Apple recalls over a decade of power adapters

[Shock]

http://www.apple.com/support/ac-wallplug-adapter/

Apple has determined that, in very rare cases, the two prong Apple AC wall plug adapters designed for use in Continental Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Argentina and Brazil may break and create a risk of electrical shock if touched. These wall plug adapters shipped from 2003 to 2015 with Mac and certain iOS devices, and were also included in the Apple World Travel Adapter Kit.

Customer safety is always Apple's top priority, and we have voluntarily decided to exchange affected wall plug adapters with a new, redesigned adapter, free of charge. We encourage customers to exchange any affected parts using the process below.

Note: Other wall plug adapters, including those designed for Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, United Kingdom, and United States and Apple USB power adapters are not affected by this program.

[TheWelly888]

How many fake ones will come out of the woodwork?

[SeanB]

How many fake ones will come out of the woodwork?

Half of them...... depending of course on which pin is stuck in the socket.

[Muxr]

Good on them. The engineer who designed the prongs is probably losing some sleep over it.

[amyk]

OP has a very appropriate username.

But the "in very rare cases" make me wonder how many people will, upon seeing this recall notice, drive to their local Apple store to exchange it and get in a car accident. (It'd be really ironic if someone actually died because of that...!) Statistically speaking, it might be far higher than getting a shock from these.

Risk perception is a funny thing.

[Jeroen3]

Only a small percentage will. They've called back the 5 Watt EU before due to overheating. I know nobody who went and replace it.
https://www.apple.com/nl/support/usbadapter-european/

Apple is only doing this to prevent lawsuits. Now when someone is injured or killed by one of the chargers applicable for a replacement, they can just say: "We told you so".

[macboy]

Only a small percentage will. They've called back the 5 Watt EU before due to overheating. I know nobody who went and replace it.
https://www.apple.com/nl/support/usbadapter-european/

Apple is only doing this to prevent lawsuits. Now when someone is injured or killed by one of the chargers applicable for a replacement, they can just say: "We told you so".

So many Apple bashers.  They are offering a free replacement, not simply telling people about a potential danger. They are doing the right thing for the right reasons, and the other consequences, such as covering their own asses in the process, are a bonus.

[babysitter]

Well, thats the so-called chinese warranty: Design cheap, excel on exchange.

[Halcyon]

Only a small percentage will. They've called back the 5 Watt EU before due to overheating. I know nobody who went and replace it.
https://www.apple.com/nl/support/usbadapter-european/

Apple is only doing this to prevent lawsuits. Now when someone is injured or killed by one of the chargers applicable for a replacement, they can just say: "We told you so".

So many Apple bashers.  They are offering a free replacement, not simply telling people about a potential danger. They are doing the right thing for the right reasons, and the other consequences, such as covering their own asses in the process, are a bonus.

While they are "voluntarily" recalling the adapters, they kind of have to. If they didn't recall them now, they'd eventually be forced to. Apple don't really have a choice in the matter.

[TheWelly888]

A hospital not far from where I live has had a serious fire in the boiler house because of one of those fake iPhony chargers was being used overnight and overheated.

http://www.granthamjournal.co.uk/news/local/update-fire-breaks-out-in-grantham-hospital-s-boiler-house-1-5354041

[station240]

What will happen is people won't return the old one as they as using it, then forget.
Guess this means some of the crappy chinese fakes are actually safer now 

[rrinker]

 The ones being recalled are perfectly safe - as long as you don't break it. It's when they are broken they can potentially become dangerous by exposing the power pins.

[eugenenine]

So many Apple bashers. 

Today its their power supplies, yesterday it was the antenna, the day before that the magsafe connector, the day before that the power supplies, the day before that the video cards, the day before that the hinges, etc.

Apple is the only company I know of that keeps selling faulty product after faulty product over and over again and people keep handing them money.

[BradC]

Apple is the only company I know of that keeps selling faulty product after faulty product over and over again and people keep handing them money.

General motors?

When you sell hundreds of millions of devices, you are bound to get runs of duds. It's how you handle it that distinguishes you from the rest.

[Muxr]

Only a small percentage will. They've called back the 5 Watt EU before due to overheating. I know nobody who went and replace it.
https://www.apple.com/nl/support/usbadapter-european/

Apple is only doing this to prevent lawsuits. Now when someone is injured or killed by one of the chargers applicable for a replacement, they can just say: "We told you so".

