Car usb charger for cigarette lighter?

chrishar

Is there anything to look for when buying one of these or are they all the same? I see them for £8-10 in shops but on eBay they're as little as £1-1.50.

Thanks

thescouselander

Be careful - I bought a cheap one which ended up overheating quite badly. Luckily I smelled it and stopped using it before it burst into flames.

vikingaero

Poundland sell them. Depends if you want 1, 2, 3 or more ports.

Some are massive and stick out a long way: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Charger-RAVPower-Adapter-Technology-Android/dp/B00SYBECKQ/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1471184518&sr=8-18&keywords=cigarette+lighter+usb

Others sit virtually flush: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Charger-Adapter-Android-Smallest-Powerful/dp/B018K9GGLO/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1471184654&sr=8-8&keywords=twin+usb+car+charger

Be careful with the larger ones as by the time you plug in your USB charging cable there could be interference with gearsticks depending on the design of your car.

jimmy_cricket

I use this, sits nicely in cup holder and a recognised name so not had any problems with it:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0019UPEYW/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

agrinnall

jimmy_cricket wrote: »

I use this, sits nicely in cup holder and a recognised name so not had any problems with it:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0019UPEYW/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

But it'll cost £17.48 for the OP to buy one, I'm not sure they were looking for even more expensive options that the ones they listed.

Marvel1

thescouselander wrote: »

Be careful - I bought a cheap one which ended up overheating quite badly. Luckily I smelled it and stopped using it before it burst into flames.

This, I bought a cheap one on Ebay and mine was the same. I used it for my sat nav, it was only a small journey, when taking it at the end, I couldn't beleive how hot it was!

DragonQ

vikingaero wrote: »

Poundland sell them. Depends if you want 1, 2, 3 or more ports.

Some are massive and stick out a long way: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Charger-RAVPower-Adapter-Technology-Android/dp/B00SYBECKQ/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1471184518&sr=8-18&keywords=cigarette+lighter+usb

Looks like the one I use. Works perfectly and charges at full current (some cheap ones I've tried don't have enough current to charge whilst using the phone for music playback and sat nav).

jimmy_cricket

agrinnall wrote: »

But it'll cost £17.48 for the OP to buy one, I'm not sure they were looking for even more expensive options that the ones they listed.

12.98 is the cheapest including p&p

ManuelG

cjdavies wrote: »

This, I bought a cheap one on Ebay and mine was the same. I used it for my sat nav, it was only a small journey, when taking it at the end, I couldn't beleive how hot it was!

Mine didn't overheat... but it did fall apart leaving bits wedged in the cigarette lighter, rendering it unusable from that point on.

thescouselander

I've got one of these now:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B016LPD82O/ref=sr_ph?ie=UTF8&qid=1471210570&sr=1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=anker+car+usb+quick+charger


Good piece of kit with Qualcomm quick charge too - if your phone supports it. Bit of a bargain at the current price.

cts_casemod

From experience:

Poor chargers are nor EMI compliant. You'll loose radio reception if the signal is not the best, my dash camera and a gps I had years ago all did this and so do some cheap battery banks. A good quality charger should not.

Power output: 'Elcheapo' chargers generally are rated for 500mA to 1A. 1A might seem like a lot, but what I've often seen is poor regulation. Most phones see this and reduce charging rate accordingly. Often they also claim 2.4A, but if drawing that much current the voltage sags to 4.5 or 4.6V. The phone generally sees this as out of spec and reduces charge rate accordingly.

In fact, many Samsung (and other) chargers do the opposite: Its called load compensation and the output voltage is increased a bit to compensate losses on the cable. This insures the phone sees the correct voltage and hence has a chance to pull rated current rather than throttling charge.

There are different indicators used to signal the phone that it is connected to a charger and what current it can supply. If the phone fails to identify this it defaults into a safe mode typically 300-500mA. As an example, I have a mean well charger that works fine with my wife's moto G3 but when connected to my lenovo K3 note the phone refuses to draw more than 400mA. This phone pulls 1.7A with a Samsung genuine charger.

Lastly, you wont find qualcomm fast chargers at very low prices (less than £7). So forget about charging a S7 in half an hour

If you can live with the drawbacks above they are generally fine.
Cheap AC mains adapters are a different story, given poor clearance between high voltage components, but that's topic for another day