6 ms·

Mass recall of Apple AC Wall Plug Adapters 2003-2015 due to shock hazard

34 points by lagudragu 11y ago

rtpg 11y ago
Does anyone know what exactly is happening in the breakage scenario? Especially for 12 years?
steve19 11y ago
I would love to know how they could possibly be a shock hazard. I have a piles of these (for travel) and they are solidly build and almost only plastic. The only way they could break, I think, is if they fell apart somehow.
- Steko 11y ago
  The Guardian article said there are 12 known (to Apple) incidents where people were shocked by these adapters. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/28/apple-recalls-electrical-shock-risk-power-adapters http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/28/apple-reca...
- foota 11y ago
  "may break and create a risk of electrical shock" Sounds like the plastic casing breaks.
- dwd 11y ago
  Shock can also be via the casing of the Macbook. I may have one of these dodgy plugs from a 2011 11" MBA that I started using as a spare so to preserve my most recent replacement. (third or fourth bent/broken cord) When you place either hand on the MBA casing beside the trackpad you get what feels like a buzzing in your lower palm. If you are shirtless (common on these balmy summer nights) and touch your stomach against the edge you get a definite kick like you burnt yourself.
- digi_owl 11y ago
  There was an incident in Norway recently where a school kid was unplugging an iPad, and the prongs came loose from the charger. This left exposed metal bits protruding from the live socket, and the kid has apparently reached in to remove them. Kid survived, thankfully. From the images i found it looked like the assembly was basically pushed into the charger. There seemed to be some notched on the metal bits that would be inside, likely supposed to latch together during assembly, but i guess they could come loose if there was enough insertions and removal.
RyJones 11y ago
The title is "Apple AC Wall Plug Adapter Exchange Program"
samcheng 11y ago
Note that the US-style plugs (with two vertical blades that plug into the socket) are NOT recalled.
jacknews 11y ago
How about a recall of the entire adapter. I have 4 or 5 of them, all which have disintegrated cables. Either the famous problem where the cable/sleeve detaches at the adapter or the plug end, or on a couple of them, the entire plastic cable housing has disintegrated and sloughed off, leaving bare shield wire. This after just a year or so in every case. Absolute disgrace, Apple.
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  This happens with Lightning cables too.
- Khao 11y ago
  This is planned obsolescence, when the cables break like this the chargers normally simply stop working. And that cable doesn't carry 110VAC so it's safe to assume even if you touch it you can't really get hurt.
- tedmiston 11y ago
  Maybe I'm the exception here, but in a decade of using MacBooks, I've never experienced the power adapter falling apart. I remember this a lot back in the PowerBook days, especially those clearish gray translucent adapters.
  - Spooky23 11y ago
    Apple has a fetish for putting weak boots on their cable ends, so if you tension them too much, the jacket of the cable will fail. Personally, I've only had it happen to iPhone cables that get abused in the car. Still, it's a ridiculous problem to have when almost no other quality cord is so fragile.
  - garrettheaver 11y ago
    Same. I still have an adapter from a 2006 MacBook Pro which is used daily and not a hint of damage on it bar scuff marks.
  - sehugg 11y ago
    I've had frayed insulation with multiple MacBook adapters and Lightning cables. I wonder if it is climate related; I live in a hotter and more humid place than Cupertino. In any case there is no excuse for the insulation being so fragile when $5 USB cables never have this problem.
07d046 11y ago
I was very excited by this because I have a MacBook Air charger that is very badly frayed at the laptop end and I don't want to spend AU$129 on replacing something that is breaking because Apple sucks at making cables. Unfortunately, I have a three prong charger that isn't being recalled, so I guess I'll just have to apply some more gaffer tape.
blackguardx 11y ago
It looks like it is only the international adapter part. Everyone complains about Apple's strain relief, but a lot of engineering went into making that as good as it is (which is less than average). It is hard to make robust stuff look sleek and well designed. Some companies err on the side of robust. Apple goes the other way.
- tedmiston 11y ago
  Agree. I think the HN title should update to reflect that. The current one is a bit sensational.
- aortega 11y ago
  >Some companies err on the side of robust And on the side of not shocking people to death.
- caf 11y ago
  "international" sort of depends on your point of reference, doesn't it?
- marshray 11y ago
  Why does it matter how much engineering went into it if the result is worse than average? How could anyone call that 'well designed'?
  - blackguardx 11y ago
    Well designed in that an Industrial Designer probably put a lot of effort into it. A lot of people use that term to describe something sleek. I prefer it when art and engineering work more closely together, but that is just me.
- userbinator 11y ago
