12V outlets on Escape 19

[rbryan4]

I have used their plugs for both 12V and USB, but the 12V is still the cigarette style connection. Do you know of another 12V connection they have.



The surface mount units would work good under upper cabinets.

Well I call them Merit Engel but I don't really know the proper name for them. They're are also called Continental Din or other names too. Here are some photos of the kind I'm talking about.

The surface mounted type might work well for the under cabinet mounting you mentioned. Some of the flush mounted ones are only about an inch deep.

 

[cpaharley2008]

I have had some issues with the Alibaba foreign mini outlets, some of the plug ins will not fit.

 

[Jim Bennett]

Well I call them Merit Engel but I don't really know the proper name for them. They're are also called Continental Din or other names too. Here are some photos of the kind I'm talking about.

The surface mounted type might work well for the under cabinet mounting you mentioned. Some of the flush mounted ones are only about an inch deep.

I haven't see those. The do look to be much smaller than the typical cigarette style. I will have to look into them more.

I have done a bit of searching, and I am actually quite surprised there is not more available smaller options. Most I have seen similar have small current ratings, many around 3A.

 

[GRINGOandTICA]

I have a 12v outlet on each side of the exterior near the wheels, great for running a 12v tire inflator/compressor.

 

[Brian B-P]

Well I call them Merit Engel but I don't really know the proper name for them. They're are also called Continental Din or other names too.

When I searched for that name, I found them mostly on Australian websites - maybe that's the most common supplier of these connectors there... like calling all groove-joint pliers "Channellock", or all locking pliers "Vice Grips".

There are at least two sizes of "lighter" sockets, with lots of variation within what is supposed to be the same size so fit can be problematic. The largest size is used here; a slightly smaller size appears to be used in Europe, and may be the "DIN" version. I don't know if the Merit style is the one from Europe, or a third size, but in any case it's still the same general design of non-locking socket which looks like it was never designed as a power connector... so I would look for something else.

Speaking of Engel - a well-known maker of 12V DC compressor-type refrigerators used worldwide and especially in Australia - they seem to have they own style of three-blade connector which is widely available... in Australia.

An Australian site shows

• "cigarette" sockets,
• a smaller design which they label as both "Hella" and "Merit" (suggesting that they are both the Euro DIN style),
• "Engel" (the refrigerator connector), and
• Anderson (PowerPoles).

 

[Brian B-P]

Here it is: ISO 4165
The same connector is known as

• ISO 4165
• BMW Accessory plug
• Powerlet connector
• Hella plug
• Merit plug

 

[tractors1]

Here it is: ISO 4165
The same connector is known as

• ISO 4165
• BMW Accessory plug
• Powerlet connector
• Hella plug
• Merit plug

Probably be a long time before it's popular in the USA. Our big metric push decades ago flopped after we got booze containers metricized (new word!)

 

[Brian B-P]

Probably be a long time before it's popular in the USA.

My guess is that it will never catch on. The current lighter/accessory socket size is established and I don't see any motivation to change... especially since the change hasn't happened in the seven decades that the design as existed or the 36 years or more that it has been an ISO standard. European auto manufacturers provide the current North American style in vehicles sold here.

From some of the photos, it appears that the tip might be "grabbed" by contacts in the socket, which would make it much better than the usual cigarette lighter design with the spring pin in the middle. It still doesn't look like a connector actually designed for the purpose of accessory power.