skylinedrifter

I bought a generic car charger for my Droid. My thought was something along the lines of "a micro USB charger is a micro USB charger" and clearly I was wrong.

I noticed that after an hour on the charger while i was using GPS, 3G and Bluetooth, that the charge on my phone had actually dropped by about 10%. At best, the generic charger only slowed the drain from the battery. I replaced it with a Rocketfish charger from Best Buy and, while charging was painfully slow, it did charge.

Maybe it was the brand of charger and maybe my charger was faulty but I thought I'd throw this out there for anyone who is going to grab one.

Mrwirez

I will only buy Verizon accessories from now on. I tried the Rocketfish charger from Best Buy but took it back. The cord was way too short and it did take a while to charge. The Verizon cord was a good eight inches longer and charged in about 30 minutes..

I once bought a cheap generic Chinese accessory kit from eBay.. the car charger shorted out and cooked my old LG vx8100 (*I had insurance).

Do yourself a favor, buy Verizon accessories from a real VW store. It is only a couple of dollars more but very much worth it.

OT: I also bought the Asurion insurance for my Droid.. Its $8.00/month. I break everything and average about three phones per contract. I once broke my phone on a Sunday afternoon, went to the Asurion website and was unwrapping my replacement phone the next day at 2:00 pm...

stearic

Well as for the original poster, there really wasn't anything wrong with that charger. You have to remember with that while using the navigation, your using both gps and 3g at the same time. That's a big drain on the battery. The charger may only like you said "slow the drain" as it was most likely only pushing out .5A. Keep in mind i'm taking a guess taking into account that you said it's a generic charger. Nothing wrong with generic chargers, but you do need to look at the quality of the build and where you buy it from. You do get what you pay for with a generic charger, longer charge time but at a discount price for the charger.

rsbenedict

I bought a generic charger that recoils when not using it and I haven't noticed any issues. It keeps the phone charged throughout the whole trip and I do use navigation/3g services.

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Droid503

I bought all my extra charging accessories from Monoprice and they work fine. My car charger cost me less than $3 (I love Monoprice) and I'm getting a charge while using nav and Pandora.

kam187

The generic cheap chargers only have a regulator in them, and so don't negotiate upto to 500mA high power USB. That means the phone only draws 100mA to charge.

Backnblack

I never buy off brand chargers for $600 devices....just a quirk of mine.

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stearic

I know alot of people that won't buy off-brand chargers just because of the whole "don't trust a $10 charger on a $600 device" mentality. Nothing wrong with it at all. You just have to be careful in where you buy and what the brand is that your buying. Some are known to be crappy and some are known to work very well.

Mrwirez

I agree... why not spend an extra $10 for the proper charger? Like I said, I cooked my LG.....

AndroidSPCS

I use generic and off-brand chargers for all the phones I've had, from my very first Palm Treo and very first Blackberry device, and have never had a problem.

If there is a problem, isn't that what the warranty you're paying on your $600 device for?

The money I've saved buying $5 / $10 chargers instead of $20 / $30 chargers have saved me enough money to buy a smartphone or two.

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Backnblack

What about the time changing out devices and reloading everything? No thanks, My time is worth more than that...

AndroidSPCS

Like I said I have never had a problem ever. So I have never had to reload.

Problems with devices come in many forms, ie accidents / stolen / lost, etc, not just chargers.

I've saved over $300 in chargers, which definitely made it worth my time since I never had to swap out phones.

And if I did, with Palm desktop (Treo), and my Blackberries (Blackberry sync to Outlook), I would have nothing to reload manually - everything is automatic.

With Android it's just as simple, since almost all data is in the cloud. So time to reload should be virtually nil.

If it makes you feel better, keep spending the $30 on that expensive charger and feel as if you are doing the right thing. I'll keep saving my $20-$30 and put that into my pocket.

PS - this is a topic that has been debated endlessly in Treo / Blackberry forums, and no one can ever prove that generic chargers has ever done any harm. There are specifications to USB, miniUSB, and microUSB that manufacturers must adhere to, which makes it even safer to buy than proprietary cellphone chargers. I have no worries whatsoever.

Last edited by AndroidSPCS; November 16th, 2009 at 11:16 AM.

Amw3000

Not sure how picky the providers in the US are, however up here in Canada, if you are using 3rd party chargers, they have the option to void your warranty.

UncleMike

If the $15-$20 savings on each charger has added up to enough to buy a smartphone or two, you've bought WAY many more chargers that I have. It sounds like the FEW $30 chargers I've bought cost less overall than your repeatedly buying the $5-$10 variety.