  I don't know about you, but I think the strain reliefs that just about every other cable has are "sleek and well designed" enough to stop them from failing there. Apple's strain relief, which doesn't relieve strain particularly well, reminds me of those on very old equipment (pre-1940s): nothing more than a featureless tube surrounding the cable. The reinforced design with a flexible, radius-limiting boot that's popular today evolved over many decades and works very well. Apple's design provides only a minimal amount of reinforcement and doesn't offer much radius-limiting. You can see this when you bend it - the "boot" creases and wrinkles, separating from the cable, instead of smoothly controlling and limiting its bend radius as a good strain relief should.
johnthedebs 11y ago
This failed on me recently (a couple weeks ago) and I was very surprised when it happened. It was a US 10-watt(?) adapter that came with a 3rd-gen iPad I bought a while back. The adapter is two pieces that fit together (like Apple's macbook adapters), and the piece that inserts into the outlet broke into two pieces when I tried pulling it out one day. The way it split, half was stuck in the wall and half was still connected to the little power brick in my hand. The piece that was still in the outlet had two bits of exposed metal that were clearly just extensions of the prongs in the socket. I removed it very carefully realizing what would happen if I touched the bits of metal and threw it out. That said, it looks like they don't list the US as affected on that page :-/.
- hartator 11y ago
  Yes, I wonder why the US is not listed as well. Maybe it's different issues?
- caf 11y ago
  I've never understood why it seems to be popular for US wall sockets not to have switches.
  - tedmiston 11y ago
    I just returned from Australia and New Zealand where every outlet has a built-in power switch. I would really like to have them in the states too. I can't seem to find a real reason why we don't. Perhaps the usage cost of electricity is less expensive in the U.S., or it's something Americans are just less conscientious about. There is a lot of speculative discussion in this thread http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/why-dont-us-outlets-have-built-110814 http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/why-dont-us-outlets-have-bui....
- digi_owl 11y ago
  Same thing happened in Norway a while back, but to a school kid that seemed to have impulsively reached for the part that was lodged in the socket. Best i could tell the kid survived.
orbitur 11y ago
This is interesting. I bought the World Adapter Kit for our trip through Germany/France, and nearly every hotel/B&B we stopped at, I could literally feel a gentle vibration/shock coming from MBP's case whenever it was plugged in to the two-prong outlets. I don't know if that's poor grounding or something else, but it was definitely unnerving and I didn't feel comfortable using my laptop when it was plugged in. But it seems the adapters are being recalled for a different issue.
- captaindiego 11y ago
  I have experience this as well and was quite concerned about it for a while, this is exactly the first thing that came to my mind as well.
- Artemis2 11y ago
  Same experience here (with French plugs). Using the cable with the ground pin "solves" the problem.
- martiuk 11y ago
  In the UK both of the BS 1363 plugs have metal earth pins yet only the extended cable version connects to earth on the adapter. I have definitely felt a small vibration/shock from my MBP's case when using the uncabled plug with disconnected earth.
derefr 11y ago
I long ago stopped using the two-prong adapters; they're just a bad idea when you plug in at places that don't have particularly clean power. Where I used to live, my unibody Macbook would literally give me a little static shock whenever I touched it as long as it was plugged in with the adapter (or possibly it was a continuous current; running your palm along the metal felt a bit like rubbing a balloon.) Switching to the long 3-prong "cable" connector solved that, and I've never dared go back.
- digi_owl 11y ago
  And this perhaps a good reason why the whole metal case on mobile phones is a bad idea. What you are describing is grounding problems of one for or another.
  - derefr 11y ago
    (I'm not an EE, so if anyone knows better?) Oddly, never had the same problem with a phone USB charger. Which is the opposite of what you'd expect: the USB chargers seem to be entirely solid-state, using flyback transformers[1], while the larger power adapters have room for a real wire-wrapped ring transformer[2], which should be providing better electrical isolation. (I would never expect to be shocked by dirty power coming through an induction ring.) [1] http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-quality.html?m=1 http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-... [2] http://www.righto.com/2015/11/macbook-charger-teardown-surprising.html http://www.righto.com/2015/11/macbook-charger-teardown-surpr... But if it is the device itself that was faulty, rather than the input power, it's a different story; in that case you want at least some valid ground path, and complete isolation is bad (because then the device will ground through you, obviously.) Maybe it's just that the power adapter block has a separate ground path and expects to ground it into a dedicated ground pin (and, I guess, leaves the ground pin disconnected when a two-prong adapter is connected? That seems wrong-headed), while the USB chargers, made to assume two-prong usage, mix ground with positive.
cluelet 11y ago
> designed for use in Continental Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Argentina and Brazil
reality_czech 11y ago
Shocking!

