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by Uninen 371 days ago
I used to not care that much about fire risks of cheap electric devices (apart from lithium batteries like here because they seem to be inherently volatile/dangerous) until one day few years back when a faulty wire of a $3 iPhone charger from AliExpress caught fire on my desk.

I probably wouldn't have noticed it until way too late if my cat hadn't happened to sleep next to it on the same table. He had a sudden scare of the fire and jumped quickly off the table. It looked so weird that I went and looked what he was afraid of and saw flames coming of the half-melted charger and the wire. The desk was full of paper and junk, it was seconds away from catching fire in a way that I probably couldn't put down anymore as I live in a flat and don't own a fire estinquisher. (We only have a fire blanket in the kitchen but that wouldn't have helped much.)

I will never save few bucks from charger wires or chargers or power banks like these ever again -- it's just not worth it!

That all said, don't have any experience from Anker devices myself but in my experience you typically get what you pay for when buying cheap.
3 comments
OJFord 371 days ago
Anker's not really 'buying cheap' IMO, it sort of started that way but quickly got a good reputation and now it's a household name and a brand that will do a recall.

Buying cheap would be the drop-shipped 'brands' that exist for all of 5 minutes. TNAHEK or FGUYJ or similar unpronounceable all-caps nonsense. (Or 'GoodLife' or 'SuccessDream' or something.)

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bunderbunder 371 days ago
Why not buy a fire extinguisher? I've been a renter most my life, and I've never lived a place where the landlord supplied fire extinguishers, but they've also never complained about me supplying my own.
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Uninen 370 days ago
That's a good question. This might be some kind of a "fireplace delusion" [1] kind of a thing, I've never really even considered it. I've never seen anyone have a fire extinguisher in a flat here in Finland, that might also be one reason. I guess that wouldn't be the worst purchase to make but I'd still much rather try not to put myself in a situation where I'd need one :)

[1]: https://www.samharris.org/blog/the-fireplace-delusion

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KomoD 371 days ago
Anker isn't some cheap no name brand.
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