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Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

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Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#131

Post by 8_hours_ago »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #26
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OP shows why replica chargers are not a good idea. You're lucky if it doesn't destroy your machine.

So far I've used about 7 cheapo MacBook chargers off eBay - I have two right now, and have, over the years, given the other 5 away. While a couple of them have died, so have my original three MacBook chargers. None of them has killed or damaged mine, or anyone else's MacBooks.

It depends on your luck... and I am unlucky. My knock-off charger completely destroyed the power supply in my MacBook Pro after a few months of using it.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#132

Post by brazzledazzle »

pshc wrote: post #63
jsmith0295 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found it hardly happens at all if you avoid wrapping the cable. I just toss mine in my bag, and it's hardly worn at all.

Yeah. I do wind mine, but I leave a length of loose cable first to avoid applying tension where the cable enters the brick. I believe the fraying happens when people pull laterally on the strain relief. (It's still Apple's fault, of course.) See: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201600

I do the same. But I did have one fray at the end that plugs into the Mac once, so failures do happen.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#133

Post by Sakiina_ »

Gracana wrote: post #98
Sakiina_ wrote: post #81

Anyone here heard of the Magsafe saver? https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lightning-magsafe-saver-p... This is what I got-- took an eternity to get to me, but it works well enough. I wrap my cables. I had my Macbook Pro for two years, abused it, charger was fine. I sold it with the Macbook when I moved back Stateside after living abroad. My next charger broke, because my kitten decided it made a great teething chew.…

How does that not just move the point of strain further down the cable? It looks like a rigid extension of the strain relief boot.

It is fairly rigid, but there's some flex. It just seems to make it so there's not such a sharp "curve", if you will, if you wrap the cable, at the end, where it seems to fray the most, and where I noticed the most wear.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#134

Post by ricardobeat »

Bud wrote: post #122
throwaway420 wrote: post #30

Despite the visual appeal of their products, Apple normally does a very good job with prioritizing function over form except in this case with the charger wire being so fragile and thin. I know I'm not the most careful and delicate person in the world, but the failure rate here is ridiculous compared to other similar products I own. The end of the cable gets frayed every single time. Otherwise, Apple makes ridiculous…

I support around 300 Macs for work. In my extensive experience, the deal here is that people are FAR too rough and careless in winding up those charger cables over and over. Apple HAS implemented strain relief here and done their best to make the points of failure less vulnerable. Here's a tip: Instead of yanking the cable at a 90-degree angle and winding as tightly as possible, let the cable come out of the charger…

It also frails at the MagSafe end, where gravity naturally twists it. I had this happen to mine (after 5 years).

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#135

Post by eli »

OxO4 wrote: post #85
Analemma_ wrote: post #2

My takeaway from this is that the $80 Apple charger is definitely safer and has higher-quality components than the $12 cheapo Chinese charger, but not nearly so much better that it solely explains the price difference, and that Apple is making a healthy margin on these things. So my question is, is anyone selling a quality charger without the Apple tax? Is there anyone making, say, $40 chargers that have the componen…

Groupon seems to be selling original ones starting at $30 (MacBook Air): https://www.groupon.com/deals/gg-apple-magsafe-2-power-adapt...

I would assume it is counterfeit.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#136

Post by richdougherty »

Bud wrote: post #122
throwaway420 wrote: post #30

Despite the visual appeal of their products, Apple normally does a very good job with prioritizing function over form except in this case with the charger wire being so fragile and thin. I know I'm not the most careful and delicate person in the world, but the failure rate here is ridiculous compared to other similar products I own. The end of the cable gets frayed every single time. Otherwise, Apple makes ridiculous…

I support around 300 Macs for work. In my extensive experience, the deal here is that people are FAR too rough and careless in winding up those charger cables over and over. Apple HAS implemented strain relief here and done their best to make the points of failure less vulnerable. Here's a tip: Instead of yanking the cable at a 90-degree angle and winding as tightly as possible, let the cable come out of the charger…

I've had two chargers fail, now I treat them very gently and wind them like you suggest. I wish the charger design was more robust. Most chargers for other laptops are uglier but much more robust.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#137

Post by justinhj »

Bud wrote: post #122
throwaway420 wrote: post #30

Despite the visual appeal of their products, Apple normally does a very good job with prioritizing function over form except in this case with the charger wire being so fragile and thin. I know I'm not the most careful and delicate person in the world, but the failure rate here is ridiculous compared to other similar products I own. The end of the cable gets frayed every single time. Otherwise, Apple makes ridiculous…

I support around 300 Macs for work. In my extensive experience, the deal here is that people are FAR too rough and careless in winding up those charger cables over and over. Apple HAS implemented strain relief here and done their best to make the points of failure less vulnerable. Here's a tip: Instead of yanking the cable at a 90-degree angle and winding as tightly as possible, let the cable come out of the charger…

I have a charger I only use at home and it's hopelessly frayed. The users are not the problem here.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#138

Post by OxO4 »

eli wrote: post #135
OxO4 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Groupon seems to be selling original ones starting at $30 (MacBook Air): https://www.groupon.com/deals/gg-apple-magsafe-2-power-adapt...

I would assume it is counterfeit.

They include a 1 year warranty from Apple though which makes me think that they are genuine.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#139

Post by Zelphyr »

miketuritzin wrote: post #129
throwaway420 wrote: post #30

Despite the visual appeal of their products, Apple normally does a very good job with prioritizing function over form except in this case with the charger wire being so fragile and thin. I know I'm not the most careful and delicate person in the world, but the failure rate here is ridiculous compared to other similar products I own. The end of the cable gets frayed every single time. Otherwise, Apple makes ridiculous…

I bought one of these about a year ago because I got sick of paying $80 for new Macbook chargers, and it has worked really well so far: http://pythoncords.com/ The idea is to reinforce the place that usually breaks. I'm not affiliated with this company in any way, just a happy customer.

Interesting idea but really, you can do this without buying anything extra. Just make sure the cord is perpendicular to the charger and then loop it down after about an inch or two before wrapping it. I've been doing this for awhile without fail.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#140

Post by grandalf »

Bud wrote: post #122
throwaway420 wrote: post #30

Despite the visual appeal of their products, Apple normally does a very good job with prioritizing function over form except in this case with the charger wire being so fragile and thin. I know I'm not the most careful and delicate person in the world, but the failure rate here is ridiculous compared to other similar products I own. The end of the cable gets frayed every single time. Otherwise, Apple makes ridiculous…

I support around 300 Macs for work. In my extensive experience, the deal here is that people are FAR too rough and careless in winding up those charger cables over and over. Apple HAS implemented strain relief here and done their best to make the points of failure less vulnerable. Here's a tip: Instead of yanking the cable at a 90-degree angle and winding as tightly as possible, let the cable come out of the charger…

I do these things and have only had one failure in the past 5 years (and it happened while someone was borrowing the charger from me).
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