So many Apple bashers.  They are offering a free replacement, not simply telling people about a potential danger. They are doing the right thing for the right reasons, and the other consequences, such as covering their own asses in the process, are a bonus.

Apple is a good company (yeah I said it) despite all the hate they receive from the techno crowd. They annoy me too with some things, mainly connector stuff (lack of ports on some computers, or the potential removal of the 3.5mm audio jack, not sure if true), but overall I have been overwhelmingly happy with their products.

When it comes to smartphones and computers, they arguably provide the most hassle free solutions.

And some may accuse me of drinking the kool aid, but I don't think that's it. I have used computers since the release of Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. I have been in IT for almost 3 decades now. I've ran Windows server farms, ran Windows for years, I've spent a decade using only Linux as my desktop, I've ran SunOS/Solaris farms, FreeBSD, I run Linux mesos swarms today (thousands of servers), but in the end OS X is my prefered desktop OS, and Apple's ecosystem is the most hassle free system out there. It is my educated opinion on the matter. It may not be for everyone, but for me that's the case.

Their products do command a premium though, and are sometimes limited (1st gen Mac Air was a pile of crap). I use the competing products too (my work phone is an Android), and there is a clear and noticeable difference in attention to detail Apple products were subject to in their design. Yeah sure your options to customize it are limited compared to Android, but who cares, it's a phone, iPhone works well and the UI for the most part is well throughout, there is no need to tinker with it. Besides I got real hacking to do for work, or this hobby. I don't have time to hack my phone, nor do I want to. When it comes to hardware-software integration Apple is rarely surpassed.

They've even improved the often ridiculed and overpriced Beats headphone. The Solo 2 is actually quite price/performance competitive set on the head-fi scene, even though it's ugly as sin to me, and I would never own one, but that's a matter of taste.

They are polarizing and a proof that you can't please some people no matter what you do. Apple has caught a lot of slack for working conditions of people building their products in China (even though every other consumer elec. company having the same or worse issues), so they released the Mac Pro which is made in the US, but you only ever hear about how expensive it is.

Here they are doing the right thing, but people will always find ulterior motives to bash them with.

[dogbox]

mine already blew up and was out of warranty and I paid almost $100..grrr. And I'm an hours plane away from the nearest apple store. boo you suck apple:)

[Brumby]

I've got my old 16GB iPhone 4 I'm looking at selling (if it's worth the effort).  I checked and it does have one of the recalled units.

Should I drive the 20km for the exchange - or just inform whoever buys it that they should...?

[ez24]

I've got my old 16GB iPhone 4 I'm looking at selling (if it's worth the effort).  I checked and it does have one of the recalled units.

Should I drive the 20km for the exchange - or just inform whoever buys it that they should...?

Oh please - smash it with a hammer and trash it

[tooki]

http://www.apple.com/support/ac-wallplug-adapter/

Apple has determined that, in very rare cases, the two prong Apple AC wall plug adapters designed for use in Continental Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Argentina and Brazil may break and create a risk of electrical shock if touched. These wall plug adapters shipped from 2003 to 2015 with Mac and certain iOS devices, and were also included in the Apple World Travel Adapter Kit.

Customer safety is always Apple's top priority, and we have voluntarily decided to exchange affected wall plug adapters with a new, redesigned adapter, free of charge. We encourage customers to exchange any affected parts using the process below.

Note: Other wall plug adapters, including those designed for Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, United Kingdom, and United States and Apple USB power adapters are not affected by this program.

Just to be clear: it's not power adapters they're recalling, it's the plug adapters (commonly called "duck heads"). In any case, they're doing the right thing. I've actually never heard of one of these failing, but knowing Apple, they probably got one or two reports and decided to play it safe. (When I worked for the fruit company in retail, if a customer claimed anything to do with sparks, smoke, or fire, the item would be replaced on the spot without argument, knowing full well that many of those cases were fraudulent, essentially harmless DC cord shield fraying caused by obvious customer abuse.)

Today its their power supplies, yesterday it was the antenna, the day before that the magsafe connector, the day before that the power supplies, the day before that the video cards, the day before that the hinges, etc.

