How Can I Install a Printer in My Car?

[DigitalAR]

Hi, so I would like to install a printer in my car. It looking good is secondary. My main concern is powering it.

I have two printers:

1. Brother DCP-L2550DW

2. Canon Pixma MG2525

The first is laser, second is ink.

I will attach photos of random car power inverters I’ve found on eBay. In the end I’ll most likely go for a name brand either via Walmart, Target or AutoZone.

All of these have two methods of hooking up; either via the vehicle’s cigarette port, or directly the car battery. The latter, I would need to take to an auto shop/mechanic so they can hook it up and wire it from the car battery and have the unit placed around the footing of the passenger seat.

I’m wondering, what’s the best approach here.

I’m guessing the cigarette port would be adequate but maybe perhaps in the long term would be best to do it via the car battery.

I’m open to suggestions cause I desperately need a printer with me at all times while I’m traveling and there’s no way I can drive back home when I need something printed nor is visiting a place to have stuff printed everyday as that get expensive and above all takes time outta my day.

Thank you, I’ll reply quickly.

 

[poorcody]

I ran a Canon inkjet printer through a simple cigarette adapter inverter like your last picture there. Worked fine. (We were in an extended power outage and I needed to get forms printed for a deadline.)

I don't think you would need a more sophisticated inverter than that: hooking up to your car's battery would be overkill IMO.

Note there are some good battery powered printers available too like the HP OfficeJet 250 and others.

 

[DigitalAR]

I ran a Canon inkjet printer through a simple cigarette adapter inverter like your last picture there. Worked fine. (We were in an extended power outage and I needed to get forms printed for a deadline.)

I don't think you would need a more sophisticated inverter than that: hooking up to your car's battery would be overkill IMO.

Note there are some good battery powered printers available too like the HP OfficeJet 250 and others.

Thank you for quick response.

The OfficeJet you linked to is nice but for $500 I’d rather stick with the 2 printers I already own.

My main concern is two fold:

The first is if the printers I’ll be connecting through the cigarette lighter will require too much power.

Second is if I’ll damage the car battery.

I think I read somewhere that the laser printer needs 550 watts and couldn’t find wattage consumption info on the ink printer. Most of these units I see for sale online through the cigarette lighter are only about 100 to 200 watts.

 

[Rafterman]

Thank you for quick response.

The OfficeJet you linked to is nice but for $500 I’d rather stick with the 2 printers I already own.

My main concern is two fold:

The first is if the printers I’ll be connecting through the cigarette lighter will require too much power.

Second is if I’ll damage the car battery.

I think I read somewhere that the laser printer needs 550 watts and couldn’t find wattage consumption info on the ink printer. Most of these units I see for sale online through the cigarette lighter are only about 100 to 200 watts.

I definitely wouldn't hook a laser printer. WAY too much power draw. You may get away with an inkjet without damage. Though it would help if you had an inverter in your car. I had a 3 prong outlet built into my Explorer, which can handle that sort of thing.

 

[poorcody]

Oh yeah, I didn't catch the laser printer. That might suck too many watts. You should be able to see the power rating on each printer's power brick or the side of the laser printer. Note those car inverters list wattage but that is often for short bursts ("peak" vs "sustained" power). A good inverter should list both values. As long as you keep your printer's wattage under the inverter's sustained wattage, you should be fine. I might keep the car running to charge the battery if your are draining a lot of watts for more than a few minutes.

Another option if you're worried about your car is to get a portable power bank like a Jackery or Bluetti. They come in various "sizes" and most could easily power a printer.

EDIT: Hmmm... from what I'm reading, laser printers can sometimes draw huge amounts of power. I would avoid using one of those...

Laser Printer With High (Initial) Current Draw - Any Way To Buffer?

Hey Guys. I have a small laser printer (Brother HL-2270DW) which has an uncomfortable amount of initial current draw when first powered on. My wall meter only shows a max of 950 watts (8 amps), but apparently it's enough of a sudden jolt to momentarily set off multiple UPS's in my apartment...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[DigitalAR]

I definitely wouldn't hook a laser printer. WAY too much power draw. You may get away with an inkjet without damage. Though it would help if you had an inverter in your car. I had a 3 prong outlet built into my Explorer, which can handle that sort of thing.