The mere existence of specifications does not mean that manufacturers follow them. Cheap components can lead to potentially damaging power fluctuations. I trust name brand manufacturers to follow the specs and use quality components more so than I do off-brand manufacturers. That trust may be misplaced, but it's there none the less.

That said, I don't personally know anyone who's device was damaged by an off-brand charger.

I imagine that here in the US the warranty would be voided as well, IF the manufacturer could show that you were using an "unauthorized" charger. That's a BIG IF though.

AndroidSPCS

Wow, you're really stretching here. Are you a sales person for the cellphone manufacturers by chance?

I carry multiple phones, and I travel often for work. So I have a set of chargers at home which stay at home, I have a set of chargers in my car that stays in my car, and I have a set of chargers in my luggage that stay in my luggage when I travel.

I never have to ever worry / forget chargers where ever I am. By buying the cheap generic chargers, which work wonderful, I have saved a ton of money, not to mention I have not invested $30 X many obsolete proprietary chargers on old phones that I no longer use.

You guys are so funny, really stretching for a reason to justify why EVERYONE should waste their $30 to buy over-priced OEM chargers.

I'd like to see someone bring up some fine print from some contract that states using a non-OEM charger will void the warranty. That could be grounds for a FTC investigation into monopolistic practices of cell phone makers.

Imagine if you bought an after-market battery for your car, and your auto-maker voids your car warranty because you use an after-market battery. That would not fare well in the US, and nor would using an after-market generic charger for the phones.

BINGO!! Nor have I, and I have been around a very very long time on many cellphone forums, from Treo forums, Blackberry forums, various Carrier forums, Howard Forums, and I have yet to hear of one such incident that can be proved to be related to an after-market charger.


Again, this topic has been endlessly debated on virtually every forum I've visited. Every board there's someone who thinks that the cellphone gadgets are so poorly made and so sensitive that only the OEM chargers are going to prevent damage. This horse has been beaten to death millions of times over. No one has ever proven that spending 3-4 times the money for an OEM charger has ever done anything substantial other than lighten the buyer's wallet.

Last edited by AndroidSPCS; November 16th, 2009 at 06:21 PM.

Mrwirez

Hello, I'm MrWirez..

Grizzld

I just use the Touchstone charger for my Eris

Last edited by Grizzld; November 16th, 2009 at 08:30 PM.

rsbenedict

How can you use Palm's touchstone charger for your HTC Eris??????

Being sarcastic????

Grizzld

rsbenedict

Haha, I get it. :/

UncleMike

You're right! It is a stretch - and a big one at that. But it does seem that you buy WAY many more chargers than I do, but for a good reason, and nothing to do with their quality or lack thereof. I can see your savings adding up before my eyes. And no, I don't work for a cell carrier, manufacturer, nor do I benefit in any way from charger sales.

I didn't mean to imply that anyone should buy name-brand or OEM chargers. But I do buy them, and was explaining why. Since my post above I realized that I bought two batteries for my last phone on eBay. So I have to admit that my thinking on this issue is inconsistent at best. I hereby hang my head in shame.

Backnblack

I buy name brand chargers.... My device, My choice.....

YMMV

d1pham

I never use or buy car chargers. I take the original wall charger and plug it into a car power inverter. Problem solved.

Last edited by d1pham; November 17th, 2009 at 03:56 PM.

michaelk

exactly- specifically the spec says (and the droid unlike many other devices appears to follow it) that when the droid first latches on it can get a MAX of 100 mA and then must negotiate up to 300 or 500 (or higher apparently on the latest spec now that everyone is going to use micro usb- but you would need a host that can go above 500).


totally untrue- there ARE specs but no one NEEDS to follow the USB specs. The only time I think they are obligated to is is if they want to put the USB logo on the device- even then check out how palm is violating the specs right now to try and trick itunes into syncing (which I actually have no problem with). There's no big army or USB spec police enforcing anything. So do you really think some factory in china turning out chargers for a nickel each cares about following any spec? They take shortcuts and poison much more expensive/important things.

as kam187 wrote above many are so cheap becasue they dont have the logic/shunts/whatever inside to negotiate anything higher than 100 mA. The stock droid wallwart apparently outputs 850 mA. So 100 probably doesn't even trickle charge with the evdo and gps cranking like in the OP.

As above the warrenty wont cover you if you buy non-compliant stuff. Not that I have ever heard of verizon or anyone for that matter ever balking, but is it really right if the charger blows up the phone to make the phone people pay for the replacement via warrenty exchange? Wouldn't that be the charger people's fault and they should pay?