Again, this is not a power supply recall. This recall covers plug adapters that plug into power supplies. And remember that the main reason you don't hear about Dell, HP, etc recalling stuff is a) because the media doesn't consider it newsworthy so they don't report on it, and b) because they don't recall until it becomes urgent, whereas with anything remotely safety related, Apple recalls aggressively.

How many fake ones will come out of the woodwork?

I'm actually not aware of widespread cloning of the duckheads. But do you remember how a couple of years ago, after a few reports of cellphone users being killed by cheap Chinese USB chargers that fed 230V to the user's head, Apple did a voluntary exchange program for third-party chargers, letting you bring in your no-name charger and get a genuine Apple one in exchange? That is a company that cares about its customers.

They are polarizing and a proof that you can't please some people no matter what you do. Apple has caught a lot of slack for working conditions of people building their products in China (even though every other consumer elec. company having the same or worse issues), so they released the Mac Pro which is made in the US, but you only ever hear about how expensive it is.

Here they are doing the right thing, but people will always find ulterior motives to bash them with.

Quite right. The Apple bashers are people who truly don't understand why Apple is successful (hint: it's not religion or kool-aid or stupid lemming customers or marketing or cosmetics), and the fact that Apple is successful (even though their brains are telling them it should be failing horribly) makes them angry. Very angry, because they don't understand it.

And of course, the cognitive dissonance is shocking. The "Apple is expensive" generalization refuses to die, even though it is demonstrably untrue. I've had people tell me to my face that a $900 Apple product is more expensive than a $1000 Samsung with essentially identical specs. I guess the price is not what defines expense.  (But it's not ROI, since that's something where Macs have been superior to PCs since time immemorial.) When I got my Mac Pro back in 2008, I decided to price out a Dell with as close specs as possible. The Mac Pro being a Xeon workstation, the comparable Dell was a Dimension workstation. The Dell ended up more than $1100 more expensive, and with slightly lower specs (slower FSB) other than a larger HDD. (I will gladly concede that Apple's configure-to-order prices for RAM and storage are excessive; I always upgraded those myself.) In fact, Apple's price for the whole Mac Pro computer was about the same as the Newegg price for just the two Xeon CPUs it contained!

[tooki]

I've got my old 16GB iPhone 4 I'm looking at selling (if it's worth the effort).  I checked and it does have one of the recalled units.

Should I drive the 20km for the exchange - or just inform whoever buys it that they should...?

You don't have to. The recall page gives you the option to contact Apple support and do the exchange by post.

[BradC]

Just to be clear: it's not power adapters they're recalling, it's the plug adapters (commonly called "duck heads"). In any case, they're doing the right thing. I've actually never heard of one of these failing,

Here's your first data-point then. My brother had a UK version (which are subject to the recall). The failure mode was the connector snapped in such a way as to leave the live contacts (active and neutral) exposed out of the back of the plug. This happened in about 2010, and as he'd moved back to Aus by then I just gave him the head off one of my Aussie units I no longer used and we turfed it, putting it down to prolonged spousal abuse. On investigation it had suffered some adhesive failure over time, and the load was increasingly placed on a smaller and smaller section of structural plastic until it finally gave way.

So it certainly can happen.

[MrSlack]

This doesn't surprise me. I've had two UK ones disintegrate on me so far. They aren't as mechanically strong as the sockets and prongs are! One left a prong in the socket block with the earth pinned down so it was LIVE and exposed. Nice job Apple. This was one of my kids' iPad Airs. So yes, quality engineering.

On that matter I had a 2010 MacBook Pro catch fire on me (battery exploded) while I was using it and more dead iMacs than if someone has rolled a hand grenade into an Apple store. I think it's 6 now. Also frayed cables that caught fire. Every time I get treated like a criminal in an Apple Store as if I'm trying to screw them rather than they are screwing me.

On top of that I've repaired about 30 MacBooks that Apple refused to honor warranties on (despite Sale Of Goods Act here) and the magsafe connectors are fire risk as well - seen so many catch fire now it's scary. Even the input filters and boards have caught fire on the LHS input board!

Oh plus the alloys they use have nickel in them. What the fuck? It's a major allergen. I know at least three people with unexplained rashes on their hands that magically went away when they broke their iphone (another problem; looking at it wrongly causes it to break half the time) or MacBook and used a plastic device for a bit.

I refuse to use any Apple products now. They are dangerous, unreliable and poorly engineered, nowhere near as durable as the intended use defines and the service is terrible. Shiny pretty crap. Might as well buy a Medion and throw it away once a year; you'd be better off financially.

