3rd Party Macbook Chargers Safe?

benjer

I have a 2008 white Macbook with a broken keyboard that I would like to connect to a monitor, mouse, and keyboard for my kids. Since I have an Apple mouse and keyboard already, it's a pretty inexpensive setup, except for the fact that I don't have an extra power cord for the old Macbook. I'd rather not spend $79 on the Apple brand 60W cord and go with a cheaper option, but I'm hesitant. I've purchased a third-party charger in the past and the cord wore out within months of daily use. However, this setup would be stationary because I'm essentially turning the Macbook into a desktop computer with the kids. So my question now is whether 3rd party chargers are safe, or is going the cheap route a bad idea in this case?

marvin

benjer said:

my question now is whether 3rd party chargers are safe, or is going the cheap route a bad idea in this case?

The price of any product factors in the labor required to make it. Added effort in manufacturing and testing costs money so generally better tested products with higher quality parts have to cost more. There's a comparison of a cheaper phone charger at the following link vs an Apple one:

http://www.geek.com/apple/why-cheap-phone-chargers-cause-fires-1593785/

The poor circuit design leads to excess heat and bad output that can damage devices. You can see some on Amazon where they even pretend they are genuine Apple models:

http://www.amazon.com/60W-Power-Adapter-MacBook-13-inch/dp/B014Z9P2VI

but the 1-star reviews talk about overheating, sparks coming from the charger and the charger failing after a short period of time. They can damage the battery inside the laptop.

There are 3rd party product manufacturers that are lower priced than Apple but are more reputable. There was a company that was making compact chargers:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/215201435/dart-the-worlds-smallest-laptop-adapter

There's a model here that seems to be using the same design with a Macbook connector:

http://www.amazon.com/Replacement-Smallest-Lightest-Smartest-Power/dp/B011SR8F3M

The reviews say that it stays cooler than the official adapter but it's not priced that much lower than Apple's model and some reviews say build quality wasn't that good. I would rather that Apple cut the margins on their accessories so that people weren't persuaded to buy cheaper brands. Apple's chargers aren't always reliable either, which makes buyers feel worse when they fail because they cost so much more.

I would avoid the 3rd party ones designed to look like Apple's ones because they're just going to be poorer quality. The compact design model at least needed some engineering in order to shrink it down that small but it's not going to save much money vs the official one. The best route to save money would probably be to get a used genuine adapter like the following:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GENUINE-ORIGINAL-APPLE-60W-A1184-ADAPTER-POWER-CHARGER-FOR-MACBOOK-/261896158918
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-MacBook-power-adapter-60w-MagSafe-A1184-used-gd-condition-/182055575591

Always check the reviews on bulk sellers to make sure they send genuine ones.