Car Phone Charger?

[Scupper]

I have several older car phone chargers no longer useable with current phone. I had a thought about using them to charge my little 12 volt battery's we use for our flashers.

Any thoughts or should I just donate them to landfill.

Scott

[Macgyver55]

It depends on how many milliamps they put out and how big the battery is.

Most phone chargers would be too small to charge that size battery in an efficient manner.

[CAMAN]

They also aren't always putting out 12 volts, usually only around 3 volts

you can recycle them at places like Target and Best Buy. They usually have a bin at the entrance you can throw old cell phones and chargers in.

[Dave]

Agree, I don't think any cell phone is 12 volts.

[Scupper]

Appreciate the reply's.

For further discussion,

let's say I'm on the road for 4 hours with my small 12 volt battery connected to my 12 volt power source (cell phone charger) inside the vehicle. Wouldn't it act as a trickle charger to somewhat bring up the power level of battery or would it be negligible.

I pulled the battery out of my cell phone and there is a number (1300 mAh).

Scott

[CAMAN]

No, in fact it could discharge the battery, or short out the phone charger and cause a fire if there is no internal fuse. It is not made to have 12 volts going into the phone side of it since the battery in your phone most likely isn't 12 volts, it is more in the range of 3.7 volts with 1300 mAH (milliamp Hours). The charger reduces the voltage from 12 to 3.7 volts and sends that to the phone.

If you want to charge a battery while driving you can easily pick up a standard cigarette plug attach wires to it, attach a couple alligator clips to the other end (MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE PROPER POLARITY otherwise smoke will appear very quickly), and attach the alligator clips to the battery.

Something similar to the wire and plug on the right will be pretty cheap.

:edit:

Just remember, if the battery is fully discharged don't plug the battery in until after the vehicle is running, the battery could draw all the power from the starting battery and it may not have enough juice to start the motor.