What would you do if the power is out and your phone battery is dead, but someone’s life depends on you being able to make a call?
You can charge your phone from another battery.
Gone are the days of our grandparents. The modern society we all live in now seems to be unable to function without certain commodities. Among these, electricity seems to be at the top of the list. Electricity is something almost all of us take for granted now. It seems that, no matter what you plan on doing, you will need electricity. Whether you want to clean your house, watch a movie, read a book at night or just charge your phone, you will need electricity.
This article will show you how to charge your phone when no power is available—whether you want to prepare yourself in case of a power outage, a storm, or possible EMP, or you just want to test it for yourself out of curiosity to see if it works.
Apart from your phone and its charging cable, you will only need these four items:
- a 9V Alkaline battery
- a spring (you can take one out of a pen)
- a car charger
- some tape
#1. The first step is to take out the spring from a pen. Once it is out, you need to connect it to the negative terminal of the battery. (The negative terminal is the bigger one.)
#2. The spring will also need to touch the metal part of the car charger’s side nub.
Use some tape to hold the spring in place, making sure the spring is touching both the negative terminal of the battery as well as the metal nub of the car charger.
Related: The Battery That Can Power Your Home Completely Off The Grid
#3. The next step is to connect the car charger to the positive terminal.
#4. Then you need to connect your phone to the car charger using the phone’s cable.
At this moment, the green light of the car charger should be on. This means your phone is being charged.
On average, a 9V battery has about 550 milli-Ampere hours (mAh), while a mobile phone’s battery has 2000 mAh. This means your phone’s battery will not be fully charged by using only one 9V battery. You would need about four 9V batteries to fully charge your phone, depending on what type of battery you use and what mobile phone you have. But you’ll surely make a LOT of phone calls with one battery. Please see the table below for more details:
- Samsung Galaxy S6: 2,550 mAh
- Samsung Galaxy S7: 3000 mAh
- Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge: 3600 mAh
- Samsung Galaxy S8: 3000 mAh
- Apple iPhone 6s: 1715 mAh
- Apple iPhone 7: 1960 mAh
- Apple iPhone 8: 1821 mAh
Who knows, maybe this simple trick can save someone’s life by allowing you to make a 911 call.
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Why not just plug it into the connection in the car, drawing from the car battery?
Damn, that’s what I was wondering.
And to think that my suggestion is from a 75.5 year old grandma, dino brained! hahahaha
Thanks for your comment back to me. Really. I appreciate being useful.
p
That would be too simple
Exactly
It depends on the scenario. If you’re stuck on the side of the road because your alternator failed then running off the battery may not be an option. If you are backpacking miles from your car or you are injured and can’t get back to your car this might come in handy.
What if you are in an accident by yourself and the car battery is 100 ft. away from the wrecked car you can’t get out of, however, you can reach the glove compartment and you will have a safety net. Think outside of the box people. Have a Blessed day.
Just another power source mentioned, got to know all your options…. Crisis.
My car and my wife’s car won’t energize the cigarette lighter unless the car is running.
Install an accessory port for the car that is unswitched.
Better yet, STOP USING CELL PHONES and you won’t have that problem?
A power bank sure would help with dead battery.
How about turning OFF that phone unless you are actually going to make a call?
Cell phones are your tether, your slavery chains.
There is zero need to use them the way people do today.
Because in order to use your car it needs to be running wasting precious fuel in case you need to make run for it. I keep a box full of various batteries to do exactly the kind me of thing suggested in this article. Did you also know that a nine volt battery, a patatoe and 2 wires can run a light for along time? Connect wires to positive and negative poles on your 9 volt battery ind insert the other end into the patato that has been cut in half add lightbulb into the patato and you have light.
Or you could just buy a solar charger that will charge your phone. You can even buy a camp stove that generates electricity which runs the fan that intensifies the heat, generates light for the led light attached to the stove and also will charge your phone so that you can charge your phone at night while you heat water to wash up or whatever. Lowe’s was selling them at one time for $129.00. Can’t think of the brand name right now. REI might carry them.
ANOTHER option that cost nothing vs a $129 option. Lets see which is the one everyone can afford, even if you are homeless? I have my own, highly recommended, solar portable charger that works with Kindle also, among many other things, but get this I could afford to buy one. Sometime people miss that not every one is in the same position in life.
If you actually read my comment, you would have seen that my very first suggestion was to buy a solar charger. Haven’t done a market study of solar chargers but a catalog I received from chkadels.com lists a 5,000 mAh solar charger for $20.00. Surely if one can afford the monthly charges for a cell phone, one can pop for $20 to insure when they are hiking in the boonies they have a charged cell phone. Of course, if one is that far off the beaten path there is a good possibility that there is no cell phone tower within intercept distance.
Unless, of course, the cell phone holder is the recipient of one of the freebie cell phones that are being actually hawked on street corners and in front of 99¢ stores here in SoCal $20 shouldn’t break the bank. Perusing the offering from Amazon might reveal a 5000 mAh solar charger for less money. A 5000 mAh solar charger should handle any of the cell phones listed in the article.
I wonder how many homeless are following this list?
