The ciggy receptacle is convenient as it takes little skill to mate plug into receptacle. One can also just back plug from receptacle a CM or so and just push it home when needed.
But they are junk.
I first went to 12v SAE connectors with 18 and 10awg leads, but found these would wear out quickly, and 10awg would also heat up greatly at just 25 amps.
I've gone to 45 amp anderson powerpoles, can stuff 8awg wire into them with some difficulty, and they will pass 40 amps at 12.5v all day long. Will get warm at those amperages, but nothing dangerous.
A ciggy plug is good for about 7 amps, when new and the receptacle is fed with 10awg. They can pass more, briefly, but the spring steel contacts will begine heating up and lose tension in the receptacle, causing more heating and more resistance and more heating until something gives.
The 45 amp anderson powerpoles take some crimping skill, or require the purchase of their special crimper. the 15 and 30 amp ones , a simple dimple crimper can be used.
The 15,30 and 45 amp powerpoles will all mate with each other, but the 75 amp and bigger all are their own separate size and mate only with receptacles of the same amp rating and size.
These are a little harder to connect than just shoving a ciggy plug into receptacle, but are significantly battery electrical connectors, and while I have kept my 7 ciggy receptacles, none of them are asked to pass more than 1 amp, All SAE 12v connectors I once employed widely, have been cut out and replaced with 45 amp powerpoles. Man i wasted a lot of time and money on those SAE connectors.
https://powerwerx.com/anderson-power-powerpole-sb-connectors
Technically the 45's can only accept 10awg wiring. I do have to destrand 8awg right at the connector and thin the insulation to get 8awg to fit them. Achieving the 'click' when inserting the contact into the plastic housing can be a bit difficult too when using 8 awg, or even 10awg that has really fat insulation.
I've not bought their special crimper, but I am sure it would greatly speed up the process. I use 3 different crimpers to get it 'appearing' as it should, then a little dab of solder mostly for appearance and soldering practices' sake, but also in case the crimp appeared OK but was less than perfect.
Too much solder can ruin the contacts, so a light touch is required. They are not cheap so screwing up the contact crimps is painful, and easy to do with the improper tools for doing so.
I will likely purchase their~40$ special crimper at some point, but still add a drop of solder to cover the end of the stranding as that is how I roll.
