Phone charger [via lighter receptacle]

I'm looking for the RIGHT car smartphone charger via the lighter receptacle. By RIGHT I mean one that wouldn't mess up my c3's battery, blow up a fuse, or cause any other problems. So I'd like to ask for a few expert opinions.

1) Firstly, how many volts/amps is the cigarette lighter receptacle in a petrol C3 / 1.4L / 2006? Is it 12 volt/10 amp? That's one thing I learnt I need to look out for when selecting the phone charger.

2) Any other specs I need to look out for when selecting the charger?

Any tips are more than welcome so pls supply them!

soewhaty wrote:I'm looking for the RIGHT car smartphone charger via the lighter receptacle. By RIGHT I mean one that wouldn't mess up my c3's battery, blow up a fuse, or cause any other problems. So I'd like to ask for a few expert opinions.

1) Firstly, how many volts/amps is the cigarette lighter receptacle in a petrol C3 / 1.4L / 2006? Is it 12 volt/10 amp? That's one thing I learnt I need to look out for when selecting the phone charger.

2) Any other specs I need to look out for when selecting the charger?

Any tips are more than welcome so pls supply them!

You are over thinking it. The power socket or cigarette lighter can supply many times more power than a phone charger can draw.

Any of these 12v lighter plugs (here) will be fine for the C3. A double usb is more useful than a single and even charging iPads, you will be well within the power, fuse and cable rating.

Thank you for the reply! You are partly right but I guess I'm overthinking it cos lights are on all the time (acc. to law), a/c is cooling me almost all the time as well, and now and then radio is playing. So all that puts load on the electrical system. I guess this is why my battery light blinks now and then on the dashboard when starting the engine and even sometimes the car enters eco-mode right after starting the engine. Dunno if it's a faulty battery or alternator. Worse still, sometimes I even can't enter cruise control mode, which I also thought was due to a bad battery/alternator. Could it be? Then again, if I stop the engine and start it again later, it sometimes (but not always) manages to enter cruise control mode. This issue came as of recently. Was gonna start a thread for that actually, but ...

Back to the charger issue, if I may. Could I be charging my phone when ONLY the engine is running or should I charge only when I'm driving the car? I guess to answer that i need to know at which point the alternator is charging the car battery - when simply the engine is running or only when driving the car. As far as I know the alternator charges the car battery when the engine is on, without needing the car to be driving, but i'm not fully sure.

soewhaty wrote:Could I be charging my phone when ONLY the engine is running or should I charge only when I'm driving the car? I guess to answer that i need to know at which point the alternator is charging the car battery - when simply the engine is running or only when driving the car. As far as I know the alternator charges the car battery when the engine is on, without needing the car to be driving, but i'm not fully sure.

You are correct in saying when the engine is running then the alternator is delivering power.

soewhaty wrote:but I guess I'm overthinking it cos lights are on all the time (acc. to law), a/c is cooling me almost all the time as well, and now and then radio is playing. So all that puts load on the electrical system. I guess this is why my battery light blinks now and then on the dashboard when starting the engine and even sometimes the car enters eco-mode right after starting the engine. Dunno if it's a faulty battery or alternator.

The A/C has nothing to do with the alternator or battery.

The alternator is designed to power the rear heater, electric windows, power steering, radio, extra cabin heating on some models and all the computers and still have plenty to charge the battery. If you are getting a battery light - its a no charge warning and you have a fault. Bad alternator, bad connections, bad battery, loose alternator belt, something along those lines.

petrol-citroen-c3/battery-light-t1996.html

soewhaty wrote:f I stop the engine and start it again later, it sometimes (but not always) manages to enter cruise control mode. This issue came as of recently. Was gonna start a thread for that actually

Good idea. Its nice to keep faults separate.

Thanks for the reply! My phone charger's output is 0.85 Amps. Do I need to consider the usb car charger's ability to deliver the proper charging current to the device being charged? The following review led me to think about it:

https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-usb-car-charger/
'Scosche’s USBC242M reVOLT dual - It’s also able to differentiate between different devices to deliver the proper charging current to each, something not every charger can do—including the previous iteration of this model'.

soewhaty wrote:Thanks for the reply! My phone charger's output is 0.85 Amps. Do I need to consider the usb car charger's ability to deliver the proper charging current to the device being charged? The following review led me to think about it:

No, as long as the current delivered is the same or more than you need the phone will charge quickly. If the current delivered is less then the phone will charge more slowly.

The 1A outputs will push a modern android phone to its maximum charging speed, but a lower output, like your .85A charger will charge more slowly on a phone that can charge at 1A.

Any of the USB adaptors in the link above will charge a phone and the 2.1A outputs will also charge an iPad.

These USB chargers don't need much thinking about, you just plug one end into a spare power or cigarette lighter socket and a USB wire into it and the other end into a phone, sat nav, ipda, whatever you have and it charges.

soewhaty wrote:https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-usb-car-charger/
'Scosche’s USBC242M reVOLT dual - It’s also able to differentiate between different devices to deliver the proper charging current to each, something not every charger can do—including the previous iteration of this model'.

Its up to the device to draw the current - up to the maximum that the charger can supply and as much as the phone is designed to take, whichever is reached first.


These things are universal, imagine how many different USB adaptors you would need if everyone who wanted to charge a phone needed a different one? My glove box would be full of different ones if that was the case, but it isn't because each USB cable fits the power adaptor and connects to the phone.

Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge! (bow) !!!

Last question - my phone's charger is .85A but the battery is 2100mAh ... unless I'm mixing and misunderstanding again, then that means the maximum charging the battery will draw from a charger is 2.1A ... so as long as I get a charger which (per port) delivers more than 2.1A then that would be the fastest the phone would be able to charge, right?

soewhaty wrote:Last question - my phone's charger is .85A but the battery is 2100mAh ... unless I'm mixing and misunderstanding again, then that means the maximum charging the battery will draw from a charger is 2.1A ...

You are very confused.

The battery is just a store of energy and is measure in mAH (2100 in your case).

The charge rate is also measured in mAH but they are not connected other than having the same name.

You can fit different capacity batteries in phones to extend their usage but you don't need a different charger for each battery, you just need to charge it for longer.

C3driver52 wrote:Its up to the device to draw the current - up to the maximum that the charger can supply and as much as the phone is designed to take, whichever is reached first.

See, I didn't mention the battery.


The charge rate is set by the phone and it will draw up to its maximum (usually about 1A) as long as the charger can deliver it (yours is .85A, most are 1A, some are 2.1A). No mention of batteries.

soewhaty wrote:so as long as I get a charger which (per port) delivers more than 2.1A then that would be the fastest the phone would be able to charge, right?

Wrong.

see:

C3driver52 wrote:The 1A outputs will push a modern android phone to its maximum charging speed, but a lower output, like your .85A charger will charge more slowly on a phone that can charge at 1A.

Any of the USB adaptors in the link above will charge a phone and the 2.1A outputs will also charge an iPad.

If your supplied charger is the phones maximum (.85A) which could be a reasonable assumption, then any of the USB adaptors will charge the phone at its maximum (an assumed .85A).

But if your phone is an iPad (for example) then your existing .85A charger is a slow charger and a 2.1A USB will charge at full rate in much less time.

You're absolutely right that I was confused a lot, now I'm confused less thanks to the good explanation! Thank you for clarifying matters!