A million people will jump to their defence and do a "well it's ok for me" and that will drown out any rational discussion on the matter of course.

For me, Apple has been £11500 down the shitter so far.

[Brumby]

I've got my old 16GB iPhone 4 I'm looking at selling (if it's worth the effort).  I checked and it does have one of the recalled units.

Should I drive the 20km for the exchange - or just inform whoever buys it that they should...?

Oh please - smash it with a hammer and trash it

I have the complete, original unit - phone, charger, earbuds with documents, the Apple sticker and even the SIM card slot opening tool all in the original box (which is in pristine condition).  I have the original 'bumper' as well as a case supplied by an Apple program because of that infamous antenna issue.  I used it for a couple of years, but it has always lived in a case and had screen protectors.  It didn't have a hard life and I even looked after the charging regime, so the battery still holds a reasonable charge.

I also have a few accessories and I was looking at selling the lot.  Smashing the AC adapter would sorta ruin the package....

[Halcyon]

Apple stopped making good hardware around the time when the Apple Macintosh was discontinued. Those old machines running MacOS were the last good machines I used. Since then they've just been tedious to use and really not that special at all.

This video (although a parody) speaks so many truths...

[rrinker]

 It's all in how you treat the device. I have every cell phone I've ever owned (sometimes I had ones given to me by my employer, those had to be given back). Including all my iPhones (I didn't get one until the 3GS - but my 3GS still works and the worst is has are some scratches on the back cover. My 4S, which was the next one (I fail to see the point of getting a new one every year), was perfectly fine, still had a long battery life per charge. Then a friend crushed hers under a pile of books - I didn't ask, so I swapped SIM cards so she could use my old one, since it was just gathering dust in a drawer. Less than a month later, she's managed to crack the screen. On a phone I used for 2+ years and never even had a scratch. My GF dropped her GS3 getting out of the car, never even realized she didn't have her phone all night, and the next morning, RAN IT OVER  Meanwhile my 5S soldiers on, no damage, no problem with the battery lasting all day. Still have all the chargers, which work, too, but with US plugs the things fall off the wall before the plastic snaps. Not that I am constantly plugging and unplugging - I don't really get that either. Doesn't anyone have a set place to keep their phone? Mine's at my desk, so I have a charger plugged in and the cord run up the back so I don't have to crawl around and plug/unplug the thing. I have another in my carry bag, along with a cable - I use that one when traveling, and even then I find a spot in my hotel room to set it up and it stays there until I leave. Even that carry cable, which I coil up to fit a small pouch in my laptop bag, has not had the breaking at the connector issue. None of mine ever had - yet the same friend that managed to crack the glass on my 4S has been through about 5 cables, all of them breaking conductors and no longer charging, in less than 2 years.
 It's all in how you treat things - cleaning out my Mom's house and there are still toys from when I was a kid, still in good condition. And I'm nearly 50. My sister, who is 5 years younger, not so much - most of her toys, she destroyed as a child.

[Mechanical Menace]

So many Apple bashers...

Over sensitive fanboy much? The Apple bashing started in response to your post and tbh that was tame. There was none in what you replied to

And of course all they're doing is covering their arse and if they could get away with not even wasting money on the announcement let alone actually recalling them they would. If it would be cheaper to just let the few unfortunates die and settle any possible legal action out of court they'd do that. And that's just the nature of big businesses and not Apple bashing, so would 99+ percent of other companies.

[MrSlack]

I love the fact that I get labelled an Apple "basher". I don't think someone who has invested what I have in their products should be called a "basher" when relaying valuable experience to people. On the Internet, that appears to be synonymous to "holocaust denier" when defending material goods that are just shit. Ugh, humans.

For reference, to bring a little balance to the argument, I don't like Sony kit either. VPC-J1 that lives in my garden that got into an argument with me over random power drop outs and crashes:

[MT]

[BradC]

I can not see any design problems. If they means broken neutral contact, then yes, it will give you a jolt, but not remotely close to kill you. It it means there are touchable exposed contacts, then I have to say whoever tries to poke their thin and long elf's finger into that thing or poke a hairpin into it deserved to be electrocuted.