Sucks too cause the laser printer is the wireless one so would be able to use my iPhone to print on the go. Much easier.


With the ink printer I’ll need my
MacBook Pro in the car.

OR

I could have a 2 outlet power inverter hookup and on one connect my ink printer and on the second connect an Apple AirPort Extreme and hook both of them up together and be able to print wirelessly.

 

[Rafterman]

Sucks too cause the laser printer is the wireless one so would be able to use my iPhone to print on the go. Much easier.


With the ink printer I’ll need my
MacBook Pro in the car.

OR

I could have a 2 outlet power inverter hookup and on one connect my ink printer and on the second connect an Apple AirPort Extreme and hook both of them up together and be able to print wirelessly.

I know it sucks to pay, but maybe you should just buy a suitable printer (low power that can run off cig lighter, with wifi). I mean, Macbook, inverter, printer...a lot of mess. Too many parts means more possibility for the setup to fail.

 

[eyoungren]

I definitely wouldn't hook a laser printer. WAY too much power draw. You may get away with an inkjet without damage. Though it would help if you had an inverter in your car. I had a 3 prong outlet built into my Explorer, which can handle that sort of thing.

I second that. We have a laser printer upstairs that dims the lights when it's woken up to process a job. There are other devices on the circuit (A/C unit being one I think) but still.

 

[eyoungren]

Hi, so I would like to install a printer in my car. It looking good is secondary. My main concern is powering it.

I have two printers:

1. Brother DCP-L2550DW

2. Canon Pixma MG2525

The first is laser, second is ink.

I will attach photos of random car power inverters I’ve found on eBay. In the end I’ll most likely go for a name brand either via Walmart, Target or AutoZone.

All of these have two methods of hooking up; either via the vehicle’s cigarette port, or directly the car battery. The latter, I would need to take to an auto shop/mechanic so they can hook it up and wire it from the car battery and have the unit placed around the footing of the passenger seat.

I’m wondering, what’s the best approach here.

I’m guessing the cigarette port would be adequate but maybe perhaps in the long term would be best to do it via the car battery.

I’m open to suggestions cause I desperately need a printer with me at all times while I’m traveling and there’s no way I can drive back home when I need something printed nor is visiting a place to have stuff printed everyday as that get expensive and above all takes time outta my day.

Thank you, I’ll reply quickly.

OP, what about a portable printer?

Such as…https://www.amazon.com/travel-printer/s?k=travel+printer

[MODS, none of this is mine! I am not selling anything, just providing a link!]

 

[Rafterman]

OP, what about a portable printer?

Such as…https://www.amazon.com/travel-printer/s?k=travel+printer

[MODS, none of this is mine! I am not selling anything, just providing a link!]

That's what I was talking about in my above post. It's not cheap, but it has a battery and I suspect does not draw much power when plugged in.

 

[DigitalAR]

That's what I was talking about in my above post. It's not cheap, but it has a battery and I suspect does not draw much power when plugged in.

My plan moving forward, although those portable wireless printers look interesting, is to get a cigarette outlet powered inverter and use my ink printer and connect it to my MacBook Pro.

I’ll report back in a week to let you guys know how it goes.

 

[Nhwhazup]

How would you print wirelessly if you don’t have Wi-Fi? Can you hook up to your printer via Bluetooth?

 

[hallux]

is to get a cigarette outlet powered inverter

An inverter wired directly to the battery with decent-sized cable is way better. Run it through a relay that triggers on a keyed circuit to be sure it shuts off when the car is off, but be sure to turn off the printer (still an inkjet, I still would not use a laser in this application) before turning off the car.

@Nhwhazup some printers support WiFi-Direct printing, no need for a network to connect to them.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Just buy an EV. Many of them provide a three pin plug these days. Might not be the cheapest option though!

 

[Mousse]

I definitely wouldn't hook a laser printer. WAY too much power draw.

Yep. I've had laser printers blow out the breakers on a portable generator before.😬 There is a huge initial power draw something like 3-5x the power draw compared to while it's printing. It takes a lot of energy to instantly heat up a cold fuser.

Installing a laser printer in your car will guarantee you blow the lighter/power port fuse every time you start up a print job.

