Power Adaptors. Read Before Buying.

I'm a tech guy, married, and have 3 kids. If I mentally add up the number of devices, controllers, things etc we all have, that need to be plugged in to be charged, it's roughly equal to "way too f'n many!"

Now experience tells me, that the only thing in my house that goes missing quicker than personal office stationery ("That's MY pen Tracey!"), are power chargers and their associated cables. So, I went ham.

At one point, using my infinite wisdom, I had chargers all over the house, in basically in every room, with some rooms having more than 3. Amazon/eBay was to blame here, using the well-known tactic of clicking Search, followed by Sort by Cheapest. I did this to stop the theft, but also to encourage the fools (kids) to at least be disassociated in the public spaces of our house, so I don't get the shock of seeing them emerge from their bedroom hibernation suddenly sporting full beards. My son, not my daughters.

In time, of the plethora of chargers now occupying power points, we had the "good ones" the ones that actually charged things, and fast, and the "shit ones" ones that basically had enough power to turn on the "I'm charging!" LED and nothing else. Aaaannnndd I'm back to missing personal office stationery ("No I didn't take your ruler Janet!") again.

The public domain chargers were now all shit, and the in-bedroom chargers were all good. And if you have kids of a particular age (particular, meaning you can drop the odd f-bomb around them without feeling too bad) you know that trying to retrieve said good chargers from their rooms is best done in full PPE.

So, what made the "shit ones" so inefficient at performing the task in which they were mass designed, assembled, tested, produced, marketed, sold and bought, to do so? I hear you ask...

Well, turns out I have a rudimentary understanding of electricity and power. You could exchange rudimentary with laughable too, if you wanted.

The cheap chargers were cheap for a reason. They simply didn't squeeze enough for the juice, hence the slow charging.

I'm not going to give you a lesson on electricity (remember, laughable) so I'll just tell you what to look for when buy chargers.

Basically, you want a GaN charger (yes, as typed, lol). They're the latest technology in chargers, they're smaller, quite well priced and can put a squeeze for that juice like nobody's business. They're so powerful that you can charge laptops with them too. Quickly!

If you want to know the ideal wattage charger for your phone just google "<your phone> watts charger" and it will give you the number. Shoot for GaN chargers above that number as in most cases the phone will only take what it needs. Also, as the GaN tech is so powerful, there are usually multiple USB connections from the charger. So, you can charge, 2, 3, 6+ devices all at the same time.

There are far too many adaptors to choose from and to recommend, but this is what you need to know:

• Work out where you want to put the charger and how many "things" you intend on charging at the same time.
• Find out the wattage of those "things" on Google. It's usually phones you'll check (most other devices you can leave charge for a while) and add up the wattage numbers.
• Search for GaN chargers around that wattage total or higher. (Sort by Cheapest, lol)
• Read the fine print and make sure the USB ports will deliver the amount of wattage you need for each "thing". Sometimes a charger will be 80w total and have one connection at 60w and the other at 20w. Just be aware of this and also pay attention to the USB type and cable needed. USB A is the rectangle one (the most common) and USB C is smaller, thinner, with rounded edges. There is a good chance you'll find an adaptor that fits your needs, power requirements, and budget.

For now, I've gotten rid of all the "shit ones" and let the kids keep the "good ones" in their rooms. The public domain? The all now have the "gooder ones".

If you want to know more about me and all the gooder things I do, please Get In Touch!

dEx