Battery powered Outlet port

[jimmirehman]

Ok so for the battery powered outlets (inthe center console) If i plug a phone charger into it but only plug the phone into it when it needs to charge, is the battery still being drained when the car charger is not attached to anything but still physically plugged into the center consoles outlet?

[CREWZIN]

Hey, good question. If the charger is converting the 12 volts to a usable voltage for the phone, I'd say yes, but not half as much as when the phone is actually plugged into it. Sorry, that's only a guess. Hopefully some electrical engineer will come along and set us both straight.

[jimmirehman]

I wish i could easily turn off the damn Power to the center console port so it would only work when the ignition was on! I am tech savvy enough with cars to fool arround with those little connectors under the steering wheel. Any one know anyone in fort myers who can do some simply electrical mods lke this?

[CREWZIN]

You didn't say what year your PT is. Mine's a Limited Edition 2001 and has two front outlet ports. One in the center console of the dash and another just 10 inches below that one in the floor center console. The floor center console outlet only comes on with the ignition. Here's the two I have.

[jimmirehman]

Oh im sorry it is a 2007, one power outlet powered by the ignition in the place of your bottom one... then in the arm rest there is a second one, well i installed a second one because its optional and the hardware is there but not the physical port.

[CREWZIN]

.....and is your second one that you installed powered by the ignition or is it on all the time. If it's all the time, maybe you can switch over the place where it get it's power to an ignition only source.

[BeachBum]

It's the same concept in your home. If you plug in an extension cord but don't plug anything in the cord, no power is being used. Energy can't free-flow from the outlet. It's only putting a slight drain on the battery when it's transferring a charge into a phone.

[CREWZIN]

BeachBum,

I'll agree about the extension cord, but I thought that maybe with the phone charger that converts the 12 volts to whatever the phone uses, it might draw something. I had to prove it to myself so I just hooked up my PT battery to a meter (a steady 12.08 DC volts ) and then pluged my cell phone charger into the live socket. The charger even has a small red light to tell you when it's pugged in and there was NO change in the reading of the meter. NO draw n the battery at all.

[jimmirehman]

So it is safe to say i can leave the charger in the port and i wont notice any battery drain that would be noticeable? I dont wanna go out one day to find a dead battery just because of some dumb $15 phone charger!

[CREWZIN]

Well, that's my conclusion, with my phone charger and probably yours. There's no measurable drain of the battery leaving the charger plugged in. Without the phone plugged in of course.