 

[DigitalAR]

Yep. I've had laser printers blow out the breakers on a portable generator before.😬 There is a huge initial power draw something like 3-5x the power draw compared to while it's printing. It takes a lot of energy to instantly heat up a cold fuser.

Installing a laser printer in your car will guarantee you blow the lighter/power port fuse every time you start up a print job.

Thank you for saying this

I would’ve wanted to test the laser printer either way but now will not attempt it.

I’ll report momentarily either today or tomorrow as to how the ink printer works in the car.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

The first thing to do is to figure how much power the printer needs to ruction. It should be in the printer's specifications. The inverter should be powerful enough so that the power draw from the printer is approximately 75% of the inverter's power output. Also, if you have your computer connected to the inverter, you still have to add the computer's power draw to the total power draw from both devices (printer and computer). If you are using a laptop, then you can print via the USB port, while the laptop is not connected to the inverter. In addition to that above, you may not want to discharge the car's battery, so keep the engine running while the inverter is energized. The car's alternator will keep the battery charged as long as the engine is running.

This is a good advise, but I prefer to keep the total power draw at about 75% (under 80%), which gives me a safety margin of 25% instead of 20%:

How to Estimate Power Inverter Size Requirements

Before you buy a power inverter for your car, you need to know what size to purchase. Here's how to estimate your power needs.

www.lifewire.com

By the way, if everything fails, you could always buy a 1,000-Watt Honda or Yamaha inverter generator. You can run it overnight on one gallon of gasoline, and probably two nights in ECO mode.

 

[SnappleRumors]

Hi, so I would like to install a printer in my car.

What type of documents are you printing?

 

[DigitalAR]

Okay so am back; and short story is it didn’t work.

I plugged in my new 500W portable power inverter and when turning it on and off a light would blink and a quick electronic wailing sound would only momentarily hit you with it. Plugged in my ink printer but the printer didn’t even turn on. Tried powering my AirPort Extreme with it but also to no avail. I’m beginning to think my car’s cigarette lighter outlet just isn’t that powerful to begin with.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Okay so am back; and short story is it didn’t work.

I plugged in my new 500W portable power inverter and when turning it on and off a light would blink and a quick electronic wailing sound would only momentarily hit you with it. Plugged in my ink printer but the printer didn’t even turn on. Tried powering my AirPort Extreme with it but also to no avail. I’m beginning to think my car’s cigarette lighter outlet just isn’t that powerful to begin with.

More than likely the inverter you used wasn't powerful enough to power the printer and computer. You may want to read the article (link) I posted above, and don't forget that once you have established the total amount of power demanded by the printer and computer to operate should be not greater than 75% from the total or maximum inverter's output. It is not just wattage, but both wattage and current. The cigarette lighter socket should have a 10-amp fuse which you be plenty for a 450-watt inverter, but connecting the inverter directly to the battery is a better option as you can read below:

How do I hook up the Inverter? What size cable should I use, and is it

www.powerinverters.com

Many small inverters (450 watts and under) come with a cigarette lighter adapter, and may be plugged into your vehicle's lighter socket (although you will not be able to draw more than 150 to 200 watts from the cigarette lighter socket)

 

[H-L-T]

‘Vehicle printers’ are not meant to be user-friendly in the slightest. From my own, anecdote, there’s way more hassle involved with some of these intended vehicle printers that are costly, and offer very few distinct advantages, and I would not recommend one, unless you absolutely need a vehicle printer for work purposes.

The brother PJ printers have a slimline design that can usually fit towards the center console, or even in the headrest area of a vehicle, but that’s the only main advantage they offer. The thermal printing ink can legibility vary based on the temperature in the vehicle, (which can array from a light bold to a faded black), so that’s inconsistent. The thermal paper is hardly user-friendly the way it has to be installed through a feeding process, which will pose jamming issues if not installed correctly, and if you plan on using the paper for any professional applications, you would almost have to make a direct copy on a standard printer with normal printing paper.

Keep in mind, the thermal paper, is not your standard printing paper, it almost have a laminated type coating, which is intentional so the thermal ink can adhere.

Also, with the thermal ink from the printer, it’s subject to fading over the course of time, almost to the point where it’s illegible.

Way more cons than pros here, and again, I iterate, I would not recommend a vehicle printer, at least the brother series, which is more design for commercial use applications.