Charging through cigarette port?

Renogy 100w suitcase solar kit with charge controller just arrived. Van has a deep cycle under the pass seat which runs various accessories and has a dedicated cigarette lighter port. Is it possible to charge the deep cycle battery via the cig port to keep the deep cycle battery topped off when camping?

Possible yes

but possibly dangerous.

Standard ciggie sockets are IMO a dangerous abortion, avoid like the plague for anything important, or that you use regularly.

Never more than 5-6A and only for short periods, as in a few minutes. Even then they are risky, an inherently poor design!

Blue Sea has a nice socket design that twist-locks with the matching plug, but will also accept standard ciggie plugs for smaller (<10A) loads.

Also the BMW/ Hella/ Merit/ Powerlet "Euro-style DIN" (ISO 4165) style is very robust.

Anderson plugs for high amps, for me my standard for almost all power connections.

If you standardize on one of the last two types, there are adapters for guests, temporary use of devices with standard ciggie plugs.

Sprinkler said:

Renogy 100w suitcase solar kit with charge controller just arrived. Van has a deep cycle under the pass seat which runs various accessories and has a dedicated cigarette lighter port. Is it possible to charge the deep cycle battery via the cig port to keep the deep cycle battery topped off when camping?

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Is this lighter port factory or aftermarket? If it is the latter, what is it's amperage rating and is it fused correctly? The Renogy is rated for ~6A so you want a port and fuse rated for 10A minimum.

Even if the port is rated for high enough amps, or for low current loads, the inherent mechanical design of the connection can mean intermittent arc'ing, enough to melt anything nearby made of plastic, which to me implies danger, beside unreliability and producing faults in maybe expensive gear.

But yes I am more cautious than many. . .

Those ports often have significant voltage drops, which would hinder charging. I would get a purpose designed DC plug elsewhere.

When I added a couple of dual 12v cig type of receptacles to run my Dometic 12v fridge in the passenger compartment and separately, the rear storage area, they were wired directly to the three aux agm batteries I have in the passenger compartment. Two of these are under the 3 person couch over the rear axle and the third is under the passenger front seat.

Do not rely upon the provided 12v cig receptacles. The current loss is unavoidable and unacceptable. In my opinion, for what it is worth.

Thanks for your experiences with the cigarette ports. Ended up wiring the MC4 wires directly to the deep cycle battery.

jcmadeintheshade@gmail.com said:

When I added a couple of dual 12v cig type of receptacles to run my Dometic 12v fridge in the passenger compartment and separately, the rear storage area, they were wired directly to the three aux agm batteries I have in the passenger compartment. Two of these are under the 3 person couch over the rear axle and the third is under the passenger front seat.

Do not rely upon the provided 12v cig receptacles. The current loss is unavoidable and unacceptable. In my opinion, for what it is worth.

Click to expand...

How did you end up connecting the Dometic in the end? Sounds like you abandoned the cig type connector.