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iPod are mains adapters safe?

K

kingdummkopf

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 8, 2012
94
0
hi.

my dad bought me, my brother and himself and ipod adapter. me and my brother both have nano's. my dad has a touch.

the adapters were bought from ebay, and although not official apple mains adapters, they resemble them in size etc.

mine and my brothers nano's work with the mains adapter, and they charge fine. however, my dad's second generation touch has an on-screen message saying something along the lines of "this device does not support charging" with a yellow triangle and exclamation mark. however, it does charge the ipod.

i am wondering if these adapters are safe to use or could they damage the batteries in any of the ipods? as i said, they seem to work fine with the nano's, just not the second gen touch. is charging controlled by the ipod itself or what?

thanks.
 
kingdummkopf said:
hi.

my dad bought me, my brother and himself and ipod adapter. me and my brother both have nano's. my dad has a touch.

the adapters were bought from ebay, and although not official apple mains adapters, they resemble them in size etc.

mine and my brothers nano's work with the mains adapter, and they charge fine. however, my dad's second generation touch has an on-screen message saying something along the lines of "this device does not support charging" with a yellow triangle and exclamation mark. however, it does charge the ipod.

i am wondering if these adapters are safe to use or could they damage the batteries in any of the ipods? as i said, they seem to work fine with the nano's, just not the second gen touch. is charging controlled by the ipod itself or what?

thanks.
Click to expand...

To put it simply as it's not a genuine Apple product nobody can give you guarantees of how effective, safely and accurately these devices will deliver voltage except those who make it, and you'd have to trust their word.

Fundamentally the way the Apple charger works isn't rocket science and to replicate it is a simple job for an experienced electronics company. The only worry is with an adapter that cheap (£3.95!) some quality had to suffer and that might be in the cost of the resistors, capacitors and other electronics. This lack of quality could lead to under / over charging and damage to the device or worse...

If you are looking for non-Apple chargers to save a little on the high price of the genuine article then probably stick with well known brands like Belkin, Griffin and so on... It's a little more trustworthy than a £3.95 unknown.
 
hmm, well i'll stop using it then. tried to tell my bro and dad but they think am being too cautious.

though, i thought the devices themselves controlled how much they are charged?
 
As far as charging is concerned they are safe. The idevice will draw only the power it needs, even though the adapter can supply more.

For the device with the message the supply current is probably not high enough. But a lower supply current will not do any damage.

My iPad also has a 'not charging' message with my PC and with some adapter, it still charges, slower though.
 
I'd honestly go with a brand name charger at the very least. I bought a couple of charge/audio cables from eBay that came with a cheap no-name car adapter. While the cables worked fine, I'm pretty sure the adapter fried both my and my wife's iPhones. They both failed the same way (at different times)—they would randomly act like there was an accessory attached when there wasn't one, so they wouldn't play audio out of the speakers. Luckily, Apple replaced both units under warranty, so I can't say for sure the charger was the cause. It didn't even occur to me that the charger could be the problem until after I'd already replaced the second phone, but I threw them out anyway to be safe and haven't had a problem since by sticking to name brand chargers (not necessarily Apple, but pretty much any name brand you can buy at the electronics store should be fine).
 
well, i'm getting an ipad for my birthday, so i can use that charger for my ipod instead, right?

i'll stop using the ebay bought charger for now. using it only once or twice wouldn't have messed up anything, would it?

thanks all.
 
kingdummkopf said:
well, i'm getting an ipad for my birthday, so i can use that charger for my ipod instead, right?
Click to expand...

Sure, but then you have the problem of what to do for your iPad, no?

kingdummkopf said:
i'll stop using the ebay bought charger for now. using it only once or twice wouldn't have messed up anything, would it?
Click to expand...

If your device still works normally then you should be fine.

----------

Here's a teardown of a no-name charger that explains why it's not only a bad idea to use, but could be downright dangerous: Tiny, cheap, and dangerous: Inside a (fake) iPhone charger
 
ytk said:
Sure, but then you have the problem of what to do for your iPad, no?
Click to expand...

well, i can just alternate which device is being charged. charge my ipad. use my ipod. use my ipad, charge my ipod. along those lines. i'd prefer using the official apple one that the ebay one. and apple even states i can use an ipad charger with an ipod.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4327

now to persuade my dad and bro to stop using theirs, though, since it charges their ipod's, i'm sure they'll ignore me and keep the adapters.
 
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