I have terrible luck with charging cables. Should I just consider them to be disposable and stock up on the cheapest I can find, or are there reliable ones that last long enough to be worth a higher price?
Any brand suggestions or links would be appreciated, also any tips on how to make them last longer.
Anker makes exceptionally sturdy cables. I’ve never had an Anker cable go bad.
My gf goes through charging cords quickly, while I have been using the same cords for years. The thing is, they are the exact same brands. I treat mine gently. When disconnecting, I pull out the connection, while she just pulls the cord. I reinforce the cord/connector area with layers of electrical tape.
I’ve got some of those, along with some Amazon Basics cables. Both work well. (Also, my phone supports wireless charging so that’s what I use almost all the time. It may seem a silly indulgence, but it is convenient, especially at night, to just lay the phone down to recharge. And perhaps it reduces wear on the charging port?)
My phone and tablet don’t support wireless charging. I do try to remove the cables properly.
I just ordered some Anker cables. I’ve had good luck with their portable backup batteries. We’ll see how it goes. Thanks for the suggestions.
Oh yeah, I use a wireless charger too. I still use a cable when I need to charge quickly, but for overnight charging I just lay the phone on the charger. That saves some wear on both the cable and the phone’s port. Wireless chargers are surprisingly cheap – mine was about $10.
This brings up an economic strategy that I have always thought about (and read something that validated my ideas once, but I surely wouldn’t be able to find it online).
The cheapest of anything will always end up costing you more in the long run. So, never buy the cheapest. The reason being that the odds of the cheapest being fake (it looks like a charging cable, but it actually isn’t really), or of such poor quality, are very high. Over any reasonable period of time (a year?) you’ll end up spending more on cheap items that need constant replacement, than you would if you just bought a mid-priced item that actually works and lasted the entire period of time.
Now, the reverse is also true, if money is a concern. There is very little marginal benefit from paying top dollar. Something that is 3x more expensive than the mid-price item is not in any way measurable 3x better.
Caveats: Acknowledging that sometimes someone needs a thing right now and doesn’t have the money to consider waiting and getting the better thing.
My wife and kids are not gentle on the cables and, if the junction between the wire and connector doesn’t get jacked up, the little teeth that hold it in place will get bent/smoothed/whatever so it doesn’t stay in.
So I just buy USB cables twenty at a time from Monoprice when they’re having a shipping deal and treat them as disposable once they start giving me trouble.
The problem with using price as a proxy for quality, is that somebody is always willing to markup the price of a low-quality product. For example, perhaps it costs $2 to make a cable of good quality, so anything sold below $2 is definitely cheap junk, but anything sold over $2 may or may not be cheap junk. The mid-price model could just be a $0.79 cable marked up to $5.
Anyway, I’ve been using cables from Anker, Monoprice, Amazon Basics, as well as whatever happens to come with my devices. The Monoprice ones tend to come with a lifetime warranty, so when they stop working I get a replacement for free, or they credit me back $4.50 (or whatever). I find the lightning cables split where the head connects to the cable, and eventually stop working. The micro-USB cables physically look fine, but they stop making a good connection. I’ve not had a USB-C cable die yet. The important thing, is that when a cable goes bad, I throw it away. Nothing worse than finding a device that has been supposedly charging for 3 hours has 18% battery left.
Also known as the Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness.
I can’t stand that theory. It equates price to quality which is a foolish assumption.
I’ve never had cables go bad.
It’s not the cables, it’s the person.
Whatever you were doing when you broke the cable, don’t do that.
Some guesses:
Monoprice.com Great inexpensive cables and tons of other goodies.
I disagree. It compares decent quality and good quality and states that the good quality boots are more expensive, although they last longer. Higher quality items tend to last longer but have a higher upfront cost, thus the point of the article.
I have a Pendleton wool coat that I bought (at a steep discount mind you) almost twenty years ago that I wear every winter until it gets really cold. I’ve gone through at least 5 much less expensive coats that just plain wore out, tore or could not keep me warm after a few cleanings and the combined cost of those less expensive jackets far exceeds the retail cost of what the Pendleton was.
Not sure if the OP seeks further advice, but here’s a recent SDMB thread that might be worth reading through: From a product-engineering perspective … why do third-party charging cables wear out so fast?
Is this a thing? I’ve never bought a charging cable and had it break in a month. That includes ones I picked up from dollar tree.
I just buy the cables with good ratings on amazon that are cheapest. Hasn’t failed me so far, and pretty much none have broken from what I can tell, even the ones that are years old.
Me, either. I have never had a charging cable go bad. Ever. (Now that’s a jinx!)
I mean, I could come up with plenty of stuff I’ve bought that was cheaper but better quality than the more expensive stuff. I think the better example of the theory is mentioned in the linked article about how people who can afford the upfront cost of a washer and dryer spend way less money over time than those that have to use a laundromat.
Why do you have a procedure to buy stuff you never need?