34 points by lagudragu 11y ago

rtpg 11y ago

Does anyone know what exactly is happening in the breakage scenario? Especially for 12 years?

I would love to know how they could possibly be a shock hazard. I have a piles of these (for travel) and they are solidly build and almost only plastic. The only way they could break, I think, is if they fell apart somehow.

Steko 11y ago
The Guardian article said there are 12 known (to Apple) incidents where people were shocked by these adapters. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/28/apple-recalls-electrical-shock-risk-power-adapters http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/28/apple-reca...
foota 11y ago
"may break and create a risk of electrical shock" Sounds like the plastic casing breaks.
dwd 11y ago
Shock can also be via the casing of the Macbook. I may have one of these dodgy plugs from a 2011 11" MBA that I started using as a spare so to preserve my most recent replacement. (third or fourth bent/broken cord) When you place either hand on the MBA casing beside the trackpad you get what feels like a buzzing in your lower palm. If you are shirtless (common on these balmy summer nights) and touch your stomach against the edge you get a definite kick like you burnt yourself.
digi_owl 11y ago
There was an incident in Norway recently where a school kid was unplugging an iPad, and the prongs came loose from the charger. This left exposed metal bits protruding from the live socket, and the kid has apparently reached in to remove them. Kid survived, thankfully. From the images i found it looked like the assembly was basically pushed into the charger. There seemed to be some notched on the metal bits that would be inside, likely supposed to latch together during assembly, but i guess they could come loose if there was enough insertions and removal.

RyJones 11y ago

The title is "Apple AC Wall Plug Adapter Exchange Program"

samcheng 11y ago

Note that the US-style plugs (with two vertical blades that plug into the socket) are NOT recalled.

jacknews 11y ago

How about a recall of the entire adapter. I have 4 or 5 of them, all which have disintegrated cables. Either the famous problem where the cable/sleeve detaches at the adapter or the plug end, or on a couple of them, the entire plastic cable housing has disintegrated and sloughed off, leaving bare shield wire. This after just a year or so in every case. Absolute disgrace, Apple.

voltagex_ 11y ago
This happens with Lightning cables too.
Khao 11y ago
This is planned obsolescence, when the cables break like this the chargers normally simply stop working. And that cable doesn't carry 110VAC so it's safe to assume even if you touch it you can't really get hurt.
tedmiston 11y ago
Maybe I'm the exception here, but in a decade of using MacBooks, I've never experienced the power adapter falling apart. I remember this a lot back in the PowerBook days, especially those clearish gray translucent adapters.
- Spooky23 11y ago
  Apple has a fetish for putting weak boots on their cable ends, so if you tension them too much, the jacket of the cable will fail. Personally, I've only had it happen to iPhone cables that get abused in the car. Still, it's a ridiculous problem to have when almost no other quality cord is so fragile.
- garrettheaver 11y ago
  Same. I still have an adapter from a 2006 MacBook Pro which is used daily and not a hint of damage on it bar scuff marks.
- sehugg 11y ago
  I've had frayed insulation with multiple MacBook adapters and Lightning cables. I wonder if it is climate related; I live in a hotter and more humid place than Cupertino. In any case there is no excuse for the insulation being so fragile when $5 USB cables never have this problem.

07d046 11y ago

I was very excited by this because I have a MacBook Air charger that is very badly frayed at the laptop end and I don't want to spend AU$129 on replacing something that is breaking because Apple sucks at making cables. Unfortunately, I have a three prong charger that isn't being recalled, so I guess I'll just have to apply some more gaffer tape.

blackguardx 11y ago

It looks like it is only the international adapter part. Everyone complains about Apple's strain relief, but a lot of engineering went into making that as good as it is (which is less than average). It is hard to make robust stuff look sleek and well designed. Some companies err on the side of robust. Apple goes the other way.

tedmiston 11y ago
Agree. I think the HN title should update to reflect that. The current one is a bit sensational.
aortega 11y ago
>Some companies err on the side of robust And on the side of not shocking people to death.
caf 11y ago
"international" sort of depends on your point of reference, doesn't it?
marshray 11y ago
Why does it matter how much engineering went into it if the result is worse than average? How could anyone call that 'well designed'?
- blackguardx 11y ago
  Well designed in that an Industrial Designer probably put a lot of effort into it. A lot of people use that term to describe something sleek. I prefer it when art and engineering work more closely together, but that is just me.
userbinator 11y ago
I don't know about you, but I think the strain reliefs that just about every other cable has are "sleek and well designed" enough to stop them from failing there. Apple's strain relief, which doesn't relieve strain particularly well, reminds me of those on very old equipment (pre-1940s): nothing more than a featureless tube surrounding the cable. The reinforced design with a flexible, radius-limiting boot that's popular today evolved over many decades and works very well. Apple's design provides only a minimal amount of reinforcement and doesn't offer much radius-limiting. You can see this when you bend it - the "boot" creases and wrinkles, separating from the cable, instead of smoothly controlling and limiting its bend radius as a good strain relief should.

