(T) Load capacity of cigarette lighters?

Hello there..

I'm driving to Rome and I'm one of the lucky ones with a boot cigarette lighter power socket..

I want to know what is the load capacity of the cigarette lighter power system? Would I kill the battery if I was to have a powered coolbox in the rear duelled with a hdd with a long usb lead to usb to blue &me ; my tomtom in the front and possibly duelling with a mobile phone charger...

What do you think?

Btw I'm gonna complain on Fiatforum's members behalf regarding the inconsistency of having a power socket installed in the boot.. Considering how cheap they are and how a necessity they are with a tyre compressor etc it seems crazy! I'll let you know how I get on..

hmmmm *goes to look in my own boot for a power socket!!

well, the cigarette lighter (being a metal coil heated by current) will take a large current drain, so I'm sure running chargers/satnav ect is well below it's tolerances.... I'm not sure about the powered cool box, check out it's current draw, then check out the fuse for the cigarette lighter, that will give you the figures you need, if it's current draw is less than the fuse rating, you're fine

I'd be more worried about the car being able to supply enough power for all that and still keep the battery charged! Make sure you turn it all off when you stop the engine

Maybe you should connect it all up turn the lights on and leave the car idling for a while and see what happens, if the lights start to dim after a while your probably pulling too much.


I'd love to know how you get on though as I'll probably be doing very very similar come july 07

arn't the cig lighter sockets turned off when you stop the engine? they are in mine...... your alternator should automatically adjust to supply the right current... if it cant cope, you should get a warning light... but the only times I've heard of this happening are with big ICE installs, where an uprated alternator, and an extra battery are usefull....

You shouldn't have a problem with these, the cigarette lighters and power outlets usually have a rating of 20 amps and 180W so you should be OK if you stick below this. The alternator will be well up to keeping up with this as the power drain is about the same as having your lights on