All that said I've frequently bought 3rd party stuff for my smartphones/handheld video games/ cameras/ etc in the past. (generally name brands like seido or gomadic or charepod though and not the 5 cent items with 7 dollar chipping on ebay). But this time around I'm actually thinking I'm going to spend the "big bucks" for a "proper" micro-usb charger because if eveerything comes together like it should it should be the last car charger I ever buy. Al the big guns (including Apple even) have agreed to use micro-USB for charging for any smartphone sold in Europe and I just cant imagine that Moto for instance would put one connector on some future european droid and then another proprietary connector for the US version.

part of the point of the agreement on micro usb was for just that reason- so we all stop buying new car chargers every 2 years and filling the landfill with all the crap in the old ones. Also since one charger will do it all going forward one can focus on buying the best quality, most efficient one, and then use it forever.

all just my 2 cents so take it for what it's worth.

endo

I bought a Motorola micro-usb charger for the Droid off Amazon, it was about $8 shipped. It was a third party store, of course...forget name of company, something like "OEM Warehouse".

thaJack

I had a T-Mobile Micro USB charger from my BlackBerry that I tried using with my Droid and I had similar results.

I started on my four hour journey in the car (using google maps nav) at 80% battery. It charged all the way up and the little thing went away indicating it was charged.

After a little while, it showed that it was charging again. Looking at the battery status it indicated that it had previously been unplugged for one second.

At that point, even plugged in, it started to drain. All the way down to 40% by the time I got where I was going.

I haven't gone on another trip since, but I have one bought from Verizon and we'll see if it is any different.

thaJack

They gripe about that around here, too. I think the funny thing, though, is that they sell you a VERIZON branded charger to charge your MOTOROLA device.

That is third-party, too, if you think about it. The only thing that isn't third-party is the MOTOROLA charger that comes with the MOTOROLA device.

Grizzld

Exactly.....Good luck finding an OEM HTC car charger. Found one on eBay for $23 after shipping.

phillytarheel

Can anyone recommend a good multi port (probably 2 port) usb wall charger that can push out at least 850 ma per usb port. I have had problems finding one. Thanks.

michaelk

chargepod is a good generic charger- you plug in one wall wart or cig lighter adapter and it splits to a 6 way charger. Then they have ~6 inch pigtails to charge just about any device known to man.

the wallwart is 3000 mA and when alone it feeds my droid something approximating ~1500 mA (7 watts on my kill-a-watt).

not sure it's what you want but something to think about.

I have the microusb pigtail for my droid, a sanyo adapter for the wifes phone, a micro usb for my kids phone, adapters for ipods, and my kids nintendo DS's - so when we go on vacation it's the only charger I need to bring.

carbonware

I've noticed that even with my DROID turned off when I plug it into a USB port on my computer (it's a powered port external port) I never get charged over 40% and the last two tries took all day. But when I plug it into the included wall jack it charges up to 95% in 2-3 hours from 15%. Will it always be like this? I prefer to only charge from my computer USB, thats the way I've done it for the last 3 phones I've owned.

AdamR

The OP useename made me laugh.
You think someone who drifts skylines wouldn't skimp on the details. Lol

stearic

Why exactly are you only charging from a computer? As for your question, that's about what your going to get very time. USB via computer doesn't offer as much power to charge your device(s) vs a dedicated wall/car charger does.

AndroidSPCS

Most USB ports doesn't provide much power, on my Dell PC it has a powered USB port that is expressly for charging, and charges stuff pretty well.

But I don't understand why the other person doesn't use AC adapters for charging.

thegipper

@ the cheap chargers guy

You're also the guy who buys Walmart sugarflakes and swear they taste as good as Kellogs Frosted Flakes?

I buy the name brand stuff. Its worth it for me for piece of mind, if i was out one day and had my phone fried even just once in my life that would be enough to justify for me paying the few measly extra dollars for the name brand throughout the course of my entire life. I have been accused of being a spendthrift though.

AndroidSPCS

Man you guys really crack me up.

All this wasted typing on buying expensive OEM accessories.

Hey if you like to spend your money that way, that's fine. You attribute your phone being fried to some charger, and you have zero proof. I have used OEM accessories before eBay became popular, and have had phones die as well. Just because you think your snake oil is better doesn't mean you're right.

Don't expect the rest of us to follow suit just because it makes you feel better.

And don't stereotype us as folks who buy Walmart cereal. Don't be so silly in chatting about a topic that's pretty much irrelevant like this.

As a real gadget guy who have had almost every smartphone (and a lot of dumb phones), this topic has been beaten to death, and bottom line is there is no proof that after market accessories have ever been proven to damage the electronics.

