Tough lightning cables?
Author
Discussion

snowman99

Original Poster:

416 posts

177 months

Monday 18th January 2021
quotequote all
Anyone got any really strong lightning charging cables? Between two toddlers and occasionally things dangling from the charging port, the cables never seem to last very long in our house.

We got some 'unbreakable' ones from Amazon, which broke - the seller sent new ones but they are now broken. Full of good reviews of course.

Or is it better to go for cheap Amazon Basic ones and just treat them as a disposable item? It seems a bit wasteful to do that.

They all seem to fail around the plugs, sometimes taking a little careful positioning of the wire to connect, and eventually fail to connect however much you wiggle the wire. There must be an Otterbox Defender of charging cables surely?


buggalugs

9,292 posts

267 months

Monday 18th January 2021
quotequote all
Have you considered a wireless changing pad?

Dolf Stoppard

1,393 posts

152 months

Monday 18th January 2021
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Interested in this as well. My OH has managed to break every single Apple charging cable we have ever had. I now make sure I have my own which is hidden away from her 'yanking'.

normalbloke

8,946 posts

249 months

Monday 18th January 2021
quotequote all
Odd reply, however Home Bargains have a range of charging cables,which have a leather stitched cover. Sounds weird ai know, and I only bought them for their length, however, they are as tough as old boots and haven’t burnt the house down yet, oh, and you probably have to physically go into the store...
Found a link.

https://www.homebargains.co.uk/products/20602-acce...

mike9009

10,978 posts

273 months

Monday 18th January 2021
quotequote all
There is a simple reason why the cable fails before the connector in the iPhone.

I would just keep replacing the connecting cable.....

Murph7355

42,011 posts

286 months

Monday 18th January 2021
quotequote all
Been using these - https://www.unbreakcable.com/ - for the last 12mths or so and all is well. Feel very high quality.

We have a 5yr and an 8yr old, but tbh standard cables these days seem very poor anyway, especially on strain relief. And I'm far from convinced modern connectors (USB-C etc) help matters either (fitment when plugging in seems far from robust). The Unbreakcable ones are standing up well though.


KingofKong

1,965 posts

73 months

Monday 18th January 2021
quotequote all
mike9009 said:
There is a simple reason why the cable fails before the connector in the iPhone.

I would just keep replacing the connecting cable.....
This ^^^, £5 for a new cable, £100++ for a new charger port on your phone.

gareth h

4,328 posts

260 months

Monday 18th January 2021
quotequote all
KingofKong said:
mike9009 said:
There is a simple reason why the cable fails before the connector in the iPhone.

I would just keep replacing the connecting cable.....
This ^^^, £5 for a new cable, £100++ for a new charger port on your phone.
Surely the charge port can’t fail in the same way? The cable needs support where it enters the plug, even insulation tape or shrink wrap should do it.

Murph7355

42,011 posts

286 months

Monday 18th January 2021
quotequote all
gareth h said:
KingofKong said:
mike9009 said:
There is a simple reason why the cable fails before the connector in the iPhone.

I would just keep replacing the connecting cable.....
This ^^^, £5 for a new cable, £100++ for a new charger port on your phone.
Surely the charge port can’t fail in the same way? The cable needs support where it enters the plug, even insulation tape or shrink wrap should do it.
If the strain relief isn't done well then in theory you could damage the charge port.

IME though the strain relief on std cables is simply crap. Especially so on Apple products. Worst of all from them were Macbook power adapter. Even with magsafe I had regular failures at the other end of the cable.

KingofKong

1,965 posts

73 months

Monday 18th January 2021
quotequote all
gareth h said:
Surely the charge port can’t fail in the same way? The cable needs support where it enters the plug, even insulation tape or shrink wrap should do it.
The charge port can easily get bent/twisted internally wrecking the port and or the pcb.

paralla

5,709 posts

165 months

Monday 18th January 2021
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I clicked the thread title all set to share my knowledge of lightning protection systems but it's a thread about poxy little iPhone cables. You probably don't need a minimum cross sectional area of 70 sqmm for those.

As you were.

malks222

2,300 posts

169 months

Monday 18th January 2021
quotequote all
anker braided lightning cables, ideally the 2m long ones.

not had any issue with anker branded ones, and getting them extra long means they don’t pull as much on the connection ends as there’s more cable to play with.