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Comment by dehrmann

5 years ago

Any advice on buying these? A lot of the GaN bricks look impressive, but they're always made by a sketchy peripheral maker.

11 comments

dehrmann

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scottlamb  5 years ago

* Make sure they are UL listed for safety, as Animats pointed out in an earlier discussion. [1] Some aren't, even from well-known brands like Anker.

* If they are multi-port, make sure you're happy with how they distribute power. Most likely you want the majority of the power going to port 1 where you stick a laptop, but some drop it down to 50W or lower if you just have a cable in one of the other spots, much less any device connected.

I love the monoprice ones. They're small, inexpensive, inconspicuous, and meet the standards I described above. They also charge all my devices reliably, unlike my (larger, I think non-GaN) Nekteck chargers that spend their time in a drawer now. Buy a 5A cable to get the full 100W out of them at 20V.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21679302

  • X-Istence  5 years ago

    Even-though the Anker brick I have does not have an Underwriters Laboratory logo on it, it does have a TUV and a CE logo. TUV is the equivalent to UL but is a testing house mostly geared towards Europe.

    That being said, TUV like UL is listed as a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL) in the United States (for more information see: https://www.tuv.com/usa/en/ctuvus-certification.html) and thus is just as safe.

    The UL logo may be more recognizable in the US, however they too certify for both markets, with UL also having their UL EU certification program.

    • Scoundreller  5 years ago

      A TUV mark would only be accepted in North America it was a cTUVus stamp on it.

      What I wonder is if TUV in Europe just tests at just 240V if it’s labelled 100v-240v, or across the labelled voltages (though lower voltage should mean fewer problems).

      1 reply →

watersb  5 years ago

I have a collection of RAVPower GaN chargers that are very solid so far. Been using them for about a year now.

In fact, the Apple power brick that came with my M1 MacBook Pro is still in its original packaging; I have not used it yet. The 65 Watt RAVPower one seems as if it's about half the size. More than half the mass, though.

(I have never needed to try warranty support for RAVPower things.)

kitsunesoba  5 years ago

I don't know if they make the size you need, but Anker makes GaN chargers and their products are usually pretty solid.