Can I charge a 12v battery from my cars 12v plug?

I'm building a cooler stereo (cooler that has a car stereo and speakers in it) which is powered by a deep cycle battery.

The thing will spend most of it's time in the back of my car (when not in use) and there's a ciggarrette lighter socket in the back and I was wondering if I had a male to make plug, could I charge the battery in the cooler from it? The battery is actually bigger in size than the battery in my vehicle. (Ford edge)

Yes, as long as the current draw from your cooler battery doesn't exceed the capacity of the accessory power outlet. If it DOES draw too much power, you may find yourself replacing fuses.

DO NOT! Change to a larger capacity fuse. That could start a fire.

Just a word of warning, you do need to take care. Depending on how your 'aux' socket is wired- It is possible that you can have a situation where if the vehicle battery were in a low state of charge and you try to start the vehicle a large amount of current could be pulled from your leisure battery through a very small cable with possible disastrous results - So a fuse… No more than 10 amps must be used in the circuit.
If you do find the fuse 'pops' on starting, you can buy a electronic switching unit or relay, as used in caravan towing electrics, that would isolate the second battery until the car engine is running and would solve the problem.

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