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Fake Apple Chargers Fail Safety Tests (bbc.com)
Investigators have warned consumers they face potentially fatal risks after 99% of fake Apple chargers failed a basic safety test. From a report on BBC: Trading Standards, which commissioned the checks, said counterfeit electrical goods bought online were an "unknown entity." Of 400 counterfeit chargers, only three were found to have enough insulation to protect against electric shocks. It comes as Apple has complained of a "flood" of fakes being sold on Amazon. Apple revealed in October that it was suing a third-party vendor, which it said was putting customers "at risk" by selling power adapters masquerading as those sold by the Californian tech firm.
I found cheapo USB chargers from Amazon have huge inrush currents and make big sparks when plugging in. UL listed power supplies have inrush current limiting which prevents this.
This is Amazon's responsibility. They're selling counterfeit, dangerous merchandise.
I don't respond to AC's.
Apple controls and/or prevents the existence of 3rd party chargers with the use patents. I don't respect Apple in any way, they are just a perfumed sewer.
I think of 3rd party cheaters as people who dig holes in the prison walls from the outside. If only their stuff was more reliable ;)
Here's a video taking one apart and reverse-engineering it to see why it's so crappy.
You get what you pay for.
...laura
Apple can sue third parties making shit clones all they want but until they quit continuing to charge $85 for an adapter design that came out 9 years ago, people buying knockoffs will continue.
With USB-C, this is going to get much, much worse. Apple, Google and HP now have laptops that can get juice from every charger.
However, the protocol for that (USB-PD, Power Delivery) is a digital protocol. So companies that used to build purely electronic chargers will now have to build or more likely buy firmware for their chargers. There's bound to be bugs in there, but we're talking about chargers that can supply up to a 100W of direct current.
I dare not guess how much houses are going to burn down because of crazy power supplies.
Personally, I'm only buying cables and chargers that have been tested thoroughly. You can't trust Amazon reviews, you can't trust big brands, you can only trust guys like Benson Leung and Nathan K., who whip out the protocol analyzer and the benchtop electronic loads.
This is a real good source:
https://docs.google.com/spread...
And this is the Google Plus page, where they post an analysis every so often:
https://plus.google.com/collec...
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That fake chargers cut corners that lead to unsafe designs is not a surprise. However, I wonder if Android devices suffer from a similar problem. Is there something inherent about the Apple design that leads to a higher probability of unsafe knock-offs, or is the current focus on Apple chargers simply a matter of more media attention devoted to Apple at the moment?
The only reason why there's so many fake Apple chargers and non-compliant cables is because Apple prices genuine ones exorbitantly, and yet they are not designed to be durable. This combination creates a market for counterfeit and shoddy replacement products because when the genuine version breaks, consumers don't want to spend $100 or $45 or $20 to replace a charger or cable.
Case in point: MacBook Pro chargers have been known to suffer from frayed cables due to Apple's insistence on a design that lacks adequate strain relief. This has been a known engineering defect in their chargers since the iBook and PowerBook design over a decade ago, yet Apple has persistently refused to correct this flaw, presumably to encourage people to buy new chargers and make more profit. It would be a trivial matter for Apple to redesign these chargers to make the cable detachable from the brick--something that virtually every other laptop manufacturer does, so that if the cable breaks, you don't have to pay $100 to replace the whole thing and toss the broken one in the trash.
Same problem with iPhone cables. No strain relief. Apple talks about being an environmentally conscious company, but with millions of iPhone users--and almost everyone I know who owns one has said they've needed to replace the OEM cable due to wear--the cost of this garbage is substantial. Then add in the cost of the counterfeits both in terms of waste and safety.
Apple: lower the profit margins on chargers and cables, and make them more durable. You won't sell as much or make as much money, but only then will you be living up to your claims of being environmentally conscious and actually caring about consumers not injuring themselves, because you are playing a role in the fact that your consumers are buying knockoffs in the first place.
I replaced my broken apple MB Air charger 3 years ago. Recently it broke again. I repaired mine this time around, with electric connectors and tape. 85 Euros for a charger is freakin' insane, even by Apple standards. The margin on these things must be higher even than on iPhones. Someone should list their global profit percentage on chargers - that would probably be 99.9% vis-a-vis 91% of all Smartphone profits globally. ...
One of the reasons I'm actually happy about moving away from Apple computers now.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Ya, there is something inherent about apple that leads to a plethora of unsafe knockoffs. They design their products to need expensive accessories that they then gouge the consumer on. If they really wanted to slowdown the knockoffs, they should start selling at a price that's related to the cost of production.