You have obviously not come across a broken one that broke in the specific manner that triggered the recall. There is an inherent weakness in the plastics and adhesive that allows it to snap, leaving live bits exposed.

[eugenenine]

Again, this is not a power supply recall. This recall covers plug adapters that plug into power supplies. And remember that the main reason you don't hear about Dell, HP, etc recalling stuff is a) because the media doesn't consider it newsworthy so they don't report on it, and b) because they don't recall until it becomes urgent, whereas with anything remotely safety related, Apple recalls aggressively.

I've seen recalls from HP, Dell, etc.  One or two brands have had a battery recall, one or two brands have had a power supply recall.  Apple has had everything recalled at least once.

I worked for a GEM reseller, we could sell 100 Thinkpads, Omnibooks, Armadas, Latitudes, etc and have maybe 1-2 problems in the first 30 days.  We would have someone ask for 10 Apple's and would have 2-3 problems in the first 30 days and then more problems afterward.  Their reliability was always way below the business grade systems, they were only comparable in quality if you toss in the sub $500 consumer lines by the same brands to bring their average down.

Then trying to get them to work with us as a reseller, they were terrible. 

[station240]

http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/computers/apple-slammed-over-power-adapter-recall-incidents-may-be-underreported-20160201-gmioeu.html

A Reddit user said 'bad glue' caused this Apple adapter to break when it was removed from the wall socket, exposing live prongs.

Other customers have posted anecdotes on social media detailing how prongs separated from Apple adapters when they simply tried to remove them from the wall.

Another Apple customer posted a similar problem on a Reddit thread: "My Macbook has been zapping me through the chassis for years now," the user said.

Also several stories about 'exploding' power adapters in that story. Including this one
https://twitter.com/SandraEckersley/status/694360164036554754/photo/1

Seriously apple, the only thing holding the sheet of plastic with the mains prongs to the rest of the casing/device is some glue. 
Also the apple stores only had enough replacement PSUs to last one day 

[tooki]

Huh? The pictures in the last link clearly show that the plastic joint that is the cause of this recall did not fail in that instance. While something clearly went horribly awry there, it wasn't related to this recall.

The article linked with that tweet includes a picture, which if you read the text, was caused by customer abuse. ("Bumped" meaning "torn from the wall".)

At least in theory, glue is a perfectly valid design choice - many glues are stronger than the materials they are joining, and of course with plastic there are "glues" that in fact are nothing but solvents that just dissolve the plastics and wall " them together. But I'd always assumed it was ultrasonically welded. If you've ever tried opening any of the AC adapters these plug adapters go in, you'll know you absolutely cannot pry apart the seams, you must Dremel them apart, and I've never seen anything that looks like adhesive residue on the seams.

There's also another big question: Apple designs these, but contract manufacturers build them. There is - however unlikely - the possibility that the design specs were not always adhered to 100% by the contract manufacturer.

And finally, just because some customer said it was glue doesn't mean it actually was. They might not know what ultrasonic welding is, for example. Or there might be some actual glue used to hold the pieces together prior to ultrasonic welding, but that isnt expected to provide any strength after welding.

[MrSlack]

You're pulling it wrong?

[ez24]

My GF dropped her GS3 getting out of the car, never even realized she didn't have her phone all night, and the next morning, RAN IT OVER 


Glad I am not the only one that did this - I ran over my Apple 4 whatever (ps it did not survive)
Give her a 

[ozwolf]

http://www.apple.com/support/ac-wallplug-adapter/

Apple has determined that, in very rare cases, the two prong Apple AC wall plug adapters designed for use in Continental Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Argentina and Brazil may break and create a risk of electrical shock if touched. These wall plug adapters shipped from 2003 to 2015 with Mac and certain iOS devices, and were also included in the Apple World Travel Adapter Kit.

Customer safety is always Apple's top priority, and we have voluntarily decided to exchange affected wall plug adapters with a new, redesigned adapter, free of charge. We encourage customers to exchange any affected parts using the process below.

Note: Other wall plug adapters, including those designed for Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, United Kingdom, and United States and Apple USB power adapters are not affected by this program.

I've just finished filing three claims (2 x iPhone 4's + an iPad) for adapters via the service link.  Simple process, you will need the serial #'s to do this.  A couple of days later I got confirmation that the adapters will be posted to my home address.

Easy peasy.

Ozwolf

[Halcyon]

You're pulling it wrong?