Last edited by AndroidSPCS; November 19th, 2009 at 10:46 AM.

michaelk

that's just as silly as those saying all 3rd party devices are evil.

Belkin just recalled a pile of iphone car adapters for causing fires. So SOME aftermarket accessories sure have been proven to cause damage.

But then again there's been plenty of OEM devices in the world that have made fires too (laptop battery's as an example). Both 3rd party or OEM can damage things - it all depends on quality of build, engineering, and quality control. To expect that ALL 3rd party devices are all built with the same quality as an OEM is a recipe for disaster. Some common sense applies.

As a whole, do 3rd party things cause problems?- NO. The reality is the overwelming majority of all accessories probably are fine but its LIKELY slightly more 3rd party things fail them OEM things in life. People should just use common sense and if it seems flimsy or like a peice of junk they shouldn't use it.

in the case of mini/micro usb chargers many 3rd party devices just dont have the logic/shunts/whatever to tell the device it's OK to draw plenty of power so they sit at the default 100mA and therefore barely charge fast enough to overcome the drain of use. But if the device one does purchase works and provides reasonable output than it's most likely fine.

I have a generic white USB wallwart that's gamstop branded to charge nintendo handheld games- it just doesn't step up beyond 100 mA for the droid- it's worthless for that use. But I'd actually trust something with a retailers name all over it. I also have a chargepod universal adapter that works just great. So it just depends.

AndroidSPCS

LOL in the Samsung Moment forum someone is warning us about the Sprint branded Samsung charger. It apparently damaged his phone.

Will there be risk of damage to the phone using a generic charger? Sure, as much as there is risk of damage using an expensive OEM charger as well.

Bottom line is it's foolish to automatically assume that all generic chargers are junk, and to waste money only buying OEM chargers.

If people have money to waste on that false feeling of security, more power to them.

But the rest of folks who have better uses for that money can save it.

michaelk

Strange behavior with off brand charger

thread with various reports of different problems with wall chargers. Several different 3d party chargers had issues- BUT so did the moto one for someone. So yep, it just depends. common sense has to prevail.

Grizzld

Got such a good deal on my Eris, I splurged for one of these

giabelsi

Never buy generic chargers. Some of the cheap chargers don't go to a trickle charge after the battery is fully charged. It will ruin your battery.

anthrobot

Why don't use guys have your cake and eat it too? Numerous Amazon sellers have the oem Motorola charger for around $7.

stearic

There is nothing wrong with generic chargers. The problem is these dollar bin chargers you get from the dollar store down the street. Generic seems to always carry this bad connotation that anything generic is bad. Ironic thing is sometimes generic things can turn out to be better then the name brand things.

Last edited by stearic; November 26th, 2009 at 11:51 AM.

wyson9

check this discussion: Charging: USB and AC differences

AGizzle

thanks

qwertyaas

Just a heads up. Most 'no-name' cereal [read: Costco brand, Target brand, Waldbaums brand] are made in the same exact factory as the name brand cereals [Kellogs, Post...].

So yes, they do taste the same because the same exact stuff is in the box.

Mostly anything you buy from sellers online (Ebay, Amazon sellers) are knockoffs. Go to Ebay and search for a Sony MicroSD or ProDuo card. Notice how they are Half price or less and most ship from China?

So most of you that bought the $7 shipped charger online are probably using a knockoff regardless. But enjoy that high-horse you're all riding.

Last edited by qwertyaas; September 16th, 2010 at 07:19 AM.

takeshi

Most might be but it really depends on the seller -- you do have to perform leg work with any online purchase. My P513/SPN5400 was $6 but it's the real deal and did not ship from China. It also does exactly what it's supposed to do (supply 950mA so I can use GPS and still have a net charge).

The "people on a high horse" are the ones that assume $$ means something in and of itself.

Last edited by takeshi; September 16th, 2010 at 08:27 AM.

qwertyaas

Fair enough.

And very true with regards to the seller. But some items are more prone to being knockoffs (memory cards).

sicamore

best idea ever!!!

droiddigger21

Off brand chargers with no trickle will decimate your battery in a matter of a few charging cycles. Your battery life will decrease and your battery will swell. I have seen it hundreds of times over my career and i will tell you that in my market, we will not warranty a phone when the battery is swelled and when the customer tells us they have a 3rd party charger. It is considered "abuse" at that point and that IS IN YOUR CONTRACT. There are some that are ok that are 3rd party and wont hurt anything but id you tgink you are apensing $8 then you are aetting yourself up to have problems in the long run and be oreoared to spend $30-50 on a battery.