how long in a car cigarette lighter?

A 400x inverter might not make it. When the FE first starts up, the ignited pulls a high load for 3 min (someone will jump in with the specifics).

After that, it will run off any battery, however, it depends on the amps in your battery as to how long it will last.

Easiest thing is just go buy a good, high amp battery for just the contest. You can do the truck thing, but you won't know how long it will last.

The $50 marine battery at Sam's will run it for 24 hrs.

It totally discharges it,as it is meant to.

Ha! called my handy neighbor to ask about the batteries on special at Academy... now I have a free stowaway startup battery. May not be a deep cycle, but it was free!

You might want to do a test run on it. Set it up at home like a contest and see how long it will run. The amperage is important.

worked like a charm. This was a catering gig for the BP MS150 ride. Cooked all day and didn't miss a lick- though the pellet hopper was smoking at one point... weird.

I went to Sams Friday and bought a deep cycle battery for $53.00, and a 500 watt inverter for $35.00. Inverter has a choice of being used from a cigarette lighter, or a battery.Tried it out all day Saturday. It worked great.
The inverter even comes in a nice travel case. Can't beat this price.