Are cheap chargers killing our phones?

gaztruman

According to this 'Dont Kill Your Phone' campaign from Electrical Safety First, dodgy phone chargers can cause:

• Weak battery power
• Explosion
• Frying your phone.

What does everyone think? I find the official chargers to be expensive but if its messing up the battery it would make me think twice about using a cheap one.

john1

gaztruman wrote: »

According to this 'Dont Kill Your Phone' campaign from Electrical Safety First, dodgy phone chargers can cause:

• Weak battery power
• Explosion
• Frying your phone.

What does everyone think? I find the official chargers to be expensive but if its messing up the battery it would make me think twice about using a cheap one.

See these two separate reports - here and here then make your own mind up

enfield_freddy

Ahh , a cheap charger from china ,,,, made in the same (or close to) factory that your £600 IPhone was ,

matelodave

Yes, but not necessarily to the same specification or standard and possibly not tested either.
It's strange isn't, spend £4-500 on a phone and then begrudge an extra fiver on a decent charger.

enfield_freddy

yup a genuine IPhone charger to take a genuine IPhone USB lead is £15 for the charger only ,


I wonder how many "genuine" ones make it to non apple shops ,


and the customer unwittingly buys a fake

Frozen_up_north

There are huge numbers of fake chargers out there, it's been covered in Fake Britain and other programs. At one time Apple had an amnesty for those taking suspect iPhone chargers into one of their stores and would exchange them for a genuine one for around half price.

Some phone and laptop chargers have exploded with obvious risks to users and their property. For the sake of a few extra quid, it's not worth the risk of injury, fire or death, let alone the possible damage to your phone.

Kernel_Sanders

matelodave wrote: »

It's strange isn't, spend £4-500 on a phone and then begrudge an extra fiver on a decent charger.

That's a bit like saying Rolls Royce owners shouldn't begrudge being charged a bit extra for their petrol.

nidO

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

That's a bit like saying Rolls Royce owners shouldn't begrudge being charged a bit extra for their petrol.

No it's not, because that would imply the owner of a specific brand of phone needs a more expensive charger than everyone else, when what he actually said was that its not worth *anyone* cheaping out on a dodgy charger.

What it's more like saying is that owners of any car shouldn't begrudge paying a bit extra for petrol that doesn't have a statistically significant chance of:
Making your car run worse
Getting lower MPG from it
Randomly break after 5 miles needing replacement fuel
Randomly break your car after 5 miles needing a replacement car
Randomly causing your car to burst into flames.

Luckily we don't get fuel like that, but we do get dodgy phone chargers like that.

Collabora

you could also use something like this http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9368640.htm and plug the USB lead in

ballyblack

you could also use something like this http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...er/9368640.htm and plug the USB lead in

its for sale on Amazon as well but it seems to have a low output; 500mA, taking a long time to charge some mobiles(according to reviews)


.

Collabora

ballyblack wrote: »

its for sale on Amazon as well but it seems to have a low output; 500mA, taking a long time to charge some mobiles(according to reviews)


.

yes that one, but you can get similar at Maplin, pcworld etc. It does not need to be Apple branded