Droid (and other gizmo) car charger

[DaDroidDude]

Hi again.

Just talked to a Verizon rep today and he said that car cig lighter chargers aren't regulated and can overcharge a phone and damage it or the battery and should be avoided, or watched closely.

Is this true?

Thanks.

B

 

[billyidle]

No, you will be fine.

 

[jimnutt]

Actually, he's partially right. Not all car chargers are regulated and can cause problems with your phone. If it doesn't say 5 Vdc on the charger then treat it with suspicion. A lot of times the charger will work fine as long as the phone battery is low (the phone draws more current, pulling the charger's voltage down to an acceptable range) and then cause problems as the phone gets closer to fully charged.

 

[billyidle]

And there are not bad wall chargers?

It sounds from the post that the OP was told it was a bad idea to use car chargers. They work fine. Are there bad ones? I'm sure they exist, there are bad wall chargers as well.

 

[jimnutt]

Most (if not all) wall chargers with a micro usb plug are regulated to 5 Vdc. They have to step the voltage down from 110 Vac anyway, so they might as well regulate it to 5V. Car chargers on the other hand are starting at 12 Vdc, so some of the cheaper ones just use a resistor to limit the current and pull the voltage down. Those are the ones that can cause a problem.

 

[billyidle]

To the OP, you can safely use car chargers with your Droid. The rep grossly overstated the danger. I've been using one since day 1, I'm sure many thousands on this board use them as well.

 

[Newps]

Overvoltage is not a problem. I have two car chargers, one from Verizon and one I got with a case. I have an airplane that is 14 volts, which means that while the engine is running the voltage at the cig lighter plug is 14.1-14.5 volts. The Droid is the only phone I've ever had that won't charge when the voltage is too high. The chargers work just fine in any car and the Droid charges, put it in the plane and it just doesn't charge. No other device has ever done that, I still don't know why the Droid acts this way. Turn the engine off so the voltage drops to the battery voltage of just under 14 and the phone charges normally.