Inverter help
 

Anybody have ideas on the best way to have a coffee maker in the truck? Don't have an APU and just want to use a small inverter for a regular household coffee maker. Don't want to use a 4 cupper 12 volt unless they make a 12 Volt 10 cup maker. I've got a 20 amp 12 Volt plug available in a '09 Cascadia.
Haven't researched it so I'm looking for the best solution. I only go overnight night at a time and then am at home the next night. Don't need much as this is all I'd use the inverter for, no laptop/printer or anything else. And it's a company truck.
Generally I stay at a truck stop and just buy coffee but there are times I stay at a rest areas where it isn't available and it would save a stop. Or isn't it worth the mess. I carry gallons of water anyway for drinking. Any ideas?

Stop drinking coffee! That stuff is bad for you anyways.

Start with the coffee maker itself, get the wattage or amperage draw. Convert amperage to wattage.

Pick an inverter that can put out that wattage plus a safety margin. If that inverters max amp draw is larger than what your truck interior can supply, you need to run wires straight from the battery.

Thanks for the reply Allan. I've cut down quite a bit already but can't go without that 1st-2nd morning cup.
I thought somebody might have a specific plug in inverter that they used enough to handle a coffee maker. I can't wire anything in permanent. Just thought a quick 15 minute brew of coffee and then unplug it.
Most times I just buy a cup or two at the truck-stop.
Thanks again.

The biggest inverter that will work with a cigarette lighter plug is around 300 watts. The smallest wattage 110v coffee maker that I was able to find a few years back was 500 watts (and it failed to work with a hard-wired 600 watt inverter). I think you're stuck with a 12v model and I've tried one of those and I wasn't too impressed. Sorry. You can always get a butane stove and a coffee press. I did that for awhile and it does work.

Allan - most of the news lately is that coffee is good for you.

What about having an extra battery on the floor and hook the inverter to it ?

I have seen 10 cup 12 volt coffee makers (Road Pro, I think.) Count on them taking about an hour to brew a pot.

I brew my coffee in a 12 cup percolator, but I have a 2,500 watt inverter and it’s my truck so that is an option that won’t work for you. What might help you is what I do with the coffee after it percolates. I have a 12 cup stainless steel urn that is easy to pour, never spills, has never tipped over and keeps the coffee hot for many hours and even warm til the next morning. I brew my twelve cups in the morning and have hot coffee all day and night sitting next to my seat. I think most of the truck stops only charge a couple bucks to fill an urn like mine. You could fill it up at some point during the day and still have warm (if not hot) coffee waiting on you in the morning.

I will add that if you’ve never had properly percolated coffee, it is a life changing experience. If you are a true coffee connoisseur, you will never be able to tolerate anything else once you’ve started brewing your own, so it might be worth getting a 1500 watt inverter and a percolator.

Additionally, there is new research published this year by the Harvard School for Public Health that finds…

“Men who drank the most coffee, six cups or more daily, had a 60 percent lower risk of developing lethal prostate cancer — and 20 percent lower risk of developing any form of the disease, according to the study published in the online edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.”

Just sayin’.

Is this the special "owner operator only" inverter? :)

Well there you go Outta Here. All you need is a percolator and a heat source.

This one gets good reviews and it's cheap:
Amazon.com: Farberware Classic Yosemite 8-Cup Stainless Steel Percolator: Kitchen & Dining


I bought one of these 4 years ago and it's served me well:
Amazon.com: Max Burton Mr. Max Table Top Burner (Black): Sports & Outdoors

IIRC the butane cartridges are around $3.50 a piece and you can get them from Walmart, Meijers or T/A.

I use an electric model manufactured by GE that I bought at walmart. I think it set me back between forty and seventy bucks. It sucks a lot of juice, but brews 12 cups in under ten minutes. My inverter easily powers the percolater and my 1100 watt microwave simultaneously, but like I said in my previous post, I have a good sized inverter.