PSA: I thought a $12 'universal' phone charger from a gas station in Toledo was a lifesaver until it fried my buddy's phone port.

We were on a road trip and his phone died, so I plugged in that cheap charger, and 20 minutes later his phone was hot to the touch and wouldn't take a charge from anything else, which totally wrecked our plans to use GPS for the rest of the drive.

2 comments

2 Comments

rosel5011h ago

Honestly, I've bought a few of those cheap chargers over the years and never had a problem. My sister still uses one from a truck stop that's been fine for her phone for months. Maybe it was just a bad unit or something else was wrong with the phone port already?

olivia_carr711h ago

But what about the long term wear on the battery itself? Those cheap ones can have bad voltage control that slowly fries the battery health. You might not see a problem until your phone dies way faster a year later.