Cheapest way to replace a broken 45w MagSafe 2 charger?

[salmonofdoubt12]

The charger for my 2015 Macbook Air no longer works, and a replacement MagSafe charger from Apple costs $80. Is there a cheaper way to get a safe, reliable replacement? I'm wary of buying one off Ebay or Amazon because I assume there are many fakes floating around and I'm not sure how to tell the difference. I'm not concerned with how beat up it is, so long as it works.

Here's an Ebay seller who claims to be selling an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) charger.

I also found the charger for only $43 on OWC. Does anyone know if they are legit?

Anywhere else I should look?

 

[MacGizmo]

OWC is probably the best Apple-focused reseller on the market. The unit they are selling comes with a one-year warranty, so I would feel pretty safe buying from them over anyone else but Apple themselves.

 

[chrfr]

OWC is probably the best Apple-focused reseller on the market. The unit they are selling comes with a one-year warranty, so I would feel pretty safe buying from them over anyone else but Apple themselves.

There have been reports that the chargers that OWC sells as genuine Apple are actually counterfeits. The only truly safe place to get a MagSafe charger is direct from Apple, unfortunately.

 

[mk313]

My wife bought a replacement MagSafe Charger (I think Version 2, but I"m to sure-its a 2013 MBP) off eBay & it's impossible to tell the real thing from fakes. The first one she got died after about 40 days. It was sold as genuine Apple & it looked exactly like an overstock model, brand new.

The second one she bought was used and looked used, but it's been working great for over a year now.

If you do buy one off bay, I'd go with one that has been used, rather than one that looks new, as it's probably easier to manufacture cheap knock-offs, but much less probable to do that, then use it for a few months to make it look used.

EDIT: I think you can also buy insurance on some bay electronics purchases. Might be worth it to buy it on the charger if they offer it.

 

[philvid2]

My 2015 MBP charger died in February. I booked a genus bar appointment and said the laptop had problems charging and that I wasn’t sure if the charger was the problem. After confirming the charger was the source of my problem, they gave me the choice between buying a new MagSafe 2 charger in the usual retail packages for full price or to buy an out of warranty replacement part for less.

The downside of the replacement part is that the warranty was less than the full price one, maybe 90 days vs 1 year. Since I was planning to buy a new laptop this summer, I went with the cheaper one.

 

[diego.caraballo]

There have been reports that the chargers that OWC sells as genuine Apple are actually counterfeits. The only truly safe place to get a MagSafe charger is direct from Apple, unfortunately.

Can confirm. I opened a failed "genuine" charger from OWC and it was a very cheap (and dangerous) clone. Lasted 35 days.