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Comment by Matt3o12_ | Hacker News Reader

Are there any MagSafe Chargers that are save and sold at a reasonable price (or have a better durability then apple's)?

Apple's MagSafe chargers are absolutely fantastic from an electrical engineering standpoint, where they tend to fall flat is on the cables/connectors.

One of the things that has extended the life of my chargers is to be careful when wrapping the wire around the two ears, leave a good bit of slack so that you don't over tighten the charger wire.

This alone has solved most of my issues with my Apple MagSafe Chargers, and I have one that I've had since 2007 that is still in full working condition.

I never wrap the wire around the clips they provide. I just loosely coil the wire on top of the charger and leave plenty of slack. I always make sure my bag can safely store the charger so it doesn't end up upside down. Every charger I've got since 2008 still works.

Same. Don't wrap the cable round those ears, just loop it separately and always pull the connector from the connector housing not by yanking the cable and you can expect years of service (2008 Magsafe charger and iPhone cables and still going strong).

Same applies to any product really, just that Apple seem to be big fans of tiny plugs with very little strain relief.

The rubber cable jacket on mine split open after 3 months of owning it. I always wrap it very carefully, making sure not to strain it at the ends of the cable. These things are truly defective by design.

Ironic: 'by design' is exactly right. There is no strain relief on Mac cables because their art designers thought they were ugly. The art department wins every fight at Apple. They're masters at making the sale. Just not so good on delivering the goods.

I was going through 1-2 chargers per year between 2013 and 2015. In December I said enough was enough and decided to take a stab at designing a more durable one. If there's any interest I can write up a post on it. I have a Frankenstein version that I use daily, and I even looked into DIY kits for making the chargers more durable but it was cost prohibitive.

You should. I've been jury-rigging the same three chargers (down from 6) since 2007 and not looking to upgrade, so no USB-C for me. The chargers themselves are great but the connectors are a chore– no matter how gentle I've been, eventually the heat softens them, then a tiny torque and it's torn.

Yes please, I'd like to know more. If you don't have time for a full write up even a photo dump (e.g. to Imgur) would be interesting.

The unfortunate bit about the connector patents is that they scare off the more reputable cloners, leaving only the ones who really don't care.

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