Which are trustworthy brands for a simple USB wall charger?

[NeverDie]

@sundberg84 said in Which are trustworthy brands for a simple USB wall charger?:

it was considered safe so far with the chargers (13 fires / year) verses stove fires (1500+/year)

I suppose one could monitor the temperature of the charger since, after all, it would be used to power a sensor node anyway. Maybe that would give some advance warning if things are heading badly before it goes catastrophic?

[robosensor]

Seems like this is offtopic, but there are good meanwell power supplies designed to run 24x7, like this:

http://www.meanwell.com/webapp/product/search.aspx?prod=DR-15 (MTBF 1.1M hours)

Or even something like this:
http://www.meanwell.com/webapp/product/search.aspx?prod=PM-05 (MTBF 1.5M hours) and so on

I used long time this NFM-05-5 power supplies, very good, no problems at all:
http://www.meanwell.com/webapp/product/search.aspx?prod=NFM-05

[gohan]

@robosensor nice, but not very handy as a wall charger.

[sundberg84]

one could monitor the temperature

@NeverDie - this is the exact approach I have in my In wall AC/DC nodes.
https://www.openhardware.io/view/13/In-Wall-ACDC-Pcb-for-MySensors

[NeverDie]

If you've guys have never seen any of the videos from:
https://www.youtube.com/user/bigclivedotcom/videos
many of them are quite entertaining. I think he may have been a Scottish electrician or something. He routinely buys things from the pound shop, tears them down, and often shows them to be "deathtraps," especially for mains connected devices.

[gohan]

most cheap stuff is potentially a death trap if it is mains powered :D

[NeverDie]

Noticing now that at least some of them claim to offer various protections:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/LED-Display-3-USB-Charger-ROCK-Universal-Mobile-Phone-USB-Charger-Fast-Charging-Wall-Charger-For/32832813133.html

So, what would be the cheapest one but offering good protections?

[gohan]

I wonder how they achieve over charge protection :anguished:

[NeverDie]

I guess the way to do it would be if someone credible like Dave Jones did a tear down and vetted a particular USB charger. Then get that make and model. Ignoring counterfeits, maybe then it would be deem-able as "safe."

[mfalkvidd]

When I need multiple ports, I use the IKEA chargers. Reasons:

• They are the cheapest per mA and port that I can buy locally
• They are a big brand with a reputation to protect
• bigclivedotcom has done a teardown and deemed it safe

[NeverDie]

@mfalkvidd Good find! I also just now found a teardown by bigclive for the ~$1 usb wall chargers that I was thinking of getting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNoGCdX1IdQ
and it has convinced me that it would have been a mistake. So, I guess around $7.50 or more is what it's going to take for a decent, safe quality usb charger. So, suddenly batteries start to look like a reasonable alternative, whereas before I wouldn't have thought so.

[gohan]

battery or wall charger it is a choice that depends on the kind of sensors you want to use :)

[Nca78]

If you didn't you can have a look there too, there are many tests of Ali / Ebay products:
http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/indexUSB UK.html

Go back to root of website if you are interested in battery tests, battery chargers or led drivers.

[NeverDie]

@Nca78 said in Which are trustworthy brands for a simple USB wall charger?:

If you didn't you can have a look there too, there are many tests of Ali / Ebay products:
http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/indexUSB UK.html

Go back to root of website if you are interested in battery tests, battery chargers or led drivers.

Wow! That's extensive. Is there a short-list somewhere for the best of what they tested? I want to jump ahead to the final recommendations and not read every review if I can avoid it.

[NeverDie]

Aha! Nevermind, I think I found it: http://lygte-info.dk/info/ChargerIndex UK.html

[NeverDie]

I like how he tests them for noise level as well. Might as well pick one with low noise if possible.

[NeverDie]

I think I'm starting to warm-up to this one:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/NTONPOWER-US-Electrical-Plug-and-Socket-Wall-Mounted-3-Outlet-3-USB-Charging-Port-15W-with/32757740342.html?spm=a2g0s.13010208.99999999.263.PgEo7J

It's made by the same company that got a good review in the above list (although, maybe not, because Orico appears to have an identical one). However, the intangibles in its favor are:

1. I get more wall plugs, not fewer for having plugged it in, and
2. It has a minimalist shelf meant to hold a phone for charging, but it might just as well hold a sensor node or gateway, which would be convenient.

[zboblamont]

@NeverDie Was "starting to warm-up" an example of Texan humour, or accidental, given how this thread started off....?

[fredswed]

I second the IKEA alternative for USB chargers. They are hard to beat as a huge company with focus both on cost and safety. And the lygte-info.dk is a great resource.

Just remember that a USB charger is optimized to deliver 1-2 A for a couple of hours at a time. That is very different to providing 50 mA continously. I'm thinking of heat dissipation but also efficiency at low power. (So use the lygte-info.dk link to find a good one that performs well at the power you need.)

[NeverDie]

What a strange world we live in that Ikea has become the "go to" source for USB chargers....:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Not saying that I disagree, but it's just plain odd that we have to resort to that in order to get something trustworthy.