Use of auxillary output (cigarette lighter) and effect on battery

I have a '98 Avalon. The cassette player died on me over a year ago. I have been using a portable am/fm cassette radio that I plug into a 75W converter that plugs into the auxillary output in my car.



Assuming I unplug the device every night, or at least turn off the portable device, will it have any negative effects on my battery.



A friend said it might, even though I haven’t noticed that it has.

Ever heard of CDs? You could transfer your tapes to CD and use the car’s CD player.

You’ve been doing this for a year and a half with no ill effects. Why worry now?

As long as you unplug the converter when you’re not driving the car I don’t think it will do any damage. The tape player isn’t using anywhere near 75 watts.

No, it will not. The engine will recharge the battery.

Unplug the “converter” (inverter?) when it’s not needed…

Unplugging it won’t be necessary if it has an on/off switch.

Those inverters are designed for this kind of use, and the car will be fine. The only inverters you need to worry about are the ones that connect directly to the battery instead of the 12 volt DC outlet.