Newbie 12 Volt / Inverter / Car adapter question
 

Hola,

I am miffed. I dragged a 12 V deep cycle marine battery out to a campground. Charged it with a solar panel. Connected the battery to a 12 V inverter plug (The same one that goes into your cigarette lighter) and ... nothing. In the car, I tried the inverter in the cig lighter and saw that the fuse had blown. Replaced it, went back out to the battery. Pphhhhtt. No power. Fuse blown.

What am I doing wrong? Why would the 12 V marine battery blow a fuse for a unit that works perfectly fine in the car?

Any insight appreciated..

Is there something inside the inverter that is damaged and causing a short? Are you trying to power something that takes too many amps that is greater than the fuse? Are the + and - wires right from the inverter to the battery?

^^those questions^^

Nope. Inverter works fine when is plugged into 12V socket of my running car - and I've kept black on black and red on red up and down the chain.

How are you turning a cigarette lighter plug into clips for a battery? What do you have in between? Whatever it is, it's the culprit.

I have a cigarette lighter plug I bought from radio shack. The two wires from that are connected to a 12V quick release plug. the other end of side of this plug has + - wires that are screwed into battery terminals. This arrangement works fine when i swap the battery for a solar panel and can charge my cell phone using my car charger

Lets assume that the polarity is right, check with voltmeter. Inverted polarity is the most common cause for blown fuses in situations like these.
Are you sure that the batteries are 12V you should measure what the pole voltage is. Unloaded it should be around 12.8V. Charging a deep cycle battery with solar panel can take a really long time. It will take 60W solar panel around 25 hours to charge 100 Ah battery (that is even optimistic).
An inverter takes a lot more current than a cell phone charger even when the inverter is unloaded, the voltage of the battery will fall with load (and discharge) so to maintain the same power (Watts) the inverter needs to draw more current (amps) and that could be what is blowing the fuses.
Deep cycle batteries are intended for even slow discharge(for long time) were as car batteries have to handle burst of discharge when the engine is cranked. Boats are supposed to have separate electrical systems for engine and "consume". Our boat has 3 (4), 12V (std. battery) for engine and navigational lights , 12V (deep cycle battery) for "consume" usage like lights and radio , 24V (bank of deep cycle batteries) for winches and other power hungry equipment, that includes AC inverter when external AC power is not available.

Please let us know what was the cause.
Yours
Zweiblumen

I know it's a month later, but you shouldn't be using the cigarette adapter directly to the battery. You need a power inverter that has alligator clips on it meant for battery use.

BLACK & DECKER 500-Watt Dual-Outlet Power Inverter - PI500BB at The Home Depot