Xantrex Technologies 851-0400 XPower Plus 400-Watt Inverter customer reviews:
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The perfect car companion 
I got the Xantrex for a family trip to Virginia, and it worked exactly as advertised. The kids ran two laptops off of it for the entire trip, and never had a problem. The cooling fan did come on once for a few minutes, and, as others have noted, the fan is audible if you listen for it, but no louder than the road noise and far from problematic. Besides, it only happened once in about 36 hours of use, and then only for about three minutes. The unit is really well made and well worth the money.
So far so good
So far so good. Bought it to use in our camper on a 9 inch TV that has a TV box hooked up to it. Doesn't make noise, takes up minimal space and the picture is great. We haven't had the occasion to hook two things in to it yet but so far so good. Working as it should. Thanks
Like screaming kids 
Purchased unit with intend of running a portable DVD player for the kids, and a peaceful trip for me. Instead I got the opposite, as soon as I plugged the unit into Power Port I blew two 20 AMP fuses (on 2004 F-150) so I did the dumbest thing I wired it to the battery and short the battery out. So I'm out a battery and inverter at this point. Take my warning DO NOT BUY this piece of junk, you'll feel better giving a homeless person $32.19 instead of dealing with disappointed kids.
Great product
HAve no problems with this, 2 outlets comes in handy when someone MUST charge their phone while you are using power for something else.
Beware of the 60 +/-4 Hz frequency specification
Several of the Xantrex inverters including this one have much looser frequency specs compared to the last generation of inverters which were typically 60 Hz +/- 0.01%. Many of the current crop of these inverters have 60 +/-4 Hz which is 60 Hz +/- 7%. To be fair, I've noticed a number of inverters made by other companies also have relaxed this spec. I measured the output frequency of several models and found their outputs to range from 58 Hz to 64 Hz. I didn't test to see if the frequency changed with temperature, input voltage, load, or other other factors. I suppose the reason for this change in specs is that these manufacturers are now cost cutting to the extent of eliminating a 30 cent quartz crystal. The frequency variation is most likely to cause problems (speed changes and overheating) in devices with AC motors, but it will also cause inaccuracies in devices that use the AC line frequency for timing purposes.
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