• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

[WARNING] Car chargers

I've been using after market car chargers for many, many years with no issues.
Another tip that should be mentioned is make sure the car is on and running before the charger is plugged into your phone. If you turn the car off for a reason such as getting gas, un plug the charger from the phone then plug it back in after the car is started again. I know plenty of others who have blown their phones and gps units with car chargers when they started the car with the charger already plugged in.
 
OcalaFlGuy said:
You miss my point.

Since I don't carry insurance, my thought was IF a Metro charger ended up frying my phone, I'd have a much better chance of getting it replaced than if I walked in and tried to get help 'cause an Ebay charger had fried it.

Bruce in Ocala, FL
Click to expand...
My point was metro chargers or the cheap god-knows-who-makes it chargers they sell give ya wit ha phone are a POFS.

But yea would think, but this is MetroPCS we are talking about. ;)

sincarafan said:
I've been using after market car chargers for many, many years with no issues.
Another tip that should be mentioned is make sure the car is on and running before the charger is plugged into your phone. If you turn the car off for a reason such as getting gas, un plug the charger from the phone then plug it back in after the car is started again. I know plenty of others who have blown their phones and gps units with car chargers when they started the car with the charger already plugged in.
Click to expand...
If you car and its charging system are in order that shouldnt matter. Never ever had a issue with my gps units staying plugged in 24/7 using the car adapter that came with the GPS device. Now it wouldnt be a bad practice to unplug devices, but shouldnt be a issue.
 
Was the charger made in China? I used to watch some electronic engineers on youtube (I'm not an engineer BTW, too dumb to be one) who would always take apart a Chinese made chargers purely to make sure it wasn't a fire hazard which most of the time they were.

Hope you are able to get it replaced quickly and without no hassles!
 
Matthew83 said:
Was the charger made in China? I used to watch some electronic engineers on youtube (I'm not an engineer BTW, too dumb to be one) who would always take apart a Chinese made chargers purely to make sure it wasn't a fire hazard which most of the time they were.

Hope you are able to get it replaced quickly and without no hassles!
Click to expand...

What isn't made in China??????? :p
Yea, my phones are made in Korea. Can't trust Chinese phones ;)
 
when i was a kid you could walk into radio shack and it was full of little parts like transistors,resistors,capacitors and stuff.
i grew up taping circuit boards and etching the copper off and assembling parts and soldering. i picked up a little knowledge along the way

If something bad is going to happen,there are more parts in a wall charger to go out
wall charger has to reduce voltage to 5 volts and convert ac to dc
also you are dealing with 110 volts going in
more parts to go bad and almost 100 more
volts to fry your phone.
I am almost always using a car charger
i have a car charger made by Belkin
had it in use for almost 2 years 24/7
i recomend buying quallity chargers and check cables for fraying. they are not to exspensive you can go ahead and replace it before it goes bad
i clean the terminals in the charger plug and the phone regularly
keeps a good connection and keeps dirt from wearing the metal.

Though as a precaution as to avoid spikes i would avoid having phone plugged in when starting a car
i think car chargers are designed to reduce 12-24 volts down to 5 so voltage spikes wont cause damage,
if the voltage regulatorin the car goes out or fails that may be an issue
but again quality auto charging devices are made to clip. a certain amount of over voltage.
 
Hey has anybody ever noticed two different chargers with exact same specs can charge at different speeds?
Did you know(if i remember correctly) electricity mostly flows on the surface of the wire.
So i have found alot of chargers have these skinny wires
Which do not carry all the electricity to the other end properly
I get chargers that come with usb ports so i can get a good usb cabke to charge effectivley
This probably can effect usb tethering to by having cheap wires you may lower data speeds
 
rhino889a said:
Hey has anybody ever noticed two different chargers with exact same specs can charge at different speeds?
Did you know(if i remember correctly) electricity mostly flows on the surface of the wire.
So i have found alot of chargers have these skinny wires
Which do not carry all the electricity to the other end properly
I get chargers that come with usb ports so i can get a good usb cabke to charge effectivley
This probably can effect usb tethering to by having cheap wires you may lower data speeds
Click to expand...

The wire size is not really an issue for the amount of current involved. As far as the "skin effect" that is more of a factor with AC current rather than DC.
I suspect the real reason for different charging rates is that some of the cheaper ones probably don't put out as much current as they are rated for.
 
I would trust a thick wire over a thin one any day of the week.
Anyways, I finally have my replacement :D
 
Well ya trust
But its also a matter of efficiency
In general many of charger wires are not thick enough to transfer the electricity properly
I have changed usb cables for my charger and noticed a huge increase of charging speed
This effect can apply to tethering and transfering fikes as well
Since. Files are converted to electrity sent through the wires then converted to files again
Does that make sense?
You got your repkacement phone?
 
Yes, I got my replacement :D
That was like a week using my old optimus m, I'm glad it never rebooted while I was using it for once. :p
 
If its not the wire size it must be
the type metal in the wires ,since metals offer different resistance
But either way my point is not to be argumentative but relay the value of a few extra
As i stated above i do get noticible differences in charging rates just by changing the cable
And seems to be even more important using extra long cord
 
Sammyz your Optimus was skeered to reboot on you.

It'd heard you killed your Motion. They're both in the same union. Word gets around.

:D

Bruce in Ocala, FL
 
I finally sold my optimus
Since i have 3 motions i decided i didnt need it
I did like the fact that the forward facing speaker got loud
My motion gets super load but most the volune is from the rear speaker
 
sammyz said:
That's what I'm doing :p
Click to expand...

Sorry but that's a bit nuts. ;)
Aside from being horribly inefficient, the AC produced by those inverters is not a true sine wave and is more likely to cause a problem with a wall charger than if it were plugged into a real wall outlet. IMO you're being a bit paranoid with this car charger business, just buy good quality name-brand ones and they won't blow up your phone.
 
Fox Mulder said:
Sorry but that's a bit nuts. ;)
Aside from being horribly inefficient, the AC produced by those inverters is not a true sine wave and is more likely to cause a problem with a wall charger than if it were plugged into a real wall outlet. IMO you're being a bit paranoid with this car charger business, just buy good quality name-brand ones and they won't blow up your phone.
Click to expand...

Ok, I'll invest in a good car charger. Thanks.
looks in pockets, no money :p
 
sammyz said:
Ok, I'll invest in a good car charger. Thanks.
looks in pockets, no money :p
Click to expand...

Borrow the money, it'll save you in the long run vs. a cheap charger trashing your phone.
And seriously, adding a second device just introduces another point of failure. The inverter can fail and take the charger with it.
 
Fox Mulder said:
Borrow the money, it'll save you in the long run vs. a cheap charger trashing your phone.
And seriously, adding a second device just introduces another point of failure. The inverter can fail and take the charger with it.
Click to expand...

I'm just not gonna charge my phone in the car till I have the money :)
 
Lol mulder
Thank you
Lets take 12 volts dc then convert it to 110 ac then convert. It to 12volt dc then convert it to. 5 volt dc
I have no clue what happened here
But you people need to hide your head under the blankets and sleep with the lights on or the Boogie Charger is gonna get you
 
^rofl :rofl:

But seriously, I don't have time (nor the money) to have my phone replaced again....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom