Batteries: Running Them Down and Charging Them Up

Packing the night before a 21st century vacation with kids sounds something like this, "Make sure you plug in your iPod and 3DS before you go to bed!" Depending on your mode of travel, whether by car or by air, you may face some serious battery issues.

The car travel problem
On our recent 6-hour drive from Tucson to San Carlos, Mexico the boys faced a major dilemma. They wanted to play games on their electronic devices, knowing they would run down the batteries. They also knew we had options for recharging the batteries while we were in the car. Battery life for any device depends on how you use it. I've noticed heavy wifi and bluetooth use run down my smartphone and iPad batteries the fastest. When the devices are in airplane mode the batteries last significantly longer. The good news for our car trip was that most of it would be out of cell phone range, meaning the boys would only be able to play games that don't require wifi or to watch videos they pre-loaded onto their iPods. Both boys started complaining about their batteries being low about 4 hours into the trip. At that point they had two options: 1) play games on their Nintendo 3DSXLs, or 2) recharge the iPod batteries. I assume talking to one another or to other people in the car was out of the question.

The car travel solution
My Toyota Highlander has two DC outlets, one on the dashboard and one under the dashboard. I have a car USB power adapter that can charge 2 devices at once. However, it will not charge an Apple device (more about that later). The Apple Store sells a proprietary car USB power adapter for $15 that works for Apple devices but it only has one USB port. If you have 4 people with 1-2 devices per person and only 2 DC outlets you are looking at a real power struggle. Furthermore, the charging cable that comes with the iPod Touch is so short it won't reach from the DC outlet to the back seat. That means the boys can't use their devices while they're charging. Oh, the humanity!

Thankfully we have another solution that works for car trips. My husband has a Port A Wattz 300 power inverter and a DC outlet extension cord. When you plug the power inverter into the car 12 volt DC outlet it will generate 120 volts of AC power. I plug the extension cord into the DC outlet in the front of the car and the boys can put the power inverter, which has 2 AC outlets, on the back seat. They then plug their iPod AC wall chargers into the power inverter and they're back in business.

The air travel problem
Our next big trip is will take us to the east coast to visit family. We'll be flying and at the moment we all have middle seats so batteries are not our biggest concern. Assuming we can get the seating worked out we will still have to deal with battery usage. We'll be traveling without our power inverter and I can guarantee we won't have seats with DC outlets. I've heard of such a thing on airplanes but not the planes I fly on. So here's our new conundrum - if you drain your iPod battery on the flight from Tucson to Chicago, can you fully re-charge your battery during your layover before you have to board the flight to Buffalo?

A temporary diversion regarding chargers
There are 3 general ways to recharge your device battery: 1) an AC wall charger, 2) a DC car adapter, and 3) a USB port on a computer. The things I charge on a regular basis are my Android smart phone and my iPad. In my experience the AC wall charger is the fastest way to recharge them. I can't recall the last time I charged my smart phone using the USB port on my PC laptop although I know I've done it at least once. I use my DC car adapter to charge my smart phone on my way home from work and when we're on car trips. I find the DC car adapter to be much slower than the AC wall charger.

The Apple devices present a more complex issue. My iPad came with a wall charger and USB cable. The Apple wall charger and USB cable are proprietary hardware. This means the USB cable is not a standard USB cable, and that's not just because it's white. If you plug the iPad with its USB charging cable into a standard USB wall charger, a standard USB DC car adapter or a PC USB port, the iPad will not charge. You can only charge an iPad when the USB cable is plugged into an Apple wall or car charger or an Apple computer.

To my surprise, when Nathan bought his iPod Touch the device came with the USB charging cable but not an AC wall charger. I figured that was OK because I have a Logitech speaker stand I can use to charge my iPad. I let Nathan use the AC wall charger that came with my iPad to charge his iPod Touch. However, when John bought his iPod Touch we needed 3 ways to charge the devices. I bought John an official Apple AC wall charger for about $20 because I'd read that non-Apple chargers can be dangerous (http://www.righto.com/2012/10/a-dozen-usb-chargers-in-lab-apple-is.html).

There's no good air travel solution
So now I can return to our airport problem. Let's say the boys drain their iPod Touch during the flight from Tucson to Chicago. At that point they can: 1) play on their 3DS, 2) talk to the person next to them, 3) read the airline magazine, or 4) make multiple unnecessary trips to the restroom. When we get off the plane in Chicago we will have to run to our connecting flight, which in my experience is always the farthest gate from wherever we landed. Will that leave us enough (or any) time to find an outlet to charge up our batteries before we have to board the next plane? Airports are getting better about having at least some outlets available for travelers but searching for an open outlet may be akin to searching for the Holy Grail. I often end up on the floor, crouched against the wall, feeling lucky to have found a single, free outlet. When I'm accompanied by the boys and their power hungry devices I fear we shall be denied our quest and thrown off the Bridge of Death into the Gorge of Eternal Death.

It is with great apprehension and uncertainty that we will start our journey to the east coast. We will charge our devices the night before, put them in airplane mode while in flight, and keep our chargers in our carry-on bags. We will then use our devices, always keeping an eye on the remaining battery life.

John's perspective: 
[Disclaimer: John still refuses to write anything but is always interested in discussing our topics. He proof-read this blog entry and laughed at "Oh, the humanity!" and the Monty Python references.]

Last week my husband took the boys to Lake Powell. It was a 6-9 hour drive, including the 50-mile detour around the US 89 road closure, depending on the wind and the number of vehicles in your caravan. Faced with the absolute certainty of draining their iPod Touch batteries both boys opted to plug into the power inverter the moment they left the driveway.