Our new Adria Action will be ready soon, comes with TV wall bracket. Is a combi TV necessary or would a 22” Samsung smart LED suffice even for a weekend off a mains hook-up? Thanks, Don
TV type/size suggestions please.
- Thread starter captdon
- Start date
Hi Captdon,
Not sure what you mean by a Combi-TV ? - Do you mean a TV that also features an optical disc player, or a 12VDC/240VAC unit ?
I dropped on lucky by having been donated an unbranded 19’’ portable TV for the kids. I actually found it in the boot of my car one morning and thought one of my work colleagues had put it there as a joke as they know I generally have a dislike for unbranded, or to put it more correctly, generic electrical goods.
However, after astablishing that my wife had loaded it in the car because she was to polite to refuse the offer from her sister, just before dropping it in the black wheelie bin, having recently taken delivery of our new caravan I couldn’t help but notice that the accompanying 240V AC adaptor had an output of 12VDC. After a quick trip to Maplins (no longer of course !), I was equipped with a 12VDC Jack plug, a cigarette lighter style plug and a meter of suitably rated twin cable.
This then became our caravan TV. Even when we have an EHU (which so far has been every single outing), we still power the TV by plugging it into the 12V cigarette lighter style connector in the front binnacle. Of course, this would also work if we were to be off grid, helped along nicely by our van’s roof mounted 100W solar panel especially since the older generation (pre-LED) TV’s consume more power than the latest models.
If you do just buy a 22’’ Smart TV, the chances are it would take a direct 240VAC input, or it would have an accompanying power supply with an output of 18 or 19.5V DC. No good for off grid. I know this because in the interest of upgrading from this generic, yet perfectly functional set, I visited a few branches of everyone’s favourite electrical retailer, checking the back of all of the possible contenders, and examining their accompanying power supplies. A few strange looks and whenever the sales guys came over, I explained what I was checking but of course they had no idea what I was talking about
You could opt for a dedicated camping/caravanning TV which is marketed as taking a 12VDC input, but I find that in general they’re extremely overpriced for no justifiable reason for what again generally tend to be generic sets rather than premium branded ones.
Just in case it may be of interest, here’s a link to a previous post of mine which details the make and model of the TV. It will surely be obsolete now, but maybe you can find something similar.
If you won’t be needing to use the TV off grid, and lets face it, I haven’t, despite being somewhat proud of my effort, then of course any mains powered unit will do, provided it fits the allocated space and mounting arrangement in your new caravan.
Best of luck, hope this helps, and let us know how you get on.
Ic.
Not sure what you mean by a Combi-TV ? - Do you mean a TV that also features an optical disc player, or a 12VDC/240VAC unit ?
I dropped on lucky by having been donated an unbranded 19’’ portable TV for the kids. I actually found it in the boot of my car one morning and thought one of my work colleagues had put it there as a joke as they know I generally have a dislike for unbranded, or to put it more correctly, generic electrical goods.
However, after astablishing that my wife had loaded it in the car because she was to polite to refuse the offer from her sister, just before dropping it in the black wheelie bin, having recently taken delivery of our new caravan I couldn’t help but notice that the accompanying 240V AC adaptor had an output of 12VDC. After a quick trip to Maplins (no longer of course !), I was equipped with a 12VDC Jack plug, a cigarette lighter style plug and a meter of suitably rated twin cable.
This then became our caravan TV. Even when we have an EHU (which so far has been every single outing), we still power the TV by plugging it into the 12V cigarette lighter style connector in the front binnacle. Of course, this would also work if we were to be off grid, helped along nicely by our van’s roof mounted 100W solar panel especially since the older generation (pre-LED) TV’s consume more power than the latest models.
If you do just buy a 22’’ Smart TV, the chances are it would take a direct 240VAC input, or it would have an accompanying power supply with an output of 18 or 19.5V DC. No good for off grid. I know this because in the interest of upgrading from this generic, yet perfectly functional set, I visited a few branches of everyone’s favourite electrical retailer, checking the back of all of the possible contenders, and examining their accompanying power supplies. A few strange looks and whenever the sales guys came over, I explained what I was checking but of course they had no idea what I was talking about
You could opt for a dedicated camping/caravanning TV which is marketed as taking a 12VDC input, but I find that in general they’re extremely overpriced for no justifiable reason for what again generally tend to be generic sets rather than premium branded ones.
Just in case it may be of interest, here’s a link to a previous post of mine which details the make and model of the TV. It will surely be obsolete now, but maybe you can find something similar.
