In some cars, you can charge a cell phone whether or not the car is running. My question is: does that in anyway hurt the car? My husband and I are in disagreement about this.
Tom and Ray did a Car Talk column recently that deals with this issue.
When the engine's off, charging a cell phone, playing the radio, or turning on the interior lights (some of which probably come on every time you open the door) will draw a little charge from the car's battery. But it's a pretty small amount. As Tom (Magliozzi) puts it in the column, "Charging a cell phone takes so little energy that it's virtually impossible to run down a healthy car battery by doing that. And the battery would have completely recharged itself the next time [you use] the car."
So as long as your car battery's in decent shape, I wouldn't worry about the car. If you're worried about the *phone*, check your phone's instruction manual to see if they say anything about limiting what kinds of chargers you hook it up to. (I don't know if that's an issue with most cell phones or not.) If you're using a charger that came with the phone, or that's recommended by the manufacturer, I can't see there being any problem.
SO I used to have a dodge grand caravan which allowed me to plug stuff into one of the cigarette lighter plugs. I left my cel phone plugged in there ALL the time. there was never a problem either for my cel phone or for my car's battery. I did once leave a portable dvd player hooked up to that outlet and it drained my battery in a short period of time. So, though, in my experience, it was fine to leave a cel phone plugged in, other electronics are not always safe. Katryn's two cents.
2 comments:
Tom and Ray did a Car Talk column recently that deals with this issue.
When the engine's off, charging a cell phone, playing the radio, or turning on the interior lights (some of which probably come on every time you open the door) will draw a little charge from the car's battery. But it's a pretty small amount. As Tom (Magliozzi) puts it in the column, "Charging a cell phone takes so little energy that it's virtually impossible to run down a healthy car battery by doing that. And the battery would have completely recharged itself the next time [you use] the car."
So as long as your car battery's in decent shape, I wouldn't worry about the car. If you're worried about the *phone*, check your phone's instruction manual to see if they say anything about limiting what kinds of chargers you hook it up to. (I don't know if that's an issue with most cell phones or not.) If you're using a charger that came with the phone, or that's recommended by the manufacturer, I can't see there being any problem.
SO I used to have a dodge grand caravan which allowed me to plug stuff into one of the cigarette lighter plugs. I left my cel phone plugged in there ALL the time. there was never a problem either for my cel phone or for my car's battery. I did once leave a portable dvd player hooked up to that outlet and it drained my battery in a short period of time. So, though, in my experience, it was fine to leave a cel phone plugged in, other electronics are not always safe.
Katryn's two cents.
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