Driving in a cold car in the winter is no fun and can be dangerous if your windows aren’t properly defrosted. One of the cheapest and easiest solutions is to plug a space heater into your car’s cigarette lighter. But do these niche devices actually work?
How to repair your car heater cheaply
Cigarette lighter heaters are designed to convert energy from your car’s electrical system into heated air. The problem is that they can only draw so much current, so the resulting heat is poor. That also means that they can’t take the place of a standard vehicle heating system.
Car cigarette lighters operate at 12 volts, and most cigarette lighter heaters can only provide 150 watts of power. That’s not much compared to a regular hair dryer, which typically provides up to 2,000 watts of heat.
In short, cigarette lighter heaters can produce heat, but not much and never instead of a traditional car heater. That makes them better suited for very simple things like defrosting the windshield or warming hands.
