Car charger drains iphone battery?!?

Question

Level 1

8 points

Car charger drains iphone battery?!?

I have an adapter for my factory car stereo (made by peripheral) that plugs into the dock connector on the ipod. Works real slick and recharges the ipod too. Works fine with my nano as well as my wife's ipod (4th gen?). Anyway, I plugged my iphone into it and it drains the battery like crazy. I had it plugged in for about a 10 minute drive and it took my battery down about 25% and the iphone got pretty toasty. When I got to my destination, my buddy there has an iphone too and he said the same thing happens to him with his aftermarket cigarette lighter charger for his ipod (belkin I think) when he plugs it into his iphone.

Has anyone else experienced this? My iphone charges fine on the computer as well as the wall wort that came with it. Actually I use the "old" usb cable that came with my nano for charging with the wall wort and it works good too...

much appreciated!

Posted on Jul 26, 2007 3:09 PM

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Answer 1

Podcaster

Level 2

370 points

Jul 26, 2007 3:16 PM in response to zerpy69

I believe the voltage/wattage differences can potentially cause problems. Technically you're not supposed to use anything not "made for iPhone", so I'd be a little sketchy on this.

That said, I do have a Griffin iTrip which I've plugged my phone into a few times and it appears to begin the charge process. Still I prolly wouldn't use unless for emergency charge/power. And the transmitter doesn't work with the phone anyway, so it's only a charger at best.

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Answer 2

deraven

Level 1

0 points

Aug 29, 2007 4:34 PM in response to Podcaster

I have the dock connector option for my factory stereo as well and am also seeing it drain the iPhone battery. What's odd is that it used to charge just fine.

Initially the iPhone wouldn't route audio through the dock connector in my vehicle. It would see that it was plugged in and gave the Airplane Mode prompt, but would only play audio from its internal speaker. It did, however, charge as expected. Then the iPhone software update 1.0.1 came out which solved the audio issue and allowed me to get the audio to my deck properly. I can't say for sure if it was still charging the iPhone at that point, but it definitely wasn't /draining/ it. Then, right around the time of the 1.0.2 update I started to notice significant drops in battery power when unplugging it after a drive to or from work (usually around 25 minutes). The audio still works fine, but the battery seems to drop at least 15-20% over that drive, whether I have any music playing or just have the iPhone idle but plugged in.

So, software problem, maybe? I have a hard time believing something suggendly changed with the dock connector in my vehicle...

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Answer 3

DioNYC

Level 1

0 points

Aug 30, 2007 7:38 AM in response to deraven

I've experienced the same issue with my iPod car charger. At first it appears to drain the battery but then after a while (1/2 hour) it will start charging and fast, as if making up for lost time. It does however make the phone get very warm.

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Answer 4

Racer83L

Level 1

19 points

Aug 30, 2007 8:18 AM in response to DioNYC

I am experiencing the same issue. I noticed though, that if you power off the phone than power it back on the battery level actually increases making me think its charging the phone but the software I suppose is showing the incorrect battery level.

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