Hey Guys,

What's up? I was curious about this and figured you guys may know...I now have a G37 Sedan and there's both a USB outlet as well as your standard cigarette light outlet.

I've tried the USB outlet with a USB to Lightning cable, although it charged extremely slow. I'm talking about 5-10% for an entire 20+ min car ride. I'm not sure if that's normal, or maybe it's a cheaper quality cord I bought? It's not the Apple cord, as I use that for a wall charger in my room.

I was thinking about getting an actual "car charger" that plugs into the cigarette light outlet, although I wasn't sure if there was a big difference.

Lastly, is one or the other better for the phone/car? I always remember hearing "car chargers" hurt the battery on the phone as there's various levels of voltage hitting it? Might just be a myth I've heard.

Does one drain more power from the car? I'd like to use the one that draws the least amount of battery/alternator power from the car. Or are they both insignificant?

Thanks in advance!

 

I think they draw the same amount of power, but I would recommend getting a genuine charger for your car. Monoprice has a few which is MFI Certified , i brought a 10ft cable from them a few weeks ago and its been working flawlessly .

 

Neither sources drain an amount of power from the battery that is cause for concern while the car is running.

That said, the USB ports in my Fusion also charge at a painfully slow rate, so I use a dedicated car charger.

 

Yes, USB charges slower than charging from a power outlet.

 

Ditch the iPhone.

 

The car most likely has a lower Amp usb output resulting in the lower charging rate.

 

^This. I bet if you plugged an iPad into it, it wouldn't even charge as it requires more amps than the iPhone.

Go to Walgreens/CVS and get one of these. Cheap, small, and effective:

You won't hurt your car or your phone, and you will never drain your car battery charging an iPhone.

 

Spend the money and get a good one. I bought a bunch of those from Meritline and all they did was make the phone switch in and out of charging mode.

 

Did you ever try just switching the cable to see if the Apple one would charge it faster? I had a cheap eBay one and it seemed like it barely charged my 5 off the USB from my Pioneer head unit. I lost that and found the OEM one I had bought beforehand and I get a much faster charge.