Charging the battery via the cigarette lighter?

[Marksk]

Hello,
I have a first generation, 1999 Yaris SRi that always gets a flat battery. Can anyone tell me if plugging a solar charger into the cigarette lighter will trickle charge the battery?

I'd just love to not have to keep taking the battery out to charge it.

Thanks for your help!

[MadMax]

Ummmm....why don't you get a new battery, or have you tried that already?

A solar charger doesn't seem like the right solution to the problem. If this keeps happening despite changing the battery, I would have a shop look for the problem. Either your charging system (alternator) isn't working or you've got some accessory draining your battery. Or you might be letting the car sit too long, it's been reported that a battery loses almost half of its charge when the car isn't driven for two weeks (a fortnight).

Good luck! M2

[CTScott]

Sure. Anything that can produce greater than the battery's voltage can trickle charge the battery. Just make sure that your setup has a diode to prevent back feeding to the solar panel (which will damage it).

[fb03]

You dont mention how old the battery is.
I personally would replace it if I had to continually charge it.

[H20loo]

You must make sure that the outlet works(has a complete circuit) when the key is removed and then you could introduce a charging source.

[B2FiNiTY]

Better to find the root cause and fix it rather than putting a bandage on it.

[H20loo]

Better to find the root cause and fix it rather than putting a bandage on it.

Yes, you are right-But sometimes a person needs a bandage to get home or last until payday.
I had an alternator stop charging on a family vacation. By purchasing a battery and connecting it to my cigarette lighter I was able to get my family home and everyone back to work the following day.
There are battery boosters that also plug into the lighter.
I hope my posts helped the OP in some way.