Originally Posted by
01 CAt Man Do
Hey, whatever. I charge my phone on a plug-in wall charger. Writing on the charger says it's rated for between 100 and 240 volts. To me it looks like a small plastic box with a plug on it that weighs a couple ounces. Written on back are the words, "Made in China". I bought it at Radio Shack for maybe $24. I plug it in every night before I go to bed and I sleep like a baby. Riding my bike on the road; now that will give me the heebie-jeebies. Now if I start hearing about more people turning to toast while using a plug in charger I'll have to rethink that opinion.
If it was from Radio Shack and it actually had the Radio Shack brand on it, it probably is actually a UL listed charger.
I actually threw away the chargers I bought on ebay after seeing a teardown of one on YouTube. I paid $1.87 each for them. They worked pretty well but the inside of them is scary - really bad components, no proper isolation routing or anything like that. It looks EXACTLY like an Apple charger on the outside, but the inside of the Apple charger is actually very well designed.
For some things, it's not a big deal. I buy MicroUSB cables 5 for $10 on eBay and don't worry about it. Worst they can do is to short out or the end break off, neither are deadly hazards. Anything that connects to the mains though, lately I've stuck to name brands purchased through reputable channels. Simply "name brand" doesn't work anymore, since the product copiers are EXTREMELY good at making products indistinguishable from the real thing.