<story><title>Macbook charger teardown: Complexity inside Apple&apos;s power adapter (2015)</title><url>http://www.righto.com/2015/11/macbook-charger-teardown-surprising.html?m=1</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>GuiA</author><text>My pattern is that I buy a MacBook, use it for a few years, resell it and get a new one.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m at my 5th or 6th MacBook in over 10 years, and I&amp;#x27;ve always sold the laptops back with their original charger.&lt;p&gt;I have a 2011 MacBook Air that I take everywhere with me - the battery is at over a few thousand cycles (and lasts about 40 minutes) last time I checked. The charger for this one is dirty and chipped, but not frayed.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve seen frayed cables, so I know it&amp;#x27;s a real problem, but given my experience I can&amp;#x27;t help but wonder... what are people doing with their chargers?</text></item><item><author>rectang</author><text>An amazing amount of thought went into the design of these power bricks.  Now... What does that say about their choice of fray-prone insulation?&lt;p&gt;Obviously they are aware of those of us who have to buy new power bricks regularly because the insulation has shredded.  (I have to buy a new one about once a year.)  In some proportion, we are either 1. a profit opportunity or 2. collateral damage of an engineering decision to favor that thin insulation for flexibility or whatever.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d love to know their analysis!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cocoflunchy</author><text>The problem is Apple put &amp;#x27;wings&amp;#x27; on their charger so people wrap the cable extra-tight around them like this &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;imgur.com&amp;#x2F;a&amp;#x2F;VZHoD&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;imgur.com&amp;#x2F;a&amp;#x2F;VZHoD&lt;/a&gt; when they should really be using the only safe method for rolling cables: Over&amp;#x2F;Under coiling (I just learned this name!) &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Over&amp;#x2F;under_cable_coiling&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Over&amp;#x2F;under_cable_coiling&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Macbook charger teardown: Complexity inside Apple&apos;s power adapter (2015)</title><url>http://www.righto.com/2015/11/macbook-charger-teardown-surprising.html?m=1</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>GuiA</author><text>My pattern is that I buy a MacBook, use it for a few years, resell it and get a new one.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m at my 5th or 6th MacBook in over 10 years, and I&amp;#x27;ve always sold the laptops back with their original charger.&lt;p&gt;I have a 2011 MacBook Air that I take everywhere with me - the battery is at over a few thousand cycles (and lasts about 40 minutes) last time I checked. The charger for this one is dirty and chipped, but not frayed.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve seen frayed cables, so I know it&amp;#x27;s a real problem, but given my experience I can&amp;#x27;t help but wonder... what are people doing with their chargers?</text></item><item><author>rectang</author><text>An amazing amount of thought went into the design of these power bricks.  Now... What does that say about their choice of fray-prone insulation?&lt;p&gt;Obviously they are aware of those of us who have to buy new power bricks regularly because the insulation has shredded.  (I have to buy a new one about once a year.)  In some proportion, we are either 1. a profit opportunity or 2. collateral damage of an engineering decision to favor that thin insulation for flexibility or whatever.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d love to know their analysis!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ksk</author><text>Frayed cables are the result of normal use coupled with bad design. Other manufacturers have been making robust cables for decades. (e.g. &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;imgur.com&amp;#x2F;a&amp;#x2F;kQt77&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;imgur.com&amp;#x2F;a&amp;#x2F;kQt77&lt;/a&gt;)</text></comment>