johnthedebs 11y ago

This failed on me recently (a couple weeks ago) and I was very surprised when it happened. It was a US 10-watt(?) adapter that came with a 3rd-gen iPad I bought a while back. The adapter is two pieces that fit together (like Apple's macbook adapters), and the piece that inserts into the outlet broke into two pieces when I tried pulling it out one day. The way it split, half was stuck in the wall and half was still connected to the little power brick in my hand. The piece that was still in the outlet had two bits of exposed metal that were clearly just extensions of the prongs in the socket. I removed it very carefully realizing what would happen if I touched the bits of metal and threw it out. That said, it looks like they don't list the US as affected on that page :-/.

hartator 11y ago
Yes, I wonder why the US is not listed as well. Maybe it's different issues?
caf 11y ago
I've never understood why it seems to be popular for US wall sockets not to have switches.
- tedmiston 11y ago
  I just returned from Australia and New Zealand where every outlet has a built-in power switch. I would really like to have them in the states too. I can't seem to find a real reason why we don't. Perhaps the usage cost of electricity is less expensive in the U.S., or it's something Americans are just less conscientious about. There is a lot of speculative discussion in this thread http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/why-dont-us-outlets-have-built-110814 http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/why-dont-us-outlets-have-bui....
digi_owl 11y ago
Same thing happened in Norway a while back, but to a school kid that seemed to have impulsively reached for the part that was lodged in the socket. Best i could tell the kid survived.

orbitur 11y ago

This is interesting. I bought the World Adapter Kit for our trip through Germany/France, and nearly every hotel/B&B we stopped at, I could literally feel a gentle vibration/shock coming from MBP's case whenever it was plugged in to the two-prong outlets. I don't know if that's poor grounding or something else, but it was definitely unnerving and I didn't feel comfortable using my laptop when it was plugged in. But it seems the adapters are being recalled for a different issue.

captaindiego 11y ago
I have experience this as well and was quite concerned about it for a while, this is exactly the first thing that came to my mind as well.
Artemis2 11y ago
Same experience here (with French plugs). Using the cable with the ground pin "solves" the problem.
martiuk 11y ago
In the UK both of the BS 1363 plugs have metal earth pins yet only the extended cable version connects to earth on the adapter. I have definitely felt a small vibration/shock from my MBP's case when using the uncabled plug with disconnected earth.

derefr 11y ago

I long ago stopped using the two-prong adapters; they're just a bad idea when you plug in at places that don't have particularly clean power. Where I used to live, my unibody Macbook would literally give me a little static shock whenever I touched it as long as it was plugged in with the adapter (or possibly it was a continuous current; running your palm along the metal felt a bit like rubbing a balloon.) Switching to the long 3-prong "cable" connector solved that, and I've never dared go back.

digi_owl 11y ago
And this perhaps a good reason why the whole metal case on mobile phones is a bad idea. What you are describing is grounding problems of one for or another.
- derefr 11y ago
  (I'm not an EE, so if anyone knows better?) Oddly, never had the same problem with a phone USB charger. Which is the opposite of what you'd expect: the USB chargers seem to be entirely solid-state, using flyback transformers[1], while the larger power adapters have room for a real wire-wrapped ring transformer[2], which should be providing better electrical isolation. (I would never expect to be shocked by dirty power coming through an induction ring.) [1] http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-quality.html?m=1 http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-... [2] http://www.righto.com/2015/11/macbook-charger-teardown-surprising.html http://www.righto.com/2015/11/macbook-charger-teardown-surpr... But if it is the device itself that was faulty, rather than the input power, it's a different story; in that case you want at least some valid ground path, and complete isolation is bad (because then the device will ground through you, obviously.) Maybe it's just that the power adapter block has a separate ground path and expects to ground it into a dedicated ground pin (and, I guess, leaves the ground pin disconnected when a two-prong adapter is connected? That seems wrong-headed), while the USB chargers, made to assume two-prong usage, mix ground with positive.

cluelet 11y ago

> designed for use in Continental Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Argentina and Brazil

reality_czech 11y ago

Shocking!