If you won’t be needing to use the TV off grid, and lets face it, I haven’t, despite being somewhat proud of my effort, then of course any mains powered unit will do, provided it fits the allocated space and mounting arrangement in your new caravan.
Best of luck, hope this helps, and let us know how you get on.
Ic.
We have a 17 inch Beko with 240 and 12 v inputs. It has a drive fir cd and dvd, and also Scart/hdmi and even a USB fir recording if we wanted to do that.
I see on EBay there’s a Beko at £48 +pp which is as described above in that it’s a 12v 4 amp unit running from a 240v power supply that outputs at 12v.
Ours does us fine as it gets all the channels that we watch and it’s compatible with Freeview and sat.
I see on EBay there’s a Beko at £48 +pp which is as described above in that it’s a 12v 4 amp unit running from a 240v power supply that outputs at 12v.
Ours does us fine as it gets all the channels that we watch and it’s compatible with Freeview and sat.
Thanks for your helpful reply, combi to me meant the expensive 240/12vdc TV's. I think I understand now my Samsung Smart 22” will only work if we're on a mains hook-up,,,or, will it work 'off grid' but just an excessive drain on the leisure battery? Hope that made sense, I'm not that clever. So much to learn, so little time. Thanks, Don
Your 22 inch Samsung if it's only 240 volts will not work if your caravan isn't hooked up to a site 240v supply. You could get it to work off grid by using an inverter which would convert 12 volt to 240 volt. So you would plug the inverter into the 12 volt socket which draws from the battery and the inverter output is 240 volts which would supply the tv.
However without knowing the power consumption of the tv it's not possible to calculate how long you could run it off the battery before your other 12 volt consumers are affected. Also you need to know the details of the inverter wave form output to ensure it is matched to the tv input; High quality sine wave form or attenuated wave form.
If you really need a tv to run off 12v I'd look for one that has a direct input. Try eBay or the Caravan and Motorhome Club classifieds as you often find items from people giving up the hobby.
However without knowing the power consumption of the tv it's not possible to calculate how long you could run it off the battery before your other 12 volt consumers are affected. Also you need to know the details of the inverter wave form output to ensure it is matched to the tv input; High quality sine wave form or attenuated wave form.
If you really need a tv to run off 12v I'd look for one that has a direct input. Try eBay or the Caravan and Motorhome Club classifieds as you often find items from people giving up the hobby.
otherclive said:
Pretty much the same as Clive for our TV and the kids' to , play DVDs of them and CDs and all of our digital channels & freeview TV channels. Basic does us , not humping satellite dishes with us !!
We use a 19" Panasonic which is possibly as big as is suitable for our caravan but if you have a 22" and are on a hook up I would try the 22" and see if it is too big first time out. You can always buy a smaller set later if you need. If the caravan has a wall mounted bracket it might be too big for that though, depending on the weight of the set and its location.
If you need a new TV and are always going to use mains power then any suitable sized make should manage, but I would keep the packaging to protect it when traveling.
If you need a new TV and are always going to use mains power then any suitable sized make should manage, but I would keep the packaging to protect it when traveling.
Ours is a Finlux 22" with dvd and usb and freeview etc.
Sound is poor, but when played through the onboard stereo system it works rather well.
In our caravan, 22" is pretty good when used in the front or middle of the caravan ( we don't have a rear of caravan option), at anytime we are never more than 5 feet from the telly (wish we had an enormous caravan that justified a 100" screen ).
I have thought about a bigger telly, 32" would be max, but all in all the 22" does the job nicely, if TV was that important for us then I would install a behemoth without any hesitation.
Life is too short, enjoy the biggest and bestest telly you fancy .
Sound is poor, but when played through the onboard stereo system it works rather well.
In our caravan, 22" is pretty good when used in the front or middle of the caravan ( we don't have a rear of caravan option), at anytime we are never more than 5 feet from the telly (wish we had an enormous caravan that justified a 100" screen
).I have thought about a bigger telly, 32" would be max, but all in all the 22" does the job nicely, if TV was that important for us then I would install a behemoth without any hesitation.
Life is too short, enjoy the biggest and bestest telly you fancy
.
Don, we have an 19 inch Tecknica, with built in DVD and Freeview. Bought from Tesco. It works well in UK and in Europe. We don't bother with satellite so this suits us fine, maybe a slightly bigger one say 21 inch would be great and slightly lighter as well.
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