Posited: No available electricity, cell phone battery has died, you need to make an emergency call, and you are in an area with cell service. Additional criterion: car battery is dead, there has been no EMP or other disaster. If you have a 9v battery, this is a practical way to get enough charge to your phone to make that call. I’m all for solar, but what if it’s night time. How about a little less nit-picking and a little more appreciation for an option you may not have thought of yourself.
Good One !!
I have one of the stoves and it works ok. I caught a solar battery charger on clearance for $15 that I set up to change electronics. Works great. I have tested it many times on job sites. I will see if I can find it online and post it
I have not been successful with my fancy solar charger:
My S.R.O. has little access to the sun!
Why not do both? Better to have two totally different methods of doing the same thing and not needing the second than only having one and it failing.
It might not do much good to have a fully charged phone, if everyone else has a dead phone. Who are you going to call?
If there is an EMP I think all the cell towers will not be functioning either.
Since EMP is not all that likely, you can always call your dear old mother who actually still has a landline, to see if she’s okay. Hey, but this is just some old grandma, posting.
Perhaps an EMP is not “all that likely” but a CME is a dead certainty. The only questions are “when” and “how big”.
According to reaclearscience.com and other sources we have had CME events that have had an effect on earth in 1841, 1859, 1921, 1941, 1967, and within the last five years we have a very large CME that barely missed the earth. It was estimated by folks who allegedly know that it would have had a devastating effect on earth’s electronics.
In the event of a major CME event, it is postulated that any long electrical lines, including telephone lines would suffer significant damage, so Granny’s land line might be out too.
In addition, a while back I commented on another page where CMEs were discussed that I had read a book written sometime around the early part of the 20th century about the crusades. In the book the author talks about the crusaders observing Aurora Borealis while south of a large city in Syria. That would indicate to me that it probably was as a result of a CME. The author didn’t further comment because in the early 20th century there were few electrical devices that might be affected by such and CMEs, I suspect, had not yet been clearly identified in the minds of the general population.
EMP VERY likely because
FEMA has been advising to prepare for one.!!!!!
..and
it will not be from Russia…just sayin’
What about charging it with a potato?
No can do, using the potato as a radio antenna on my old Chevy.
Say you are hiking, get lost, and your battery on your phone dies. You are out in the middle of nowhere, BUT, you have a 9v battery (emergency BU) with tape and a spring, etc. Voilá, you have your emergency call now possible.
This is a great addition to emergency charging options. Thanks.
I’ll be so darn glad when these $#@! cell/”smart” phones quit working that I’ll be celebrating! Make people more courteous, and use their own darn brains again! Sick of people who no longer consider it a PRIVILEGE to answer their phone, and going into public places where no one looks up, around, or talks to people around or next to them; no, all stuck with their faces in these %$#@! electronic mini screens! GOOD RIDDANCE!
Absolutely Right!!!
I would say it is an interesting MacGyver solution. However, the chances of you having a 9 volt battery, a pen with a spring, because not all pens have springs in them, Cross ballpoint pens do not, and duct tape on a hike into the boonies is slim. Personally, if I were hiking that deeply into the boonies, I would have a solar panel with me that would charge the phone. Nine volt batteries are not used very much. I have them in my smoke detector. my CO detector and my dog bark inhibitor. And I don’t keep spares around because the ones used the most last a year and so if I buy a spare at the time I change the battery by the time a year has rolled around, it is no longer fresh. Just went through that drill with the CO detector. Bought two batteries last year because the unit price of two was way cheaper than the price for one. Went to use the spare battery from last year and it was dead. The expiry date is 2022, it just died an early death. Yeah, I could send it back to Duracell yada yada yada but that is more trouble and expense than it is worth. I just went out and bought two more. $8.50 for one 9-volt; $8.99 for two 9-volts. I put the spare in the battery box but I am not holding my breath that next year it will be good.
I don’t stock 9-volt batteries in my spare battery EOTW stock. I stock AA, AAA, D and C. Perhaps I should be concerned about CO and smoke in an EOTW situation, but I lived a long time without either of those devices and I figure I can go a couple more without.
I wouldn’t even stock D batteries except I have two 6-cell Maglights that I just can’t bear to part with although the light they throw is nothing compared to what you can get from a $3.00 led light. They are probably EMP proof though if what I read about old fashioned flashlights is correct. So I may be the only one with portable light after the end of the world with my dim 6-cell Maglights.
They still do work as a handy blunt instrument though.
I hope you know that keeping batteries in the fridge makes them live much longer.
Are u serious, that’s a old, old wise tale, IF THAT WAS THE CASE, NOBODY’S CAR BATTERY WOULD DIE IN THE WINTER TIME
Too funny! Hint, you can put all that in a tiny bag that you carry in a pocket, in case of emergency or in your bag is you are a woman. A CROSS pen? I have a couple but then again I was an attorney and my dad gave me a set when I graduated. Please stop showing off, we know you have money. There are instructions on YouTube on how you can make yourself that little bag using duct tape, if you are not loaded like left coast. If you can’t come up with a better alternative that does NOT require a lot of money, maybe you should keep your “genius” comments to yourself. The person is trying to help, not prove that he is clueless and has tons of money to waste, unlike most people all over the planet. Yes, I am rude, not a secret.