The closest thing to "something inherent about the Apple design" is Apple's tighter control over production of devices with Lightning and MagSafe connectors through refusal to license relevant patents. Android devices, on the other hand, use standardized USB micro-B and USB C connectors. Licenses for patents that cover standard USB connectors are offered under "FRAND" (uniform royalty) conditions. So any safe USB charger is a safe Android charger.
But the strategy of badmouthing the "knockoffs" (directly and by proxy) is lots better for profits!
This is not an Apple problem, cheap USB power adapters cause significant issues for Android phones and other devices that use USB. The companies making them don't follow the guidelines for USB products any more than they do with lightning ones, and with apple shifting to USB-c, they will see bigger problems just like everyone using USB-c.
Probably the best thing you can do for any device is to but a good quality branded product, often times they are only a few dollars more.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Look at the prices of well engineered USB-C chargers. They're on par to be the same price. Putting engineering effort into a product costs money.
The 3 highest rated USB-C chargers linked elsewhere cost $35, $39.99 and $39.99.
It's worse than that. At work, we use trolleys for charging macbooks. Each trolley has fifteen slots, and fifteen magsafe cables coming from a common power supply.
Except that there is no way to get those cables.
Apple holds the patent. They make exactly as many connectors as they do chargers. They don't sell the connectors or cables separately. They will not allow anyone else to manufacture them. So on every one of those trolleys, for every one of those fifteen bays, we had to sacrifice an Apple charger. We chopped off the connector and had it incorporated into the trolley, and threw the charger body itsself away.
And every time a connector needs replacing - which happens a lot, see above post on how awful magsafe connectors are from a durabiity standpoint - we have to buy another expensive charger, chop off the connector, and throw the rest away.
You can get magsafe connectors on eBay, which I assume come from some knock-off-shop in China who are happily ignoring the patent. Supply is erratic, and we can't use them because they don't come from a known trustworthy supplier.
I purchased a couple of those white boxy chargers on E-bay and found that if I plug in the thing the wrong way, I get the full line voltage on the case of my apple phone. Those things could have killed somebody! Seriously, they are more than just a little dangerous. I could have died just holding my phone in bare feet while charging.
Once I realized the issue, ALL of them went into the trash and although I'm $10 poorer, I learned a valuable lesson. Don't buy stuff like this from E-Bay. Cheap cables and stuff w/o any active components? Fine... Just NOTHING that plugs into the wall unless you can verify it's not a knock off (which is unlikely to be possible). Shocking what kinds of stuff they get away with selling...
Still, why on earth does Apple run the price of this stuff so blooming high? Seriously guys, I don't mind you making a profit but do you really have to gouge me after I paid retail for that I-device to start with? How much does a 5V power supply actually cost you to produce anyway?
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
may be you should invest in a powerstrip
I bought an Anker USB C-C cable. I got an LG phone with C, and Qualcomm quick charging on it so I needed some new adapters to be able to charge it at full speed. Gout a couple of adapters, and couple of A-C cables and then said "why not?" and got a C-C cable too. No use for it yet, but I figured I'd get it since I'm sure my next laptop will have C on it.
A few weeks later, Anker sent me a recall notice. Apparently there was a problem in the cables that could cause issues with high power use cases so they gave me my money back and promised a replacement when available.
The issue was actually apparently in the ICs on the cable. Yes that's right, the cables have to have controllers on them too since they have to communicate what kind of power they can handle.
It is likely to be a problem for some time. The good news is A-C cables aren't such an issue since A supports much lower voltages and currents (can only go up to 12v and and like 2.5a) so they don't have to be as insulated and don't need as much protection (apparently a resistor on them does the trick) but still. The C-C stuff though, it will be an issue.
This will only stop if the government regulators get some balls and actually start prosecuting somebody. I bought a 'genuine' apple charger off eBay that was a fake with dangerously inadequate creepages. I told the supplier they had broken several laws, but all they cared about was the negative feedback on their eBay account.
If the govt. crates mandatory safety legislation, they need to enforce it.
46137
I can buy 3 for the price of one genuine Apple charger. I can tell you firsthand they run HOT. I don't charge unless I am present, but I don't know that they are all that dangerous, either. They are about as durable as an Apple charger, and I am going to make it a point to buy some ASAP before I can't.
Too bad the apple chargers wont fit on a power strip due to their irregular shape.
Sounds like it's time to ditch Apply in your shop. Why are you working so hard to give them your money?
Except that there is no way to get those cables. Apple holds the patent.
All MacBook Pros are now equipped with USB-C so as soon as your current batch is written off, this problem will be fixed. For now, it's a pretty nasty situation though.
