Talk:Automobile auxiliary power outlet

Untitled
There are many unsourced statements regarding how unusable/unreliable these power outlets are. The article should probably focus on what the adapter is, who uses is, how it works, that sort of thing. If there are safety or reliability issues, those should probably be addressed in a "criticism" section... and sourced! ---Ransom (--71.4.51.150 23:46, 14 June 2007 (UTC))
 * Yeah, and what proposed alternatives have been put forth? BillMcGonigle (talk) 23:59, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Lighting cigars
I'm not a cigar smoker. The article seems to imply that the unheated center of the lighter is designed to be ideal for lighting cigars. Is there some reason you don't want to ignite the center of the cigar? Or am I just reading this wrong? ike9898 15:46, 11 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Far as I see, there's no need to light the center, so that was a convenient place to put the cold contact. Jim.henderson 15:29, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

I would just like to add something about the current drawn from a ligther, I read in some post that I can't find at the moment, that it would draw somthing like 20-30A! This is wrong, a normal ligther socket is about 1.8-3.0 Ohms, a car, or boat battery is somewhere between 11-15V volts making the maximum current about 8A. I have measured this, and the normal nominal current from a 12V source was in my case 6A. Hope this is helpful for all of you people that wants to put a cigar ligther in something.


 * They are officially rated at 10 Amps (and indeed the one in my car is so marked). 20.133.0.13 (talk) 10:56, 18 September 2009 (UTC)


 * The first chapter as it currently stands says "relatively low current rating". I disagree with this! I think 10 amperes (or even 6) is quite a lot. 2001:14BB:140:5FD:20A0:D030:6C23:1EC3 (talk) 09:39, 19 November 2017 (UTC)

Plus and minus
I believe it is common knowledge (for technicians) that for any connector the easiest part to get to is ground, and the most difficult part to get to is the wiring. For a cigarette lighter receptable that means:


 * the wired part: tip of plug, buttom of receptable
 * ground: the part on the side of the cylinder

On all modern cars minus is ground, and the wiring is positive, but on some older cars it is the other way around.

I would like to add this to the article, but I can't find any sources for this.

The best I found is this forum post and answer, but I guess that is not good enough as a source?

http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/45293/what-is-the-polarity-of-a-car-cigarette-lighter-adapter

I probably won't remember to go back and check up on this, so I hope someone more into Wikipedia, can add this information to the article.

80.72.152.166 (talk) 07:52, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

First lighter
These three statements appear to contradict each other:
 * cigarette lighters started appearing as standard equipment in automobiles in 1925/26
 * In 1928, ...Casco... patented the first automotive cigarette lighter
 * In 1921, the Morris U.S. Patent 1,376,154 was issued

Note that the Morris patent was for automotive use. It seems to me the Casco claim can't be true, but the cited source is down right now so I can't check. Note that it's a self-published source and probably not acceptable. Kendall-K1 (talk) 17:29, 16 February 2016 (UTC)

Here's what looks like a good source: Kendall-K1 (talk) 17:34, 16 February 2016 (UTC)


 * I agree that the History section is a contradictory mess. References are either missing, unresponsive links, or tenuously relevant. The Jalopnik ref you mention above is better than nothing, but a major cleanup is needed. Reify-tech (talk) 18:35, 16 February 2016 (UTC)


 * I started a very modest cleanup of the History section, by attempting to arrange things in chronological order. A web search turns up surprisingly little about the history of the cigarette lighter receptacle. The origin of the the detachable (not cord-and-reel) version is unclear, but needs to be added to the article. A search of original patents may be needed. Reify-tech (talk) 18:59, 16 February 2016 (UTC)

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Thermal Fuse
One thing I learned about these (upon repairing my own) that I didn't see mentioned is that the cigarette receptacle (vs DC outlet) sometimes has a thermal fuse embedded to ensure a malfunctioning lighter doesn't set your dashboard on fire. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.63.44.148 (talk) 20:22, 28 June 2016 (UTC)

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Requested move 20 July 2019

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

Moved to Automobile auxiliary power outlet. See general agreement below that this is the highest and best title for this article. Kudos to editors for your input, and Happy Publishing! (nac by page mover)  Paine Ellsworth , ed.  put'r there  00:43, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

Auxiliary car power outlet → Cigarette lighter receptacle – Revert undiscussed move to a poor title; the "car" is not the auxiliary here. Discussion will come up with a better name. Wtshymanski (talk) 22:45, 20 July 2019 (UTC) --Relisting. —  Newslinger  talk   14:43, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Automobile auxiliary power outlet? Its dominance for usage by a cigarette lighter is certainly fading. (They have also sometimes been installed on airplanes, although perhaps that has faded too.) —BarrelProof (talk) 06:36, 21 July 2019 (UTC)
 * ^ Probably the best choice. --TUFKAAP (talk) 22:26, 22 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Oppose move back to original name since the prevalence of it being used as a cigarette lighter is fading. I don't oppose a move to a more similar name like proposed above.ZXCVBNM (TALK) 14:19, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Support per WP:COMMONNAME. Even though it isn't used much as cigarette lighter, that's still how it's commonly referred to and how most readers looking for an article on the subject would search for it. Rreagan007 (talk) 14:57, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Support in general but prefer Automobile auxiliary power outlet per BarrelProof. Wug·a·po·des​ 22:25, 7 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Move to Automobile auxiliary power outlet per BarrelProof. Steel1943  (talk) 17:51, 11 August 2019 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.