Your Gadgets Are Wrecking Your Car Battery

Thu Mar 15, 2007 1:22PM EDT

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GPS, iPod connections, satellite radio... all of these gizmos make your commute more pleasant, but it turns out they're probably taking their toll on your car's battery. Makes sense: These devices use juice (sometimes even when the car is turned off), and the heavy drains on your car's electrical system are causing battery life to diminish. The Wall Street Journal has details on this interesting phenomenon, noting that batteries in heavily gadget-modded cars are dying in two years instead of the usual three to five.

Admittedly, a couple of gadgets aren't the big culprits in killing your battery. It's probably more power-hungry items like DVD players and in-car coolers that put a heavier strain on your ride. And of course, the car itself requires more electrical power than ever: Ignition, security systems, climate control, and more all keep a constant tether to the battery, sometimes even if the car isn't running.

What can you do? The WSJ story mentions trickle chargers, which can help extend the life of your battery, but that's really about it. In a nutshell, your car is just another gadget you'll have to contend with: Replacing the battery altogether when it gets weak. Fortunately, doing this with your car is much simpler than doing it with your iPod.

LINK: Why Car Batteries Are Dying Young 

Comments on Your Gadgets Are Wrecking Your Car Battery

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  • 26 Posted by andrew_michael_johnson on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:54PM EDT Report Abuse

    I dont see how this is possible unless your cars carging systems is first comprimised.. Bad Alternator, bad regular, or other internal components can sometimes still charge a cars battery but not when the charging system is under greater amounts load. The biggest issue I've seen with my cars is the newer 'economical' alternator belts people are buying. If you have tons of stuff to hook up and the charging systems goign to be doing a lot of work then you better have the alternator belt properly tensioned. The problem is if you make a trip to autozone they usually have a belt around $13 and another around $35... The difference is the cheaper one will strech and require constant retightening, leaving most people to decide to leave the belt slighyly under tightened so it wont strech. I have a 500 watt car stereo, 120w powered laptop, GPS, 1200 watt power interter for my other computer euipment, 60 watt HAM radio, 10 watt GPMRS radio, 4 watt CB Radio, 12 volt cooler, 2 cellphone chargers and a Tom Tom in my service van. I run a standard alternator with a high grade belt and have never had an major issues... Now mind you I dont run all those accessories at once but I have more than most running.. The only thing to note is i did successful smoke an alternator, which is when I learned car alternators are only designed to sustain 25% of their rating for extended periods of time. I wish cars today had a digital amp metere hooked to the alternator and one to the battery, so it would be possible to see the charge rate and power usage rate.

  • 27 Posted by nep61 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:35PM EDT Report Abuse

    With all the money people spend on these electronic devices...ipods ($300), GPSs ($400+), DVD players ($150+)... who cares if they need to spend another $90 a year earlier than you had intended on a new Car battery.

  • 28 Posted by patrickmarshall@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:01PM EDT Report Abuse

    If you are using your electronic devices when your car is running, your battery should be irrelevent. The only types of devices which really draw a lot of current are DC coolers/heaters (which you REALLY should never run with the engine off). It might just be possible that you could have a bad 12V adapter plug which could pull your charging system voltage below the optimum battery charging voltage (14.5V??), but that adapter would get really HOT very quickly and I'd think you'd notice the burning smell. This is a pretty hokey article all in all. BTW, for poster #28...if the "alloy ratio of the muffler bearings" is being adversely affected you should probably get them re-framminized immediately.

  • 29 Posted by k2lck on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:45PM EDT Report Abuse

    gestimate= semi-educated guess..... a VERY rough comparison of the ability of a battery to store energy can be had by its weight. I reiterate (LOOK IT UP), the value of the story expired the day it was set into type or whatever they do now adays... the story was totally factually false, and at the very least misleading.... and if you did not understand it, well...(at least I identified myself) Ed K2LCK..

  • 30 Posted by k2lck on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:45PM EDT Report Abuse

    and of coarse, no.5, you as an auto tech just mispoke when you said that a battery delivers voltage, I always thought it delivered either current, or more accurately, power.. Ed

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