Tips from U.S. Cellular for Keeping Your Cell Phone Battery Charged in Winter

[January 26, 2008]  CHICAGO -- Cold weather means car batteries are a concern, but cell phone batteries shouldn't be! Before heading out into the elements, there are precautions that can be taken so that communication isn't cut off when it's needed the most.

U.S. Cellular's phone doctors offer these tips to improve the chances that phones will survive a cold winter's day or night.

Keep it charged

Stash extra power chargers in your office cubicle. Motorola even offers a travel charger that's smaller and lighter weight than the charger you keep plugged in at home, making it ideal for travel.

Keep a vehicle power charger on hand in the glove box. Plug the vehicle charger directly into the cigarette lighter to charge your phone on the go.

For emergency situations, a winding or battery-powered charger could be just the thing to secure one more call.

Keep it warm

Avoid leaving phones in the car. When out in the cold, carry a cell phone in an inside jacket pocket, keeping it close to your body for warmth.

Allow phones to warm up to room temperature before using or powering them on. Temperatures below 40 degrees can run down the phone's battery charge more quickly.

Keep it dry

If your cell phone gets wet from condensation when coming in from the cold or if you drop it in a pile of snow, power down right away and remove the battery.

Remove excess water from the handset and then leave it powered off for a day or two to dry out. Bring a damaged phone to a U.S. Cellular service technician as soon as possible if you have any questions.

[Text from file received from L.C. Williams & Associates]