Electrical/Car Question

[KevanGuy]

I have a multi-plug 12v adapter in my car for gps, sat radio and car charger. My car doesn't cut power to the 12v plug when I take the keys out. So each time I get in the car I have to push the adapter into the plug and remember to pull it out when I get out of the car. Kind of a pain and Im sure the adapter will wear out sooner with more wear.

So I bought 4 plug adapter at Canadian Tire today that has a switch for each plug in http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows....jsp?locale=en .

My question is, if I leave the adapter plugged in with all the switches turned off will it still draw off the battery? My first thought is obviously no, it won't but thought I would see if anyone here can confirm. Thanks,

KG

[ken0042]

It probably draws a negligible amount of power still; something that would take weeks of being plugged in before it impacted your ability to start your car.

However if you are concerned, you could hard wire that to your fuse box. Most vehicles have spare ports labeled either "battery" or "ignition." Battery is like the cigarette plug and always draws. Ignition will only draw power when the ignition is on.

I also have a 12 volt power meter that shows how many watts or amps you are drawing. You can borrow it one day if you want to test some stuff out.

[Wormius]

Is that normal for the car to not disable power to the 12V adapter when the keys are out?

Anyway, if there are switches then that should physically disconnect power to whatever you have plugged in to it, and there should be no parasitic drain from the car battery. If there are some leds though, that may result in some minimal draw, but probably no worse than whatever you'd experience from a remote car starter or something that is always on.

[KevanGuy]

Cool, thanks for the input guys. Hard wiring it in in the best option I suppose. I'll see if I can figure it out.

[Bill Bumface]

Parasitic draw in a modern car is generally massive. Something with a couple LEDs on is a drop in the bucket.

[speede5]

My cigarette lighter is always hot. I've left my iphone charger plugged in a few times and never noticed any drain. It should be easy enough (not knowing the vehice youare talking about or the plug location) to run a new wire back to a switched fuse if it's really a concern though.

[Nufy]

My truck has both switched and un-switched 12 VDC ports.

I leave my car charger plugged in all the time in the center console. Just the cord sticking out to plug into my phone.

On mine the switched ports are marked with a Key symbol.
The un-switched ones simply say 12 VDC