Ever wondered why smartphone fires and explosions occur? Apart from the exceptional Galaxy Note 7 incidents and a couple of iPhone tragedies, it is believed that most explosions happen due to the fact that consumers were using cheap and counterfeit chargers to juice up their devices. A recent investigation has shown that nearly all Apple counterfeit chargers are found to be unsafe, and that makes you wonder why it’s important to opt for Apple authorized chargers which usually cost a mini fortune compared to cheaper imitation chargers.
The investigation involved an operation of purchasing 400 counterfeit Apple chargers from various suppliers worldwide, and the results are more than just shocking. Counterfeit chargers were obtained from a total of eight countries, including the US, Canada, Thailand, Australia, China and Colombia. It has been reported that 397 out of the 400 chargers failed a basic safety test, accounting for 99 percent. The report states that counterfeit electrical goods are often found to be of poor quality or unsafe at their worst.
One of the safety tests include an electrical strength test whereby the chargers were applied with high voltages to monitor the flow between the input and the output. Charging units were concluded to have insufficient isolation with potential for electric shock if the tested current for those units were above the threshold, and it turns out that only 3 out of the 400 passed the test.
It’s definitely better to be safe than sorry by spending more on 3rd party charging adapters which are authorized and licensed by the product manufacturer itself, or better yet, orginal charging adapters. Be sure to avoid deals which are too good to be true to prevent from getting your hands on sketchy chargers, the reason being that they are not worth the risk at all. What do you think?
Source: Trading Standards