Automotive special buys at Aldi on sale from Wednesday 13th October.
Car Boot Liner $14.99
300W Inverter $59.99, MiniCompressor $79.99, TorqueWrench $34.99, JumpLeads $24.99, 2-in-1 CarCreeper $59.99, Mats $12.99 @ ALDI
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I use this torque wrench for the cassette lockring, in case that is a use case you are interested in! Small torque wrenches tend to be pricey!
For large torques (like cassette lockrings, crank etc) i use the automotive one (like this ALDI one)
For smaller torques there's one floating around most bike etailers around 2-24Nm range and comes with a set of hex bits. It's not cheap but I've been fairly consistent. I used it for disassembling and reassembling bike components numerous times but now i've done it enough times I just often go by feel.
Lifeline essential from wiggles. But I got it a few years ago, was ~$40.
Hi OP, do you use the 300W invertor to charge up the battery in a car?
Inverters convert a DC power supply (the car battery) into AC (the same type of electricity found in wall sockets). This has an outlet on it which you could connect a normal appliance like a laptop or internet router (or anything that uses less than 300w). You couldn't plug in a toaster or a kettle.
think most 12v are limited to 100w
how to use this 300w inverter?would no doubt also include two clamps to attach direct to the battery. So you can either connect via cigarette socket or battery.
That's Ah rating for amount of energy stored in the battery. This 300w refers to power output. Most batteries can easily pump out 1200w power but not for very long.
convert ah to kwh and take take of about 20% off that for efficiency loss in conversion and that's about how much your battery can supply for any one inverter.
Also, $60 for a 300W inverter seems a bit steep….if there was one for $36 or so….
Cigarette lighter sockets most likely 150W limit, direct to battery for anything higher.
Maybe a separate dedicated battery for this…
Where are the mats? I can't see any in the picture.
Will upload another picture for that.
What does the MiniCompressor do? Tyre pressure refill? How is it powered and is it any good?
Looks like it's for high-pressure things, like inflating tyres. This is opposed to high-flow uses like filling up an air mattress.
The text at the bottom says 12v and 240v. So you can run it from your car, or from a regular outlet in your house.
I had the older workzone model and to be honest, it was trash. It was very noisy and slow. Thanks to its lack of overheat protection, it seized and died. I ended up getting a refund thankfully. It should be okay for light duty things like car and bike tyres. Inflating anything larger will likely end up taking far too long and/or the compressor overheating.
If you've got Ozito PXC batteries the Inflator is much more convenient. It is dual power source, battery or 240V but after using on battery I've never plugged it in to 240V again.
The Aldi is 12V/240V.
Looks like the Ozito stuff is getting price bumps across the range though. The inflator was $89 not too long ago now $94, though not as bad as the worklight that's had a 22% increase from $39.99 to $48.98!
60-210Nm Torque Wrench, which is comparable to the cheapies at Repco and Supercheap. Good for tyres if that is your use case. Other than that, nothing to write home about..
If it's the same as the previous Aldi torque wrench, it's very well built. I'd buy it over the cheap model at SCA.
The inverter does not look like it is a pure sine wave inverter. Also, 300W is pretty light on IMHO
For the price I'd expect it's a modified sine wave inverter. If it's pure, sign me up!
Plenty for a laptop (or two or three), which is what many would use it for.
Do not use it for laptops unless it's pure sine
Wouldn't the adaptor of the laptop sort that out/smooth it?
@placard: Not necessarilly and not all laptops have a power brick on the ac cable. You may have no issues, you may kill your power adapter, you may kill your laptop. Up to you if your laptop is worth the risk.
If you really need to charge your laptop on the go then just get an actually car adapter. Why go DC-AC-DC if you only need DC-DC?
@placard: Correct, every laptop (and desktop) PSU is now switched-mode insead of the older linear power supply that did have troubles as I recall.
There's still ongoing debate about the pros and cons (DC noise, capacitor stressing) of modified sine waves, but if you're only using is for backups/on the road then it'll make zero difference.
Other point to make is that pure sine wave inverters no longer command a huge premium like they used to so a MSW one isn't as much of a price drop like in prior years. So if you can find a PSW inverter it'll not be much more of an investment.
As the cigarette lighter would suggest it will most likely be used for a car battery. 300W/12V=25A (25amps).
25amps is a lot of current for a cigarette lighter fuse that's usually 15A or 15x12v=180W.It would also have terminal clamps to alternatively connect the inverter direct to the car battery.
The Giandel inverters on eBay might be a better option and seem to be fairly well built. Got a 600W pure sine for under $100 delivered.
For people considering buying an inverter to charge your laptop or electronic device I believe this inverter is modified square(modified sine) wave.
This is not ideal for electronic devices including laptops, tablets etc, long term use could damage the device. An easier option is to check your manufacturers website to see if you can buy a car charger for your device. The charger will usually charge your laptop or other electronic device as quickly as when plugged into a wall charger. It is small so can fit into your glove box, unlike this inverter. It is more efficient than using an inverter saving your battery power. If your device has a USB-C thunderbolt port you can usually charge your device directly from the car charger with a phone charger that has power delivery PD 12V car chargerthis one only costs about $22 and is quite popular. Another alternative is to buy a generic 12V car charger from an electronics shop, or if you're prepared to risk it eBay sellers have lots of different no name car laptop chargers such as this Macbook Pro 12V chargerbut of course the risks are what you'd expect when buying from an eBay seller. In saying that I've bought 3 different laptop chargers, 2 Dell chargers and 1 Macbook pro charger for my partner and never had an issue. Thanks for reading my essay.By the look of it I suspect this is a pure sine wave inverter. Modified sine wave can be bought for a lot cheaper and I don't think Aldi want to be offer something that's anticompetitive.
Description says modified sine wave inverter.
Does it, then its not worth the money. No better than the can inverter then.
Would the inverter be suitable to inflate an air mattress with built in pump?
https://www.bcf.com.au/p/double-high-velour-airbed-with-pump…
It'd be perfectly fine for that if the pump wattage is low enough, which it should be.
Or just buy this from BCF Wanderer Air Pump 12V $34.99
I bought one of these years ago, it's still exactly the same, they work perfectly.
It removes the extra step of using an inverter in the first place.
Hey OP what's the amp rating on those jumper leads? Description got cut off in the pic.
Can anyone recommend a torque wrench for lower nm for bike purposes