[tomwed]

I'm thinking ahead. My smart phone has a light but what if I don't have a way to charge it without running the car.

If my car is turned off I cannot use the cigarette jack to charge my phone. It's off. It used to be that you cannot turn the switch to accessory for any length of time without damaging the points. Well, points are a thing of the past but is there any other electrical/electronic reason that it is not a good idea to turn the switch to accessory to charge the cell phone?

[jpvillager]

Assuming you have a full tank of gas and the electricity is off so you can not charge it in the house, you do not want to run down the car battery so I would start the car after a half hour to keep the car battery fully charged and to enjoy the car A/C if only for a short time. The usb or cigarette lighter chargers are fairly slow charging. Make your calls while it is charging and also charge up your ipad if you have one at the same time.

[tomwed]

Originally Posted by jpvillager

Assuming you have a full tank of gas and the electricity is off so you can not charge it in the house, you do not want to run down the car battery so I would start the car after a half hour to keep the car battery fully charged and to enjoy the car A/C if only for a short time. The usb or cigarette lighter chargers are fairly slow charging. Make your calls while it is charging and also charge up your ipad if you have one at the same time.

thank-you My hunch was that charging a cell phone uses very little electricity. So little that it would not have any impact on the car battery. I guess I was wrong. I tried googling this but with no luck.

[Avista]

Husband bought two bank chargers at Wal Mart this morning. We've been meaning to get a couple of these. They are charging now. Will have enough for 3 cell phone charges if we lose electricity and phone runs down. Can also,use our car to charge phones.

[billethkid]

Originally Posted by tomwed

thank-you My hunch was that charging a cell phone uses very little electricity. So little that it would not have any impact on the car battery. I guess I was wrong. I tried googling this but with no luck.

Depending on the year and condition of the car battery.
My daughter left her iPad connected to the USB port in my SUV and when we got back later the car battery was to weak to crank.

Best bet? For a few dollars but a battery back up pack....about the size of a pack of cigarettes.....will usually recharge an iPhone 4 times. I keep one in the glove box of the car and have used it quite often.

Good luck.

[PaulDenise]

An iPhone battery holds less than 2 amp hours. A car battery holds around 50.

The trouble comes when a bunch of other things are on when the key is in the accessory position.

If you have a cigarette lighter that is on when the key is off, I see no problem charging your cell phone several times.

I would use my golf cart if it had a cigarette or usb connection before I used my car, tho.

[PaulDenise]

Actually the math is better than that because the car is 12 volts and the iPhone is 5 volts. So, the car battery doesn't have 25 times the juice, but has 60 times the power or so.