12vdc Appliances

[s/v Jedi]

The OP is looking for a 19" screen. This will use enough power so that a couple percent extra for the inverter doesn't matter anymore.

I would not hesitate and quickly go and buy the 21.5" Apple iMac (aluminium unibody), pop it in the inverter and enjoy it instead of trying to hunt down some questionable quality no-brand 12V LCD that won't last.

cheers,
Nick.

[tallyhorob]

12v TV/DVD

found this place, might be worth looking at

[Boracay]

I put a "lesser" brand 22" TV/DVD player into Boracay.

Some points:-
* I'm not happy with the colour quality. I should have spent an extra $150 or so and gone with a better brand, like Grundig.
* I probably spent more on the marine omni directional antenna than the TV.
* Initially I used the 12V "cigarette lighter" plug that came with the TV. It melted in the socket and I hardwired the 12V plug that went into the TV back to the fuse.
* The omni directional antenna I brought is good enough that I needed to turn the gain right down. Gave very strange faults.
* I don't notice the amount of power it takes from 2 X T105's.
* 22" should fit into your boat. Try cutting out a piece of cardboard the size of the TV and using a bit of blue tack to hold it on the bulkhead or where ever you plan to put it.
* A standard mounting bracket from my local mega hardware store worked fine. It did need some odd size bolts (4mm? from memory, and I did need to shorten one). Do check that the TV you buy uses a standard mounting pattern.
* The cabling from the antenna might be able to be used for an FM/AM radio with the correct splitter.
* If doing the wiring yourself do double (or triple) check the polarity. I used a multimeter and compared it with the AC/DC power supply. Could be an expensive bang.
* Do check that the TV works on mains power for as long as possible before installing, as your warranty may be void.
* I haven't worked out how to do a PVR in 12V but I like to do a bit of "time shift" viewing and I miss it.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by s/v Moondancer

My wife is addicted to watching old DVDs of Law and Order...The TV/DVD through the inverter uses more power each night than our 3 Kycera 135 watt solar panels produce during the day in the Carribbean! It may be due to the 3000 watt inverter.

How about ripping them to a portable hard drive or even a usb and plugging that into an LED panel?
Something like this perhaps?

Power Consumption:
Average: <65W
Standby: <1W
Energy Star Rating:
5.0 Stars
http://www.kogan.com.au/shop/32-full...l-tuner-kogan/

[atoll]

who needs tv on a boat anyway,just look out the window????

[witchcraft]

Thus far we dont have an inverter and hence no microwave. We have never missed it. After the first year of full time aboard we did acquire a television, mostly gets used on cold winter evenings, same as when we lived in a house. The chef seems to be longing for either a 12 volt food processor or blender...so I will go on a hunt, seems a small price to pay for all the delicious food he makes.
Fair Winds

[Minggat]

Originally Posted by atoll

who needs tv on a boat anyway,just look out the window????

Another thread recently all about satelite TV or such. I've never subscribed to any cable/ satelite/whatever so I don't even know. It was hard for me not to say something like this. I had no biz looking at that thread.

OK, I have a 12 volt flat panel TV and a 12VDC DVD player. Got a lot of use when we lived in a slip. I like ot watch the news. Not a lot of English broadcast news in Mexico. I wonder if they still work now. Don't care.

I found a 12VDC microwave in a truck stop once. Trashed a few bucks on it before I learned that it had it's own inverter anyway. Duh.

[miatapaul]

Originally Posted by witchcraft

Thus far we dont have an inverter and hence no microwave. We have never missed it. After the first year of full time aboard we did acquire a television, mostly gets used on cold winter evenings, same as when we lived in a house. The chef seems to be longing for either a 12 volt food processor or blender...so I will go on a hunt, seems a small price to pay for all the delicious food he makes.
Fair Winds

I have seen some good 12 volt blenders made for talegating. But kind of pricey.

