Any problems charging cell phones?

How odd!

I just tossed my previous brand new car charger and bought another due to the very same problem. I tried charging my phone today with the new one for a couple of hours (with car on) and I could swear that I ended up with less battery charge then when I started. I spoke all of three minutes--the rest of the time is was "charging." Maybe I should pay more attention to this.

Sony Ericsson T608 (Sprint PCS)
Aftermarket $.99 chinese car chargers from Ebay

 

FYI mine seems to charge just fine -- Kyocera 7135 and OEM charger.
I love having it charge inside the console so I don't have the charger cord swinging around! :clap:

 

My two cents on this, and it's very repeatable. I leave the T616 plugged into the 12V charger in the center console during my 45 minute commute to work. It works just fine and there's no problems. The mistake I made the other day was that I left the phone, which was fully charged, plugged into the console adapter after I parked the car and went into my office. I honestly did't notice it all day long. When I left work eight hours later, the phone's batter had been completely sucked dry. The phone would not even turn on until I had been driving with it charging for 40 minutes. Somehting is most DEFINITELY wrong here. I know the relay surrounding the plug is supposed to provent any use of the adapter wihent he car is off, but is it possible for your phone's limited battery power to actually act as a trickle charger for the car's 12V system? I have never at any time drained my phone so badly that it took 40 minutes just to turn it on. Needless to say, I won't be leaving it in the car again....

 

Hmmm. Interesting theory. That could explain the problem with my T608. I tend to leave it plugged in, especially when I hop out of my car for a few minutes, or even hours. I hadn't related the odd charging characteristics of the car charger/phone to that habit.

 

considering that there is one type of 'jumper cable' for cars that won't start due to a dead battery, which consists of a double male lighter cable to hook one cigarette lighter up to one in the car with the dead battery, this explanation seems feasible.

by the way, don't ever buy one of the above cables, unless you want to wait hours for enough juice to transfer to start the dead car...

but it definitely might suck the juice out of a cel phone quickly enough i guess

 

I heard of this problem with some other types of cars when I first got my cellphone (Kyocera 7135 & a different chat forum addiction ;-))

I have an extra phone battery, so I'll try it and see if I can detect battery drainaige. Only trick is to remember to leave it there overnight!

 

Well, I gave it a try last night and my phone was still pretty close to fully charged this morning. I plan to snap up a Bluetooth phone (and sell my trusty 7135) as soon as there is one available on Verizon. So I'm glad to know I should watch out for this issue when I get the new phone - doesn't seem to be an issue with the current one though!

 

I had bought a new '87 Plymouth Colt, made by Mitsubishi, plain base model. When I added a stereo and needed a ground, I started checking through several empty connectors near the radio slot with a multimeter. I found one easy enough and wired up the stereo. A few weeks later I had blown the fuse for the tail lights several times, and wound up paying the dealer to disconnect the radio. It turns out that wire, that was grounded when the lights were switched off, was the hot wire to light the radio display when the lights were turned on.

Anyway, it sounds like the circuit to the power sockets may be grounded when the car is switched off. I would have expected an open circuit, and I think most people would, but this could explain the draining batteries.

 

This may or may not be related to your problems, but I've noticed the charger plug must be very FIRMLY seated in the socket to make a connection.

 

I also feel like my Prius is charging off my phone. Or at least I end up with less phone after I.charge in the car.