Be careful with cheap USB to cig chargers
 

I used one of those cheap ones you see in buckets next to checkout counters this past weekend in the cigarette lighter in between the two front seats of my BRZ. After a 1 hour drive it ended up getting stuck. Tried everything possible to pull it out - pliers, screwdrivers, taking apart the charger itself. Ended up having to visit a dealer's service department where they removed the cigarette lighter itself from the fuse, took it into the back, and told me they had to destroy the charger to get it out of the cig lighter. They were nice enough not to charge me for this :) and showed me which components on the cheap charger failed and caused it to get stuck.

Also, cheap chargers charge slowly.


I use http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...t_12w_12w.html


I've had it for over a year now, it never got stuck or caused any problems. (but I don't use it daily)

And though it charges slower than the phone's dedicated wall charger, it's still pretty fast. Especially that I charge while using nav on the phone, which probably eats up much of incoming amperage which would go to the battery otherwise.

Does anyone have a good dual Cigarette lighter piece or something like that similar that fits in our cars? Either center console, or glove department, because I have my radar detector in the glove department spot, and my dash cam in the center console, and thus all the spots are taken and leave no room for a phone charging one, or that cool Tire pressure gauge system thing. A dual cigarette lighter for both of these wholes would be great. I bought a cheap one that had 3 sockets but it never worked. So I haven't bought or tried another one.

If any of you buy anything other than this one, you deserve to have it catch fire and burn your car to the ground. This thing is well-constructed, weighs enough that you could seriously hurt someone if you threw it at them, it charges your phone blazingly fast (AS fast as even the best wall charger), and it even lights up red like the rest of the interior.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A4ZGLZ8

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/....01_SL500_.jpg

I have this one...works great

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Anker makes quality stuff. Don't buy cheap chinese non brands.

Back before Christmas 2014 I bought a nice quad charger with 2.4 amp outputs on one of the "Lightning Deals" on Amazon. I can't recall the brand, but it was a pretty nice unit. I promptly cut it apart, soldered a fuse tap to the board and permanently installed it on the cross bar under the steering wheel under the dash. I have it powered through the seat heater fuse, which I'll likely never use. Right now I'm only using it to run my engine monitor tablet, but I have plans to add a new USB port to the center console since the OEM USB port there doesn't charge my phone worth a crap.

Edit:

Here's the one I bought:

Aleratec Quad 4 Port USB 9.6a (2.4 amps x 4) Rapid Car Charger for iPhone, Smartphones, iPad and Tablets

No complaints here, even if it is made in China

Isn't that like bringing a gun to a knife fight? :)

Company:Anker Technology Co., Limited
Address:Rooms 1318-19, 13 F Hollywood Plaza, 610 Nathan Rd, Mongkok,
City:Kowloon
Country:Hong Kong SAR
Phone Number: (852) 27108200
Fax Number: (852) 27108266

Another Made in China exporter. Hopefully it's UL certified.

LOL. Pwned.

Agreed, I bought a cheap one from the toonie store and it got stuck. When I tried to pull it out, it started to pull out the entire cigarette lighter assembly, so I put that back into place and pull the charger out while holding the assembly in. Now I use a Anker one from Amazon and it works great.

Scosche, on the other hand, the manufacturer of my charger, are a US/California company.

From Scosche's supply chain disclosure:

"Our team in China invests time and resources to audit the factories where our products are assembled; to work with these factories to improve workplace conditions and labor practices."

You're going to be hard pressed to find any small electronic item like this that isn't manufactured in China. If you just want to make sure that American stockholders ultimately benefit from your purchase, buy accordingly. But in terms of quality, it's not going to make much difference where the company headquarters is located.

At least the Scosche units have pretty lights.

Sure, and I wasn't saying that Scosche itemswere not made in China.


It may make more difference than the location of the manufacturing process. It's the people in the headquarters who set up quality standards by which their supplying manufacturers must abide by. And that determines the end product quality, not where it was made.


Now, there is no guarantee that a US based company will demand more from Chinese manufacturers than a China-based company, but in practice one can usually expect that.