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It's definitely user related. My Apple cables last indefinitely—unless my wife gets ahold of them. Then? Look out. I'm just careful not to twist them or sharpl

It's definitely user related. My Apple cables last indefinitely—unless my wife gets ahold of them. Then? Look out. I'm just careful not to twist them or sharply bend them. If I pack them I usually just very-loosely wad them up and put them in a not-too-full part of a bag. That's the extent of my "care". [EDIT] However! This does not mean Apple shouldn't make their cables better so they survive whatever people are doing to them to wreck them, since it's evidently very common.

hughrr 5y ago
Oh yes exactly - my ex wife could fuck up a cable or some earpods in about 3 months. I lost count of the amount of earpods that went down the toilet.
- pushrax 5y ago
  I use litz wire for headphone cables. For a cable that's constantly on you, there's always some chance something happens unexpectedly. I've broken my share of earpods.
  - hughrr 5y ago
    Litz wire doesn't increase the durability as such, merely reduces skin effect in RF applications. Sennheiser used to sell steel cables for their professional headphones. Now those are durable. I ran over mine with my chair about 50 times a day and the cable was still going after 10 years.
    - pushrax 5y ago
      Steel makes sense for extreme durability - I suppose you could use extremely thin steel wire for in-ears to make it flexible, though it might require a very special alloy to be thin and low resistance? In my experience, litz wire is exceptionally flexible and suitable for getting shoved in a pocket frequently. Each wire can be quite thick due to the flexibility.
- handrous 5y ago
  As far as reliability goes, I do see a lot more frays in Apple cables (though not ones that remain exclusively in my care) than others, but part of the reason is that other cables seem to have a weirdly-high rate of mysterious failures in absence of evident physical damage. They just die after 6-24 months. Maybe they'd fray eventually too, but they crap out before it happens. I don't get it. The only Apple cables I've seen do anything similar are usb(-a/-c)-to-lightning charging cables (and I suspect I just need to rubbing-alcohol the contacts on the lightning-plug ends on those, to solve the problem)
Lammy 5y ago
> I'm just careful not to twist them This is the difficult part when the whole cable is a single solid color and the plug fits either direction. I have a Lightning cable in my car that only gets used hanging straight down from my dash-mounted iPhone, and I've noticed the device-end strain relief finally giving out from this after a few years.
- handrous 5y ago
  Agreed that some kind of stripe would make this a lot easier. Save me testing directions and trying to judge which has more tension. I do the same thing with keyed plugs, though—if anything, I find it easier to accidentally introduce more twists in those, since I'm more likely to need to half-twist it one way or the other to get it oriented the right way.
joecool1029 5y ago
>It's definitely user related. My Apple cables last indefinitely—unless my wife gets ahold of them. Then? Look out. I had a Belkin lightning nylon charge cable I used for years and it worked great, then my gf borrowed it for 2 days and "gorilla'd" the end. Since she had a habit of chewing through the regular cables in only a few months, I was curious to watch and see what she does different. It was two things: 1. She uses the phone while charging frequently and has the cable kept taut, this strains the connector. But more importantly 2. She yanks the phone off the charger by grabbing the cord and pulling the phone at an angle, this can destroy a worn cable in a matter of days.
thebruce87m 5y ago
Agreed, when my wife gets them they end up with knots in them. Knots!

hughrr 5y ago

Oh yes exactly - my ex wife could fuck up a cable or some earpods in about 3 months. I lost count of the amount of earpods that went down the toilet.

pushrax 5y ago
I use litz wire for headphone cables. For a cable that's constantly on you, there's always some chance something happens unexpectedly. I've broken my share of earpods.
- hughrr 5y ago
  Litz wire doesn't increase the durability as such, merely reduces skin effect in RF applications. Sennheiser used to sell steel cables for their professional headphones. Now those are durable. I ran over mine with my chair about 50 times a day and the cable was still going after 10 years.
  - pushrax 5y ago
    Steel makes sense for extreme durability - I suppose you could use extremely thin steel wire for in-ears to make it flexible, though it might require a very special alloy to be thin and low resistance? In my experience, litz wire is exceptionally flexible and suitable for getting shoved in a pocket frequently. Each wire can be quite thick due to the flexibility.
handrous 5y ago
As far as reliability goes, I do see a lot more frays in Apple cables (though not ones that remain exclusively in my care) than others, but part of the reason is that other cables seem to have a weirdly-high rate of mysterious failures in absence of evident physical damage. They just die after 6-24 months. Maybe they'd fray eventually too, but they crap out before it happens. I don't get it. The only Apple cables I've seen do anything similar are usb(-a/-c)-to-lightning charging cables (and I suspect I just need to rubbing-alcohol the contacts on the lightning-plug ends on those, to solve the problem)

Lammy 5y ago

> I'm just careful not to twist them This is the difficult part when the whole cable is a single solid color and the plug fits either direction. I have a Lightning cable in my car that only gets used hanging straight down from my dash-mounted iPhone, and I've noticed the device-end strain relief finally giving out from this after a few years.

handrous 5y ago
Agreed that some kind of stripe would make this a lot easier. Save me testing directions and trying to judge which has more tension. I do the same thing with keyed plugs, though—if anything, I find it easier to accidentally introduce more twists in those, since I'm more likely to need to half-twist it one way or the other to get it oriented the right way.

joecool1029 5y ago

>It's definitely user related. My Apple cables last indefinitely—unless my wife gets ahold of them. Then? Look out. I had a Belkin lightning nylon charge cable I used for years and it worked great, then my gf borrowed it for 2 days and "gorilla'd" the end. Since she had a habit of chewing through the regular cables in only a few months, I was curious to watch and see what she does different. It was two things: 1. She uses the phone while charging frequently and has the cable kept taut, this strains the connector. But more importantly 2. She yanks the phone off the charger by grabbing the cord and pulling the phone at an angle, this can destroy a worn cable in a matter of days.

thebruce87m 5y ago

Agreed, when my wife gets them they end up with knots in them. Knots!