Plugging laptop into car for long drive

[PoPPeR]

Will plugging the laptop into the car drain the battery too much? It's going to be probably a six hour drive (bay area to orange county), and I was going to listen to some comedy central stuff on the way down. We probably wont need to have the screen open so that should help a little bit, but with air conditioning and headlights and stuff I was wondering if it would be too much of a drain on the battery.

 

[RagingBITCH]

If you're that concerned, plug it in until the laptop battery is full, then only charge it when the battery gets low. But you're being too paranoid IMO about a laptop draining your car's battery.

 

[Mr N8]

It will be fine. I ran an inverter with the laptop and a portable dvd player plugged into it on my last trip. It kept everyone occupied for the 10 hours we were driving.

 

[pookguy88]

i wouldn't worry about it dude, unless ur car didn't come with an alternator u should be good.

 

[Viper GTS]

Get an inverter & run anything you want off of it.

Viper GTS

 

[cheesehead]

Cheap inverters (cigarette plug-to-wall outlet) can hurt the laptop, but it's pretty unlikely. The car battery should be fine-most laptops use 30W at most, and that's a tiny fraction of the amount of juice the altrenator produces. I would only plug it in part of the time (so it's only charging the battery) just in case, but chances are, you'll be fine.

 

[Heisenberg]

Unless you're driving around without an alternator, it'll be fine. And if you are, a laptop is the least of your problems.

 

[PoPPeR]

oh ok, thanks for the replies and I know this was probably in the wrong forum too.

 

[FoBoT]

i do it, no problems

the worst part of using a laptop in a car is glare, on a sunny day it is really hard to see the screen well

 

[scorp00]

No a laptop would be little drain on the battery as long as the car is running. I've seen cars with multiple computers running.

 

[Drakkon]

I think the only thing not mentioned is how old is ur car and has the alternator been changed out? comps dont use THAT muh power but if your runnign it off the bettery it can cause a drain over time and hopefully you have an okay alternator that can keep everything charged up properly

 

[MWink]

It takes very little power to run a laptop however it takes a LOT more to charge it's battery. It would be best to charge the battery fully before the trip and then just run it off the inverter for the whole trip.