$5 chargers - seen at Walgreens

[Nana2Callie]

I've seen these brightly colored charges at Walgreens, Old Navy and so forth - but do they actually work? $5 makes me wonder, but I'm looking for something for the tablet - to play from "car battery" (I know there is a more technical name for that) if the tablet battery runs out during our long drive. Thanks,

 

[FarmDisney]

I got one for my Kindle. I was skeptical too, but it did work for me.

Good luck!

 

[CyndiLooWho]

We have had very mixed luck with the cheap ones that we've bought.

Instead, we each have an adapter to plug in that will take the regular USB charging cord for our portable devices. Dh has a single and I have a double, since I have the family car.

These work beautifully, and negate the trial and error of "it fits, but it doesn't charge *my* phone". Motorola is notorious for not charging unless it has a true Motorola charger, so it's easier just to use the USB port.

example:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Scosche-powerPLUG-Pro-Low-Profile-USB-Car-Charger-for-iPod-iPhone/17473945

 

[vicki_c]

We have had very mixed luck with the cheap ones that we've bought.

Instead, we each have an adapter to plug in that will take the regular USB charging cord for our portable devices. Dh has a single and I have a double, since I have the family car.

These work beautifully, and negate the trial and error of "it fits, but it doesn't charge *my* phone". Motorola is notorious for not charging unless it has a true Motorola charger, so it's easier just to use the USB port.

example:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Scosche-powerPLUG-Pro-Low-Profile-USB-Car-Charger-for-iPod-iPhone/17473945

That is the type of set up we have as well and the one charging port on my double device (the one that is not the "rapid charge" one) still doesn't charge my iPad, just the phone. I don't know why, doesn't put out enough amps of the regular side I guess. I don't have a Scosche brand for charging, but do have a Bluetooth thing made by them for playing music through the car radio and it has worked great.

We also have not had much luck with cheaper devices. We bought a bunch for a space shuttle viewing trip a few years ago and they hardly worked at all and were just generally unreliable for charging our iPhones.

I recently saw some cheap colored chargers on QVC and reading the reviews, it seemed like about 2/3 of the reviewers said they were junk.

 

[Lilliputian]

My DH is a techie who runs an IT department and is in charge of purchasing all of the technical devices the company uses. He won't let me use anything other than the name brand chargers. He says that a lot of the cheap ones don't work, and rarely they can even break the device they're charging, so he considers them a waste of money.

That being said, he also doesn't pay full price for buying the name-brand chargers from the manufacturer. Usually you can get them cheaper somewhere. When you're just buying one, Amazon is a good place to check.

 

[CyndiLooWho]

That is the type of set up we have as well and the one charging port on my double device (the one that is not the "rapid charge" one) still doesn't charge my iPad, just the phone. I don't know why, doesn't put out enough amps of the regular side I guess. I don't have a Scosche brand for charging, but do have a Bluetooth thing made by them for playing music through the car radio and it has worked great.

We also have not had much luck with cheaper devices. We bought a bunch for a space shuttle viewing trip a few years ago and they hardly worked at all and were just generally unreliable for charging our iPhones.

I recently saw some cheap colored chargers on QVC and reading the reviews, it seemed like about 2/3 of the reviewers said they were junk.

We've used this one and mine (and I can't remember the brand on it; it wasn't the cheapie) for ipods, phones, kindles, and 2 different samsung tabs. We've had good luck with them.

 

[descovy]

We get the cheapies from Amazon. We just got 2 that actually have 2 USB ports in them... so theoretically we can charge iPad and phone. One we bought for 7.99, the other for 11.99 both highly reviewed.

 

[robinb]

I have a more expensive double one one from Target and it works great. The single one from Walgreens interferes with my radio.

 

[NicPie]

My daughter has the wall adapter cube for her iPod and I have a cord for my iPhone (both from Walgreens) and both work just as good as the Apple versions.

 

[GAGirlInVA]

My iPhone charger (brand name) suddenly stopped working. DH got me a purple replacement one from Five Below. It works just fine!

 

[kayrosek]

I dont know about actual chargers but I use the $5 brightly colored car adapters from Walgreens and they work just fine for me.