Can I run my laptop off a car battery

ben501

The battery's not very good in my laptop and I want to to use it while I'm out in the car (stationary with the engine off)

Is it okay to use an adaptor in the cigarette lighter socket or will this flatten the car battery?

Probably be for a couple of hours. Or am I better off buying a new battery for the laptop if I want to do this?

HappyMJ

It will flatten the car battery but if you run the engine for a few minutes every hour or so it will recharge the battery.

Kernel_Sanders

HappyMJ wrote: »

It will flatten the car battery but if you run the engine for a few minutes every hour or so it will recharge the battery.

Depends on the condition and capacity of the battery, and also the demands of your laptop.It could well be the equivalent of leaving the side and tail lights on, so could be feasible. Best thing would be to park the car facing downhill so it would be easy to bump start.

fwor

ben501 wrote: »

The battery's not very good in my laptop and I want to to use it while I'm out in the car (stationary with the engine off)

Is it okay to use an adaptor in the cigarette lighter socket or will this flatten the car battery?

Probably be for a couple of hours. Or am I better off buying a new battery for the laptop if I want to do this?

If you mean running from a cigar lighter socket to a mains inverter to the laptop power supply to the laptop, you will get a lot of power wasted, as there will be high losses in both inverter and (less so) the laptop PSU.

If you mean direct from the battery to the laptop, you probably can't, as most laptops need 18V and a car battery voltage is only 12V or thereabouts.

neilwoods

probably means use an in-car laptop power supply, bypass the inefficient inverter (hopefully)

ben501

Thanks all.

It would be using an adaptor like this



Had laptop in the car while out the other day. While sat waiting I decided to use it.

Seemed like a good idea for keeping kids / OH entertained but as mentioned battery's not very good. Especially if somewhere like Tesco that has free wi-fi to help keep them entertained.

Looks like I'd be better off buying a new battery instead.

andy2004

as you havent mention the make and model of the laptop or the battery model, I would suggest looking on ebay for a new laptop battery,
there is an alternative to using your car battery, a battery jump starter can be picked up from poundstrecter for £24.99 when i was in there last. Help to jump start your car if you have a dead battery, has a cigarette socket in the side.
just plug your adapter above into that socket, if you charge it up 24hrs previously, and just use it for the laptop whilst in your car for the kids you main car battery wouldnt be used.
as a side note: the jumpstarter can be plugged into the car as the car is moving and keep that charged up whilst driving.
car battery to jumpstarter to laptop charger whilst using.
when not moving/driving remove jumpstarter from the cig socket no loss then to the car.

small program for you to run on your battery, will tell you how its working or what its charging upto and give you information on it aswell. http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/battery_information_view.html

Thanks notmyrealname for pointing out what i forgot to post when i added the above information. DOH!!!! which should have been the first thing i put, but some reason i got ahead of myself, and thought i put it and didn't.

Notmyrealname

OK, seeing as everyone has done a merry dance around the issue...

The answer you want is YES YOU CAN using the adapter you posted as long as it supplies the correct voltage and at least the current your laptop needs.

You can run it for many several hours on the car battery just fine as long as the car battery is in a good state of charge. If you only do short journeys in the car you may want to go for a long run first or keep the engine running.

pogofish

I used to use one of those adaptors, a clip-on 12v socket and a motorcycle battery when I was working out and about with my old laptop - It did give me a good couple of hours extra use before having to rely on the laptop battery, which didn't last very long.

I would then charge the laptop via the same adaptor off 12v in the car when the engine was running and the bike battery would be charged by one of those lighter-socket rechargers. Worked very well and avoided the risk of being stuck up the end of a dirt track in the highlands with a flat battery!

spike7451

I bought a power inverter that I can use in the car,similar to this;

http://www.caravantechnology.com/300W-12V-Power-Inverter-P16C18.aspx

Mainly now so I can use the home vaccumn to clean the car as my home is set off the road with no drive access,but also when I was at Sky I could charge my drill batteries in the van between jobs.

Kernel_Sanders

That universal charger is very cheap a 7.99 euros (details http://www.syncron.ie/product_p/hp.htm ). Pity it won't charge my Asus Eee.