cigarette lighter plug. "
Good point, although AFAIK that's mainly cell phone power cords or other "micro/mini USB" ended cords with 5V converters built into them.

A point for the Powerlets, which apparently have a whole line of adapters made for them, so they can take conventional ciggy lighter plugs again.

[Canibul]

we're okay there. All our laptops and phones use ac to dc converters, and we don't use ipads, iphones,irobots, or i anything else.

If i do someday run into something that needs to knock the 12 volts down to USB levels, I can figure that one out. I STILL want to junk every single one of the 1960's design automobile cigar lighters, which were designed to basically be a mini hot plate, and nothing else. A standard phono jack setup would work better than these things, at a twentieth of the price, with more reliability.

Have been thinking of picking up a decent variable dc power supply to take care of all these vaious dc voltages, and can make cables with sea dog plugs on one end, and whatever the device is looking for on the other.

It's long struck me as pretty dense to take dc, invert it to ac, and then convert it back to dc to charge a 3 volt cell phone. duh.

[Capt.Don]

Whatever plug you decide, make up a male/female cigarette lighter adapter so you can continue to plug in your random electrical devices (e.g., iPhone,....).

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by Canibul

A standard phono jack setup would work better than these things, at a twentieth of the price, with more reliability.
.

Make sure whatever you choose will accept a sutable sized cable for reasonable current draw, say 10A.
Standard phono jacks make a good low resistance connection, but they are hard to wire reliably with large diameter cable.

[Canibul]

Originally Posted by Capt.Don

Whatever plug you decide, make up a male/female cigarette lighter adapter so you can continue to plug in your random electrical devices (e.g., iPhone,....).

My goal is to have NO cigar lighters on board. I will re-terminate everything on the boat, and all electrical devices, to use marine connectors instead of antique automotive tobacco burners. Again, there are no iPhones in my life.

[Capt.Don]

Originally Posted by Canibul

My goal is to have NO cigar lighters on board. I will re-terminate everything on the boat, and all electrical devices, to use marine connectors instead of antique automotive tobacco burners. Again, there are no iPhones in my life.

Have you considered friends, guests, relatives, children,.... all with electronic gadgets that may require charging. The list of gadgets include phones, tablets, ebook readers, mp3 players, cameras, .... If it were me, I'd have an adapter for the invited guest and their assorted electronic junk.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by Vasco

Canibul,

Here's what I've used and they've lasted 20 years. The secret is to carefully wire the plug as constant use loosens the wires and they are difficult to put in the plug. Defender, $17.

Glad you got home safely.

I have a couple of connectors like that on the boat. I find a large selection of this kind of stuff at a good audio store here. They have all kinds off connectors designed for customized audio boxes and equipment.

I have also recently installed a couple of usb outlets, co located with the cigarrette plugs. If you go with a "unique" connector you can make up a couple of pigtails with a female cigar end for guests to use.

[mbianka]

Originally Posted by Canibul

We just bought a 26 year old boat and sailed it home from Jacksonville to the Turks and Caicos Islands. What a trip. The lightning strike was one challenge we could have done without.

Learned a lot about the boat, and of course I am neck deep in repairs and modifications at the moment.

This boat has the 'cigar lighter' type dc outlets all over the place. Portable fans, spotlights, and all kinds of other stuff previous owner left aboard are equipped with these plugs. out of a dozen outlets and dc appliances, maybe two or three work and the problem invariably is this cigar lighter connector. I understand why they are popular, the receptacle mounts flush.

I hate the things. far too many parts, etc. I am looking for something to replace them all with. I was thinking of just plain old banana jacks, which have a lot of plusses ( no pun intended). You can easily and quickly wire them, you can unscrew the nuts and insert bare wires in the holes and re-tighten, and you can stack several things onto the same outlet. Big drawback is that the posts stick up and catch things, bend, break, short, etc.

Have any of you guys come up with something better than the cigar lighter jacks?

I second using Anderson Power Poles:
THE BIANKA LOG BLOG: TOOLS OF AN ELECTRIC SAILOR: Anderson Powerpole Connectors

I'm adding them around the boat and for connections to electric equiptment I want to remove from time to time. I also use them to make adapters to check things like the mast lights using a small portable battery:
THE BIANKA LOG BLOG: CHECKING THE MAST LIGHTS

[reiner]

I build camper trailers for a living and use Anderson plugs to charge batteries or make 12 volt connections between car and trailer but to replace cigaret lighter sockets with Anderson is in my way of thinking a overkill.
They are big and ugly . The Hella plugs and sockets work very well and look much nicer.
Just my 2 cents worth

Reiner