How to charge a laptop in a car from a cigarette lighter

The content of the article

• Laptop Charging Methods
• How to choose the right charger
• Cigarette lighter for laptop
• 12V adapter
• Universal Car Charger for Laptop
• Standalone Starter Charger

Today, a laptop is a popular gadget, inferior in popularity except to smartphones. It is used for work, study and entertainment. Modernity dictates new rules of life: people do not sit in one place, love to travel and they always take their favorite laptop with them. And often they encounter a problem when the computer’s power indicator is rapidly empty and the only available option is to put it in charge in the car.

Laptop Charging Methods

In fact, not everything is as hopeless as it might sound. Modern technologies include three working options for charging a laptop in a car:

• 12V adapter. Specialized 220V equipment that plugs into the cigarette lighter. It has outputs for charging various devices, including laptops, smartphones, electric shavers, etc. Gives a sufficient amount of energy only with the ignition on.
• Car charger for laptops. Universal or suitable only for your laptop model. It is desirable that the manufacturer was the same as that of the laptop, but not all brands produce such devices.
• Autonomous launcher and charger. A small box that works on the principle of powerbank. First, the portable device is charged from the network, after which almost any device can be connected to it.

How to choose the right charger

The car charger adapter works the same way as a regular laptop charger – converts the current received from the network into the energy needed by the gadget. The only difference is what such equipment is connected to. The main parameters that you need to pay attention to when choosing:

• Characteristics of a laptop computer. It is necessary that the auto-adapter corresponds to them – do not overload the power supply, but miss a sufficient amount of charge.
• Type of connector for laptop outputs. Ports such as USB are standard on all devices, but charging sockets may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. Your task is to choose a plug compatible with the connector..
• Wire fastening. Look for models with additional protection for the area where the plug connects to the rest of the equipment.
• Wire length and dimensions of the accessory. Especially true if you plan to charge the laptop from the cigarette lighter. It is better if the kit is compact and the wire length is adjustable, but this is a matter of convenience and does not affect performance.
• Price. Inexpensive can be purchased in the online store with delivery. However, in a regular store, you can contact the seller for advice and conduct testing using a dealer scanner. On the Internet, there is no guarantee that immediately after the purchase, the device will work fine and will not have to be carried to a service center.

Cigarette lighter for laptop

It is easy to connect to the cigarette lighter – you just need to connect a suitable plug to the connector. This requires minimal effort. It is much more difficult to choose the right equipment among the assortment. There is no instruction for this, but there are general rules:

• Volts and amperes should be the same as indicated on the power supply of the “native” laptop charging.
• It is recommended to buy equipment with overload protection..
• Pay attention to the cigarette lighter voltage, if you have a “passenger car” and the accessory was purchased for a “truck”, the car’s battery or the laptop itself will fail due to such recharging.

12V adapter

This is a laptop charger for the car in the form of an inverter – an adapter that connects to the car’s cigarette lighter on one side and has a USB output (or another type of port) on the other. The average power of the device is 150 V. It functions as a converter of energy from the car’s battery to power for a laptop or other device powered by electricity.

Advantages in ease of use, compactness and versatility – you can maintain the performance of not only a laptop, but also a smartphone or tablet (but do not get carried away so as not to overload the engine). The main minus is that the equipment charges only if the ignition is turned on. The price range of the adapter is from 1 490 to 6 130 rubles.

Universal Car Charger for Laptop

This accessory is only suitable for computers. It looks like a normal charger, but it receives electricity not from the network, but directly from the cigarette lighter, therefore it has a plug corresponding to this connector. For the device to fit all laptop models, adapters are needed. The advantage of such a memory: it is very easy for them to charge. Disadvantage: wires. You can buy an accessory for 2 000 r.

Standalone Starter Charger

Equipment with which it is very easy to charge the laptop in the car, but only on condition that it itself has previously received power from the network. It is able to maintain the performance of the device for about 3 hours. The advantage is that it is not powered by a cigarette lighter, so it does not depend on the car. Minus: enough for just a few times (then you need to charge the memory itself again), cost (from 6,490 to 9,760 r).