Car Charger for s4

[Natey2]

Higher current generally means more heat. My Motorola car charger in my former car would get pretty hot (so would the phone DroidX). It actually blew a fuse in my current car, but other similar model car owners have reported that it is a problem with the front cigarette lighter outlet only; the console outlet and rear outlet work fine with that Motorola car charger.
I have not used my S4 car charger yet.

 

[Overland1]

I have been using any of a variety of USB-MicroUSB cables that I have laying around, and they all work well. Using a "wall-wart" and cable like the one that came with the phone seems to charge a bit faster, but I have never confirmed this.

 

[James_thomas]

Hi guys,

I've purchased this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L333VA4 I'm using this for my Nexus 5 and My wife's iPhone 4s. It supports multi-devices. So we've got our solution in one device.

 

[cocole]

Hi there,
I have a S4,how about this one?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KW2W6B2

it's with 4.5/5 stars that fits for the s4,the price is amazing.

 

[Overland1]

cocole, that one should work OK; it appears (per the specs) capable of putting out enough current to charge the phone easily.

With any of these phones, as long as the current output is sufficient, it should work just fine. That output will depend upon what the device draws... if it needs less than 1 A of current to charge the battery in a reasonable time period, then a charger with a maximum output of 2 A is going to do the job. The other part of the erquation is voltage, and most all micro-USB devices run and require the same voltage (~5 volts)... I have never heard of any "mobile" chargers that put out too much voltage, but I guess they could exist.

Think of current (measured in Amperes) as being like the volume of water running through a pipe or hose. Voltage is like the pressure that the flow of water exerts within that pipe or hose. The multiplied combination of those two equals power, measured in Watts. For example, 5 volts x 2 Amperes = 10 Watts.

 

[jhom]

I've been using the Anker dual port car charger for several months quite successfully. The charger outputs 2a at each port.

 

[FoxKat]

I doubt you will see 2.1amp charge. I have not tested the mentioned chargers. I ran a direct wired 12volt outlet to the backseat for my daughter. I pulled the fuse at the battery and placed a multimeter inline measure amperage. I used cheap and expensive chargers and usb data cords withe various Androids phones/tablets. None of the devices was a gs4. There were two gs3's. I saw a momentary spike to . 94amps. Most devices/chargers were below this level. I did not use a dedicated Android charge cable (data +/- shorted).

If you put the ammeter between the charger and the battery (fuse at the battery inline), and measured current then you're looking at the current on a 12 volt circuit (actually upto 13.8v). This is the current the charger is pulling from the car, not what it's pushing to the phone.

Take 12 × .94 and you get 11.28 watts. At 13.8 volts it's 12.97 watts Then divide by 5.1 volts at the plug to the phone and you'll see 2.21 amps at 5.1 volts at the phone (based on 12 volts on the input side), and upto 2.54 amps at 13.8 volts (not counting for loss in heat/resistance). So it's entirely possible that one or more of the chargers you mentioned is capable of putting out 2.1 amps at 5.1 volts.

To see true current to the phone you'd need to put the ammeter in between the charger cord and the phone itself. There are also apps that can run on the phone and which will tell you how much current the phone is pulling during charge, based on the phone's actual internal charging system monitor.

Here are two that I know of but there are others...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acorilhas.opochargingcurrent

And https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gombosdev.ampere

Below is a reading from opo with my phone on Turbo Charging while at 60%.

It clearly shows at least 2.2 amps going to the battery.

And here's the same app reading while charging from my 10K portable battery on the 1.1 amp port.

What's strange is that the following is a reading from the same portable charger but in the 2.2 amp port, and its actually lower... I'm also not getting an average on the 2.2 side and the levels are bouncing all over the range from zero to the max.

I'm beginning to believe the 2.2 amp side of the charger is either defective or the phone is simply working hard to curtail the current rate to protect the battery.

 

[Natey2]

Below is a reading from opo with my phone on Turbo Charging while at 60%.

It clearly shows at least 2.2 amps going to the battery.

Maybe they meant microAmps, not milliAmps (mA), in the app display.
Because 2226744mA is 2226A, I think.