Accessories Are ebay car chargers any good?

[sparky07]

I'm buying the $5 ebay case and for another $3 I can get a car charger. Are the ebay car chagers any good?
Thanks

 

[dyno]

I bought one and it works fine. It is a Verizon "OEM" charger, but does not have the logo printed. It looks identical to my girlfriend's Verizon Eris charger that I bought at a corporate store, with a different USB connector of course.

 

[veeeee]

Be wary of using cheap car chargers. My bro-in-law runs a auto repair shop and says he has had to replace many people's power outlets because they blew them using cheap chargers.

You can get the Motorola car charger at Amazon for $6.49 with free shipping.
Just search for "Motorola SPN5400 Rapid Vehicle Power Adapter".

 

[herbivore]

I bought one and it melted down inside while on a ~40 minute car ride. I smelled something unusual part way through the ride and decided it was the truck in front of me. On the way home I still noticed a faint smell. When I got home my phone charge seemed lower than I expected it to be. That is when the light in my head turned on. Closer olfactory inspection identified the charger as the source of the odor. When I opened it up there was a pile of goo where some component once existed on the circuit board. Luckily my phone is OK. It scares me to think of what could have happened though, just because I wanted to save $20 on something has the potential to destroy my precious.

Stay away, or regret may be your companion.

 

[mahers]

I had a "cheap ebay" one for my last phone. Made my phone hot and the connections were crap. Didn't last too long. If you want a suggestion, I recently got an Alltel branded one for $4. Since Verizon bought them out, I assume these were backstock and someone is trying to dump them cheap. It seems to work fine, and is much more solid than the one I got before. Plus it has a thicker, more sturdy 6 ft coil. The link is here.

P.S. looks like he raised the prices a little bit, but still worth it.

 

[sparky07]

Thanks for the advice. For $3 I ended up buying the car charger with the ebay case, although I haven't received it yet. I will probably end up getting a better one later.