Wife wants to use her Hair straighteners!

[steveej]

Hi all,

Just bought a new to me boat that has 240v shore power as well as the normal 12v system plus inverter.

I remember in a charter boat once upon a time there was a notice saying do not plug in your hair dryer to the DC plugs as you will melt the circuit and cause a fire.

I am trying to understand if this is or isn't true? Is it to do with current draw from the hair dryer / straighteners and if so, how do I know what can and can't be plugged in.

And are there different rules for the inverter, say at anchor, versus what is acceptable when on shore power.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Spyro]

How can you plug in the straighteners to a DC supply? do you mean via the inverter? What is the power rating on the straighteners in Watts? It should be less than the rating of your inverter. Plugging something in with a bigger current draw than the inverter would supply would just cause it to trip (hopefully).
Pugging the straighteners into a 240 v mains socket when on shore power shouldn't be a problem as long as the wiring is up to it (it should be).
You can work out current draw with the formula Current = Power/Volts
example if your straighteners are rated at 1000w and you are on shore power you are drawing approx. 4 amps (1000 divided by 240)
put the same straighteners on an inverter which is connected to a 12v supply and suddenly you drawing 80 odd amps. You need some hefty wiring and a decent battery for that.
Tell her she will just to wait till you are on shore power .

 

[John 32i]

My wife has been plugging her straighteners in when on shore power for a few years and no problems. We cant boil the kettle at the same time the blow heater is on as it trips out though!

 

[steveej]

Love it, thanks guys!

 

[Iliade]

Buy her some gas ones and she can have straight hair at all times when sailing.

 

[Mikedefieslife]

Hair straightners are low wattage typically 25-50w, so any cheap Chinese inverter of around 100w or above should run them just fine.

Hairdryers on the other hand can be in excess of 1400w.

 

[pvb]

H
Just bought a new to me boat that has 240v shore power as well as the normal 12v system plus inverter.

I remember in a charter boat once upon a time there was a notice saying do not plug in your hair dryer to the DC plugs as you will melt the circuit and cause a fire.

I am trying to understand if this is or isn't true? Is it to do with current draw from the hair dryer / straighteners and if so, how do I know what can and can't be plugged in.

And are there different rules for the inverter, say at anchor, versus what is acceptable when on shore power.

There's absolutely no reason why she shouldn't use the straighteners via the inverter. Contrary to suggestions made, hair straighteners typically only consume 50-100 watts, and almost any inverter should be able to supply this happily.

You can't plug mains appliances into DC plugs, so the charter boat notice you mentioned might have been aimed at 12v DC hair dryers which typically consume around 15A.

 

[steveej]

There's absolutely no reason why she shouldn't use the straighteners via the inverter. Contrary to suggestions made, hair straighteners typically only consume 50-100 watts, and almost any inverter should be able to supply this happily.

You can't plug mains appliances into DC plugs, so the charter boat notice you mentioned might have been aimed at 12v DC hair dryers which typically consume around 15A.

thanks Pete, that makes sense.

 

[RichardS]

My wife's smaller 240V hair straighteners are only around 100W so she uses them on the boat through the 200W inverter without a problem.

However, she also has some larger, fancier hair straighteners which immediately trip out the inverter.

Hair dryers of any persuasion are a complete non-starter. :ambivalence:

Richard

 

[FlyingGoose]

Whats wrong with wavy hair , if you were born with this then keep it .
I have a cooows lick that needs straightened , but the wife wont let me use her straighteners as I keep burning my forehead:disgust:
but as all said above there should be no issues on a decent inverter and shore power, use all my appliances for 240 volts on inverter and shore no issues.