Recommend a decent USB charger - that won't cause a fire.

pastryboy

One of the ports on my 2 year old Anker charger had stopped working then today I plugged something in and smoke started coming out of the cable and the plastic on it started bubbling up. Although it still seems to work, I don't think I'll be using it again.

Anyone recommend a particular multi-port charger that's going to charge my many devices without burning my house to the ground?

UndercoverElephant

pastryboy wrote:

One of the ports on my 2 year old Anker charger had stopped working then today I plugged something in and smoke started coming out of the cable and the plastic on it started bubbling up. Although it still seems to work, I don't think I'll be using it again.

Anyone recommend a particular multi-port charger that's going to charge my many devices without burning my house to the ground?

Screwfix have a nice line in double-plug face plates that have USB built in. For example:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-13a-2g-sp ... hite/4087p

meanredspider

The regulations around chargers are pretty strict these days - but it's not just the charger but the battery and the cable too - as they form a system. Whilst people obviously love to buy zillion lumen lights for £4.99 from China, they really are risking fire and (without exaggeration) explosion. If Samsung can get it wrong once in a while, imagine what is happening with the back-street Chinese guys. I've visited a lot of East Asian battery testing labs this year and even witnessed a battery explode - it made even the battery testing guy jump. Given a lot of commuters typically charge batteries at night and the bigger the battery, the bigger the "bang", cheap Chinese stuff is really (relatively) quite dangerous - I won't have it in my house.

Anyhow, back to the OP, buy something from a well-known brand with a good cable and a decent battery.

dodgy

I've had problems with Anker chargers in the past, worth getting in touch with their support (easy and they respond quick). I am fairly confident they'll just send you a new one, they'll want to hear about any safety issues with their products.

jamesco

Looking at this article, the best bet is an OEM charger, which is intuitive - Samsung and Apple won't want their phones destroyed a crappy charger they provide.

Multi-chargers are a bit less common. Here's a Samsung one.

PS - as MRS states, crappy chargers can go 'bang'. I had one under my desk and it just about gave me a heart-attack - pieces flew across the room, the fuse tripped, the UPS it was plugged into got scorch marks...

DrLex

dodgy wrote:

I've had problems with Anker chargers in the past, worth getting in touch with their support (easy and they respond quick). I am fairly confident they'll just send you a new one, they'll want to hear about any safety issues with their products.

Had a battery pack replaced w.o. question last year when I contacted them about it failing to charge properly. The other three have been w.o. issue, two years on.

iPete

UndercoverElephant wrote:

pastryboy wrote:

One of the ports on my 2 year old Anker charger had stopped working then today I plugged something in and smoke started coming out of the cable and the plastic on it started bubbling up. Although it still seems to work, I don't think I'll be using it again.

Anyone recommend a particular multi-port charger that's going to charge my many devices without burning my house to the ground?

Screwfix have a nice line in double-plug face plates that have USB built in. For example:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-13a-2g-sp ... hite/4087p

That's decent, a year ago there were not any cheap ones that would charge larger devices like iPads so have one from MK
http://www.screwfix.com/p/mk-13a-2-gang ... hite/3905g

They really are useful but you probably need to own your place to bother and then need to make sure the gap in the wall is deep enough.