How to Keep Phone Cool in Car

Question

In the summer, with the sun beating down on my phone while I drive, my android phone tends to overheat.

I stumbled upon an ad hoc solution -- I had a piece of paper double folded to be 4.25" by 5.5" and stuffed in in-between the cables coming out the bottom of my phone and one of my car's vents, which redirected air flow over my phone.

But it's precarious -- I have trouble keeping the paper in the right position. It seems like there should be a simple device to clip onto my car vent to redirect part of the flow up toward my phone -- I know that they make such a device for the vents in my home.

Has anyone seen such a thing? I wasn't able to find one on the web. Does anyone have any other solutions?

Answer 1

Once I had a GPS mounted on my dashboard which overheated, and after a while displayed that I had a speed of 416 kph (approx 260 mph), which is quite fast for a Renault Clio 1.4tn (1994 mod). However this experience thought me two things:

• Having stuff on top of the dashboard is a bad idea when considering heat. Move your device somewhere else to eliminate the heating in the first place
• In order for it to cool, and function again I needed to cool it down. Fast. Holding the device out of the window cooled it down within minutes. Albeit maybe not the best idea with regards to traffic security, but if you take care it does indeed work

Regarding moving the device of the dashboard, you could either mount in a standard holder in front of the air condition which should provide cooling, or put it in a side compartment in the door, or even a glove box. The main point is to keep it out off the dashboard with direct sun light providing a lot of heat.

Answer 2

if you have your smartphone mounted on the dash, use the combination of these two products (thermaltake mobile fan portable desk fan + universal smart phone car mount) to mount a mobile fan behind it. Requires a free usb port somewhere (often available on car chargers for your phone).

Thermaltake mobile fan: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002OJN250

example of Smart phone mount that works with the fan: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C4NV7CA

I have a wireless charging car mount on my dash and sometimes I find my phone overheating. I mounted the fan in the smartphone mount behind it to help cool it. Can be a little noisy if you turn the fan on full blast but I am always playing music so its not a problem.

Answer 3

You could use something like this which seems perfect for cooling the phone down, while keeping it at easily readable position

If you still wish to not use your (fragile/old?) air vents for mounting the phone, you could try to mount this upright on the dashboard

PS: While you're at it, give this a read!!

Answer 4

I found a Chinese patent for a Multifunctional Automobile Air-Conditioner Air Outlet Baffle, filed two years ago, but I can't find evidence that it is in production anywhere. Nor have I been able to find a for-sale baffle designed to mount to a car air vent. However, if you consider yourself handy, you might try buying one of the phone air vent mounts and modifying it to redirect the air from the vent in a desired direction.

Answer 5

It depends on how your car's heating system works. I think, running the windshield defroster with the heat set to the lowest/off position, should redirect cool air up against the windshield and around your phone. The defroster is usually supposed to direct heated air against the windshield, but you usually have to have the heat up to do that; especially if you are running the A/C and temp set low, defrost air should be unheated and good for cooling your phone.

Answer 6

In the end, I designed an air deflector and 3D-printed it, as shown in the image below.

If you think it'll solve a similar problem that you're experiencing, you can buy one from my shapeways store. I plan to add it to my thingiverse page soon as well for those who have their own printers.