Starting the car with the phone plugged in

[GKNByNW]

I've read here and there that you should never do this. My phone doesn't seem to be suffering any ill effects from me doing this nearly daily. Any thoughts, comments, personal experiences, etc.?

 

[Highland Ranger]

Ahhhhh. Never heard this one. I've been starting the car with my phone plugged in since my first "bag phone" in the late 80s.

So 20 phones or so later, never noticed an issue.

 

[thangfish]

I do it a lot too.

 

[Highland Ranger]

What's supposed to happen?

 

[GKNByNW]

What's supposed to happen?

I honestly don't know what's supposed to happen, and Google hasn't been of much help. I wish I could remember where it was that I read a recommendation against starting your vehicle with the phone plugged in.

Also of note, many new cars disable the lighter plug when the ignition is off, or they at least have one "always on" outlet and the rest keyed to the ignition switch. Both my '99 Pontiac and my 2000 Saturn do NOT cut power to the plug when the ignition is off. I don't know if this information matters or not, but I've seen it brought up a lot on other sites dealing with chargers being left plugged in.

 

[thangfish]

My 07 Chrysler has 2 fuse sockets (under the hood) for each port, one keyed and one always on, so you can choose your preference. I'm not sure how common that setup is.

 

[Harry2]

I've read here and there that you should never do this. My phone doesn't seem to be suffering any ill effects from me doing this nearly daily. Any thoughts, comments, personal experiences, etc.?

Maybe on classic cars ... but I think even these aren't causing any danger for a quality car charger.
Think of these many electronic processors that work in actual cars and have to get through the car's starting ...

I think this myth of question is fed by failures of car chargers with cheap components and blundering electronic design.

Harry

 

[Seanette]

My 1997 Ford Contour apparently leaves the "lighter" port (which we use for the phone charger, being non-smokers) powered when the car is off, since I've seen my phone report that it's charging when the key isn't even in the ignition.

I'd never heard that this is a hazard to the phone, and I think my husband, who has a degree in electronics, would have spotted a problem with that.