Car Charger PowerDrive 2 (or any other brand) does not work in my car

#1

I just purchased my first ever Anker products and I have to say I am very impressed by the quality of the products, packaging and this community. A great experience altogether.

Unfortunately one of my ordered products does not work, the Car Charger PowerDrive 2:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00VH84L5E

In my car it does not work, so I tested it out in the car of a friend and there it does work. I also tested out his working car charger (other brand) in my car and also that did not work. So, the Anker device is not the problem, but… unfortunately my car! Does anyone have experience with this? I am a non-smoker, but when I tried out the sigaret lighter thing :wink: for the first time in my life yesterday in my car… it did get hot. So why don’t chargers work when I plug them in?

Thanks for any insights in this.

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#2

Hi @Grover_anker, what’s the year, make and model of your car?

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#3

Hi @TechnicallyWell,

It’s a Renault Megane from 2001.

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#4

Anker will gladly refund you!

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#5

Yes, that is nice @joshuad11, but I would prefer it to work. So I would like to find out if there is something that can be fixed on my car’s end? Sending the Anker product back does not solve the problem, since the charger of my friend (cheap lesser brand than Anker) also did not work in my car, so it seems whatever car charger I use, it will not work?

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#6

Hi @Grover_anker, it might be a blown fuse for your car’s cigarette lighter. If you have your car’s manual handy, try to find the location of the fuse box and a diagram of the fuses. This site is not for your exact car, but it might help: http://howtomendit.com/answers.php?id=63232
Best of luck!

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#7

The single most common cause is the fuse has gone. Fuses age, and if you plugged in a powerful device like the Powerdrive 2 which is a 24W so from 12V it is drawing 2A, usually from a 5A maximum, it could be just the trigger to cause an aging fuse to finally die. Fuses cost little and the hard part is finding it and getting the correct type. I had an aging Corolla and when I connected in a more power hungry AC inverter into it the fuse went, in that case it was the same fuse as shared with the in-built radio so it was immediately obvious.

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#8

Have you tried these “non-functioning” devices with the car running? You didn’t say one way or the other…just that they don’t work. Some lighter sockets are not powered (no 12 volts to the socket) unless the car is on & running.

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#9

Yes, @SZak2015, my car was running. The Anker charger works in every car I tested it on, except mine. So a call to the garage is the next step.

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#10

Hello @TechnicallyWell and @nigelhealy,

I brought my car to the garage and they measured there is nothing wrong with the cigarette lighter/heater (or how do you call this thing :wink: , but they claim my car (from 2001) or better said this cigarette lighter is not suited for the Anker charger.

They offer now to construct a cable from the back of the dashboard (I have no knowledge at all about cars) and attach a connector to that so i can use the Anker charger that way. Hmmm… not ideal to say the least. I am a bit disappointed… maybe I should return the Anker product and just use the PowerCore+ Mini external battery that I also bought.

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#11

Hi @Grover_anker,
That is interesting as it sounds like this car has some unique wiring. I would agree that the easiest solution would be to use an Anker battery to keep your phone charged, then you wouldn’t have to pay the garage to do the extra wiring.
You can return your Anker purchase within 30 days if you’re not satisfied… just reach out to support@anker.com. Or, if someone you know has a birthday coming up, it could make a great gift! :wink:

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#12

Thanks for your quick reply @TechnicallyWell,

I just came back from the garage and they showed me how this external connector would look like and I was happy to see that I liked this solution. Also a thought came up in me, like: … jeeeez… now this charger will costs me more in total than I ever expected, but I dismissed that quickly from my mind, because I do like to have a proper charger in my car. I will make my digital life easier and that’s worth something! Amen.

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#13

sounds to me the fitted socket is not up to 2A, which is frankly weirdly odd. 12V with just 2 DC connections, there isn’t anything else which could be incompatible.

#14

This is frankly odd. There isn’t a lot of technical wizardy in a 12V cigarette lighter socket, its 12V with just 2 DC connections. How much is the garage (who I’m not sure I believe) going to charge you?

When they said incompatible, what exactly does that mean? Does your car not have 2A minimum circuit? Cars usually have 5A or 10A.

Would you find it lower cost to just buy a big Powercore battery and charge your devices off that and then recharge the Powercore when near regular AC wall socket?

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