3 ways I get the most out of my car’s wireless phone charger

• Phone cases are the most common problem
• Make sure your wireless charging area is free of cords
• Trust me, just turn your phone around

In today’s age of cord-cutting, the practice has spread far and wide throughout living rooms and offices, and now it’s even reached our cars. Wireless phone chargers have a reputation for being finicky gadgets that rarely work correctly. Still, with well over 100 models now on the market equipped with wireless chargers, it’s no wonder the craze has caught on. Most people I know still only use their cord for charging, but they don’t realize that if they took some time to think about how their wireless chargers are supposed to work, they wouldn’t need a cord in the car at all.

Some of these may seem like common-sense items, but when you get down to the nitty-gritty of why these practices might be causing issues or blocking your wireless charger, it usually makes perfect sense. However, one of these practices seems a bit improbable, but you need to trust me — it works.

Phone cases are the most common problem

Let’s start with the low-hanging fruit

Do you see that large metal bezel on the back of my phone? That’s a magnetic connector for a lens filter kit, which I reviewed here on Pocket-lint, and it works well for that usage. However, cases like this also disrupt a wireless charger’s capabilities. All wireless chargers need a stable connection between the back of your phone and the charger itself, which is why most wireless chargers require devices to lie on a completely flat surface. If solid contact isn’t made, your phone’s temperature could rise, a common complaint with wireless chargers in general. Most of the time, the fault isn’t with the charger or the phone itself—it’s just because the case isn’t right for the job.

Cases with large camera bezels cause phones to sit at an angle, disrupting the flow of charge to the phone itself. Typically, this can be solved by using a better-engineered phone case, such as an OtterBox. However, if you get your phone cases from about five scrolls down on Amazon, the chances are they won’t come with the engineering or tech needed to make wireless charging sustainable. This particular phone case, though, introduces metal to the equation, which is another conversation in itself.

Make sure your wireless charging area is free of cords

If your goal is to cut cords out of your car, this is the first step

The second most common way wireless charging is interrupted (and one of the easiest to miss) is by placing other metal objects, such as cords and plug-ins, in the same space as the charger itself. This has been shown to interfere with charging signals, causing wireless chargers to work only in spurts, if at all. Whether it’s a small paperclip, another cord, or maybe even a multitool you’ve left lying around, there’s a good chance that whatever metal object is around your wireless charger is keeping it from working as it should.

Speaking of how wireless chargers work, it’s important to note that they aren’t meant to charge a phone instantly. Sure, technology is getting faster, but wireless chargers are intended to maintain a battery rather than juice it up on the go.

Trust me, just turn your phone around

A complete 180-degree turn might be all your wireless charger needs

I noticed that in my 2025 Volkswagen Atlas, my wireless charger performs better if I turn my phone in the opposite direction a normal person would expect. That got me curious, so I searched to see if anyone had noticed the same effect across different models. To my surprise, this is a trend across plenty of manufacturers.

It might sound wacky, but a simple 180-degree turn could be all your wireless charger is missing to make it as functional as you would like. If your charging pad is clean, your phone case is level, and you still can’t get your wireless charger to work consistently, trust me and give it a twist.