The dangers of leaving chargers plugged in

All devices use a power supply or have a charger. Modern PCs have motherboards that are always on, and leaving a cellphone charger plugged in still means a current is passing through it. This has a couple of implications.

Firstly you are still consuming power and power means you waste money, but also you are likely to leave these devices on whilst not watching them.

Case in point - the cellphone charger below had been left plugged in, but without the phone. Even without the phone plugged in it was still drawing 1 Amp. This converts to heat as it flows through the charger.

Fortunately it was on a power surge protected extension board, which tripped out as the charger failed stopping the flow of current to the charger before it burst into flames.

As you can see the case got so hot it melted.

The unit had been left plugged in and unattended - but the extension board tripping saved our house from a potential fire.

This unit by the way is a replacement unit, not one that came with the cellphone.

The moral of this story (and the Assessment Ninja loves morals as much as analogies or gluten-free brownies) is to always turn devices off at the wall when left unattended, and make use of circuit protection hardware like surge protectors at all times.

You will save money and, if the charger or device were to fail, you will save your home.