I feel sorry for you, Carmen. Life must have been tough for you to be so bitter. Perhaps professional counseling would help you deal with the traumas life seems to have inflicted on you. I have noticed that you tend to personal attacks in your posts. I hope after you have hit the send button you somehow feel better. Does it relieve your hostility to post a caustic comment? I am not a shrink, but it doesn’t take one to see someone who for some reason is hurting and must lash out to relieve those feelings. Get help.
I think a lot of serious hikers keep duct tape with them. To repair a torn jacket or tent, to use on top of a bandage on a difficult body part like a joint, so many uses. Some wrap it around the handle of a flashlight or other gear so they don’t need the whole roll. They also make mini rolls now. The pen with a spring might be a stretch for some but I’d guess they could find some small bit of metal. The 9 v could also be a stretch but now that I’ve read this I plan on getting a couple. They are light so would be easy to bring on a long hike/camping trip.
Real MacGuyver stuff there, Claude.
This will be fun to try
Amazed so many people complaining about free help, more options are always better in emergencies
A little off topic, but since the topic was simple MacGyver solutions, I offer the following:
NHK, the Japanese equivalent of BBC runs spots on simple solutions to problems one might encounter in a disaster such as an earthquake and tsunami.
One of their easy solutions is how to carry water. Place a plastic garbage bag in a knapsack or backpack. Open it up. Fill the plastic bag with water, use a twist tie to close the top. You can hoist the back pack onto your back and carry a significant load of water easier than carrying it by hand.
Another simple solution: if you have a bowl, put a plastic bag in the bowl. After you get your soup from the emergency folks, you can throw away the plastic bag. You don’t have to wash the bowl. If you don’t have a bowl, a plastic bag placed in a small box will suffice.
After Fukushima, the Japanese emergency response left a lot to be desired. I must say since then they have really gotten their act together as far as emergency response and educating the public with PSAs with tips on how to handle problems during an emergency. FEMA could really take some time and study how they have organized and perhaps developing PSAs on making life a little easier after a disaster.
Fukushima was Rothschild revenge… Just sayin’…
has anyone thought about getting their batteries from dollar stores…..they are good and some i have put up have still been good 3 years from when i bought them….and those car chargers are on a peg their as well….think outside the big box and look around you could save a lot of money while in these cracker box stores…..
I get my AA and AAA batteries free at Harbor Freight. They have coupons everywhere and every couple of months they have a coupon for free batteries with any purchase. I buy some item that I can use, zip ties generally because they are so handy for so many things. At the same time I pick up a 12 pack of AAs or a 24pack of AAAs. Free is even better .99.
Never bought batteries from a dollar store, but Chargers I bought there
were very short-lived
Batteries I purchased from a camping magazine had to be given away.. Were.only good for t.v. remote & I do not watch t.v.
Best to be able to purchase a sampling first…
I tried it and did not work. Brand new battery too
This article is kind of useless.
If the electricity is gone to charge your phone, then so is the electricity that powers those cellphone towers & cellphone companies!
Never depend on electronics Folks, NEVER!
AMEN!!!!! a car cell phone charger will work to recharge your phone, if you are at home and electricity goes out. That’s one option, I know everyone might not have a car phone charger.
So now that you have a charged mobile phone, what are you going to do about the towers not having power? Huh? Inquiring mimes really want to know.
If the towers go down no one will need cell phones or anything else electronic. If properly learning survival skills before disasters come you may survive!
Use walkie talkies…some seem rather affordable
I have two small (about the length and width of my hand) solar chargers. They stay in a sunny window all the time. They will also collect sun energy on cloudy days. I paid $20 for each one from Amazon. One or the other charger is always available to charge our cell phone, operate a small multi facet radio or even run re-chargeable hair clippers! If always left in a window when not in use they will collect enough energy to also charge the phone at night. They are cheap efficient energy that does not depend on batteries or electric.
YOU GO PREPPER GIRL !!!
Why oh why does everyone think cell phones are only good for making calls? I’ve said this before and I’ll say again, you can keep a wealth of knowledge on a cell phone. No one person on here, no matter how experienced or knowledgeable, can say they will never need a reference book for gardening, animal husbandry, building, first aid and medical aid, self defence, trapping, foraging, water purification, fishing, sewing, knitting and crochet, weaving and so much more. All of us need at least some of that info. Can you carry a library around with you? Nope but you can have all of that and more on a cell phone for only a few ounces of weight and a way to charge it.
Some who prep consider long-term including entertainment especially for children and the elderly/disabled. Board games and books are often recommended. Guess what other kind of books you can have on a phone other than reference books? Yep, entertainment. And then there is music, games etc. Don’t waste precious paper, let kiddos draw on a phone or tablet!
No need for bulky maps, keep up to date maps downloaded on your phone. What about teaching the kids? Eventually they need at least some knowledge other just surviving.
You going to build something? How do you calculate the square footage, board feet etc. Sure you can use paper but then you are wasting time and paper.
There are many other uses I’ve not thought of. There’s much more to modern phones than making calls.