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
Part of what makes these problematic is largely that they're trying to look like Apple products. Apple makes really small power supplies, which makes it much harder to create knock-offs that work. Nobody makes knock-offs of Android supplies; they just make cheap USB power supplies. Because they aren't trying to hit an absurdly small form factor, they don't cut corners to the same degree, and the supplies tend to be more reliable at a given price point. That said, the Apple USB supplies cost $19, and the usable third-party branded supplies usually start at about $12, so there's not a lot of savings to be gained even when you take away the form factor.
More significantly, because they're trying to look like Apple products (and often pretending to be Apple products), they can't be branded. If they were, Apple would go after them for violating their design patents (and trademark violations if they use the Apple logo). That entire selling model is incompatible with branding. As a result, there's no hit to their reputation if the product doesn't work. They just change the name on their Amazon or eBay account and go right back to fooling people. So there's also no incentive to make a quality product.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Any cost conscious product manufacturer uses another NRTL for the small USA market.
Um... no. The US represents the single largest single market in the world, and is roughly 25% of the entire world. No manufacturer can afford to ignore a quarter of the market, any more than they can ignore the E.U. or China.
There are plenty of PSUs which have good safety, and are not UL listed (but UL certified by another NRTL).
That makes NO sense: UL Certification means Underwriters Laboratory did the testing. Another NRTL cannot by definition, UL certify anything
But assuming you meant that the product is certified by a different NRTL: You're ignoring the scope and purpose of an NRTL.
An NRTL can do testing for OSHA compliance. OSHA is only an authority for workplace safety, and nothing else. An NRTL's certification is only valid for an industrial or commercial application, and has no value for products intended for a home.
There are only 17 NRTL's, but even then, they are limited in scope. Each NRTL is only licensed to test a specific set of criteria: For example, the NSF is an NRTL, but it's wholly inappropriate for the group to certify an electrical product. There only a couple of NRTL's licensed to test electrical products.
It's also important to note the origin and continued primary business of UL: UL was formed by and works primarily for the American fire/homeowner's insurance industry. They are the laboratory that the insurance industry goes to in order to underwrite the safety of a product.
UL listing of consumer products isn't, and should never be mistaken for any sort of governmental certification. It's an insurance industry approval, and means you're likely to get a payout should the product cause damage.
-- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
85 Euros for a charger is freakin' insane, even by Apple standards
Yeah tell me about it. $75 for a Dell charger is ludicrous. Wait wrong company? Sorry. 99EUR for a HP charger is insane? Oh they have a cheaper one? Yeah 65EUR for a painfully weak and slow HP charger is just insane.
Oh wrong company?
Yeah I guess the entire industry that produces quality CE and UL listed products that won't electrocute you or burn your house down is mad.
Or maybe (just a guess) there's actually a shitload of engineering and very carefully designed expensive components in a good charger. You know the kind of charger that doesn't produce a high pitched coil whine and set of large inductive spikes when you plug them in and unplug them from the wall.
For the same reason every other company that uses Apple does so: We have certain employees with authority and an insistence that they really need Apple and nothing else will do.
How would that help? The magsafe connectors are still going to fail, and the charger would still need replacing.
They fit on power strips here fine. I'm guessing it depends on the spacing of the strip and the national design of the socket.
I would be really surprised if the headline read:
Fake Apple charger are just as safe as original ones.
>> The US represents the single largest single market in the world
Nope.
For industry products, it's a small and stable market.
For mobiles, it's still big, now second to China
aaaaaaa
>> That makes NO sense: UL Certification means Underwriters Laboratory did the testing. Another NRTL cannot by definition, UL certify anything
Perhaps, but they certify with their stamp according to "UL" STANDARDS, which are called such because originally UL wrote the national safety standards.
This name confusion is causing widespread misunderstanding, and this confusion is the only reason UL is asks for twice the price for the same service.
>> They are the laboratory that the insurance industry goes to in order to underwrite the safety of a product.
That's history. They make the exact same tests as other ones.
>>UL listing of consumer products isn't, and should never be mistaken for any sort of governmental certification.
Wrong. NRTL certification is required by law for workplaces in USA.
>> It's an insurance industry approval, and means you're likely to get a payout should the product cause damage.
That's plain FUD.
>> There are only 17 NRTL's, but even then, they are limited in scope.
Nope. All are fully equipped for the UL safety tests, EMC, and so on. They are required to be capable, and audited, else they lose the NRTL capability.
aaaaaaa
In my experience, those knockoff magsafe cables are completely useless. I had a Macbook power supply where the connector stopped working. I saw a bunch of cables on Amazon for $5 or so, much cheaper than getting a new power supply obviously.
I must have went through at least 5 of those knockoff replacement cables. Several different brands (though who knows if the different brands listed on Amazon all get their product from the same supplier.) None lasted more than a couple weeks.
I eventually broke down and bought another Apple charger. That one stopped working about 10 months later. At least it was in the warranty period.