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Comment by dtwest | Hacker News Reader

I love the design of the MagSafe chargers, you point out a great advantage of them, but sadly they aren't durable. And like the parent comment said, they are expensive. I'm on my second for my current laptop and it's frayed on the end so I'm soon to be on my third. Hopefully a next iteration of MagSafe takes this issue more seriously.

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I have a couple MagSafe chargers (for the 15 inch Pro) sitting in a drawer with no Mac that can use them. I can’t be bothered to sell them on eBay, I’d be happy to pass them on if you cover shipping.

> I love the design of the MagSafe chargers, you point out a great advantage of them, but sadly they aren't durable.

I was only talking about the MagSafe connector, which was genius. I agree that they made a few very poor decisions in other parts of the charger (specifically: the cable itself).

Shore it up by wrapping electrical tape around it. To be stylish, find some white electrical tape.

That works for a while so long as it's not fraying near the Magsafe connector itself. I eventually threw out my older charger because there was more electrical tape than original coating. My current one started deteriorating right at the connector so it's patched up with epoxy paste to provide strain relief.

I tend to agree that Apple isn't going to retreat on USB-C. That just doesn't make a lot of sense. And whatever minor virtues Magsafe may have, I'm happy when traveling not to have to remember a one-off charger for a laptop. (Which I have forgotten a couple of times.)

I just bought my first macbook, a 2015 model. Looking at the charger, the connection with the magsafe connector looks ok (but definitely weaker than regular barrel jacks), but it seems to me that people get the tendency to unplug it by pulling the cable instead of pulling on the connector. Perhaps that's why they deteriorate rapidly?

I'm sure people do at least now and then. I almost certainly have--are at least I'm not super careful. And I know mine does get accidentally yanked out every now and then.

And I find the covering of the whole cord tends to deteriorate over time, which isn't strain related.

Use self-amalgamating tape, I use this on all new cables where I suspect strain relief is needed.

Or some Sugru if you want to get real fancy.

This can only be planned obsolescence. Anti-fray cable ends have been a standard feature of headphones for decades.

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