[Sabbatical II]

Originally Posted by witchcraft

Thus far we dont have an inverter and hence no microwave. We have never missed it. After the first year of full time aboard we did acquire a television, mostly gets used on cold winter evenings, same as when we lived in a house. The chef seems to be longing for either a 12 volt food processor or blender...so I will go on a hunt, seems a small price to pay for all the delicious food he makes.
Fair Winds

Our new boat being built is 12v only. After reading Nigel Calder's book I became convinced that there are huge advantages to being able to be all 12v if the boat is designed that way from the start. A microwave oven so far, is the only thing I've sacrificed that I really wanted. Even then we don't eat many processed foods so we'll just have to do a few things the old fashioned way.....just like sailing really.

Greg

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by bill brown

Dear Folks, my wife and I, after a bit of searching, are a couple of days away from becoming owners of a Cheoy Lee 42'. We are excited. We need to add a few items to the vessel since we will be living on her for several months per year. The items that we need are:

1. 19" diagonal flat panel HD TV with DVD player

You're out of luck with the mikey, but go for the LED, not LCD TV. Many of them come with 12V bricks AND have VESA mount holes so you can put it on a bulkhead rather than use the stand.

LED is WAY less power hungry, and it's common to have the 12V supplies.

Rather than cut the cord on the brick, however, get a pigtail, cheaply, on the internet. Take a micrometer and measure the inner and outer sizes, as that's how they're sold. Plug in your brick to determine polarity, but nearly always it will be positive center.

A friend's boat has successfully used straight boat power on his barrel-plugged TV, but I power all my 12V electronics through the filtered 12V (always that number, not higher or lower depending on state of charge) provided by my 12V computer builder, Marine PC's & WiFi by IslandTime PC. I have 4 HDs (2x 2T, 1 each IT and 500G), as well as my Vonage phone chargers connected to that supply; it handles them all at the same time easily, on the extremely rare occasions I'd use them together. If you're in the market for a power-economical computer for the boat using the straight-off-the-battery source, he's your man. My computer has umpteen whizbangs which might not be of need to you, but he can put a filtered 12V out on any of the ones he sells.

Go for the LED TV but accept that, just like the old VCR-TV combos, you're including a part which may die, rendering that TV into just a screen. For my money, I'd have a separate player...

L8R

Skip, who doesn't watch TV but the 1080Ps are amazing monitors

[s/v Jedi]

One of the best reasons to have a freezer and microwave is that you can prepare meals for a trip in advance, toss them in the freezer and defrost and heat them in the microwave while underway.

We found that sailors who say this is crazy often eat cold beans straight out of cans while underway. I guess it's just everybody's definition of what is crazy :-)

cheers,
Nick.

[Tashtego]

Rather than throwing away your wall wart, cut the wire (after you unplug it - genius) in the middle. Put a 1/4" mono plug on the wire that goes to the appliance and a 1/4" mono socket on the wire from the wall wart. Then rig a hard wire to your 12 Volt system and put a 1/4" socket on that. Put the socket on the hot side. If you put the plug on the hot side it will sit there exposed when its not plugged into the socket. Make sure the polarity is right with the positive conductor in the center of the appliance plug and negative on the outside - but check, yours may be the opposite. Now you can plug into the 12 Volt wire when you aren't on line power and switch to the wall wart when you are at the dock or when you take it home. My parts catalog lists 1/4" mono plugs at the outrageous price of 65 cents each and sockets at 75 cents each. You can probably get what you need at your local radio shack but they will probably cost you 2 bucks apiece.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

We found that sailors who say this is crazy often eat cold beans straight out of cans while underway. I guess it's just everybody's definition of what is crazy

A lot comes down to one's cooking style. I'm by no means a fan of eating cold food--if you can call it that--from cans. Still, the only appliances I have on the boat are a stick blender and a vacuum sealer, both 120 VAC that run off an inverter, generator, or shore power. The vacuum sealer gets used in long spurts of major cooking getting ready for passage. The stick blender for short bursts. I did used to have a microwave but got tired of dusting it so I converted the space it was in back to storage.

I haven't missed any other small appliances on the boat.

[Minggat]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

We found that sailors who say this is crazy often eat cold beans straight out of cans while underway. I guess it's just everybody's definition of what is crazy :-)

No need to be so brutally accurate.

[ShaunJ]

Originally Posted by Khagan1227

There other sites like this one:

Buy 12 Volt Color LCD TV's - 12 Volt Refrigerators - 12 Volt Appliances - Trucker GPS Supplies & Accessories

Nice Link

ShaunJ