BUYER BEWARE- LVSUN Universal Chargers
I've been involved in rescuing dogs for over 10 years. Either adopting or fostering- and with dogs and puppies comes every animal lover's least favorite part of having a dog: Chewing. My husband and I both bought some serious laptops a couple of years ago because we were able to get a great deal on them and we had been struggling with some really s-l-o-o-o-o-w and old machines for a while. Within a month of buying the laptops, we discovered that our absolutely adorable rescue, Bella had a penchant for chewing wires. And she proceeded to eat the cords for both computers...as well as the charging cords for the old computers too. (We still had those plugged in our office) I was able to electrical tape them while we waited for replacement cords that we ordered... which were subsequently chewed... and then my husband found a "universal charger" with numerous interchangeable laptop charging tips on Amazon.com Initially, these things were great. They were charging fine, could handle multiple devices plugged in at the same time. Phones, laptops, tablets, anything that took a USB type plug could be plugged in. 4 at a time. After a few months, a few cords conked out, stopped working- and LVSUN was really responsive about sending replacements free of charge. I had been using the cords that came with our cell phones with the device, and intermittently, they would stop working. I didn't immediately blame the charger because let's face it- dogs and kids... cords get bitten, bent, chewed, dropped, ripped out of devices. I just sucked it up and bought new cords. Again, everything was fine for months until last week. I was on a conference call with my laptop on my lap. I wasn't using it right then, because my colleague was talking about something she was working on and I was paying attention to her. Then I smelled burning plastic and heard a sizzling noise. I put my phone down and reached to flip over the laptop- thinking that maybe it was overheating or something from being flat on my lap. When the laptop was face down, the charging cable was on my left side, and my left wrist connected with it- and burned. Yes, I have an actual burn on my arm from the charging plug still connected to my computer. I ended my call abruptly and yanked the cord out of the universal charger, then removed it from my computer. The place where the metal plug that gets inserted into the computer was now smoking and melted plastic was sizzling on the metal plug. I looked at the charging port. It had a brown wet (looked like oil) substance around the port that I wiped away to reveal my freshly toasted charging port. Burnt. Inside and outside. My husband immediately contacted LVSUN via email, and his contact in customer service, "Amanda" claimed this was an isolated incident and had never heard of the issue before. While he was sending her the photos of my burn and the damage, I was realizing that the laptop and the charger are usually left on either the large, chenille ottoman by my couch- or on the couch itself. How lucky were we that the only damage was a burn on my arm and a fried laptop- as expensive as that may turn out to be, it wasn't my couch... or my house and everything in it. Counting blessings. Amanda told him that they were going to have a meeting to discuss what to do for us and asked what the cost of repair to my laptop was. If it was only the charging port, the local shop estimated $160-$200- but the computer is off and won't turn back on. We won't know if it's a total loss until they look at it. She said ok, thanks... and she would get right back to us. And hasn't. The second charger was apparently in our bedroom, behind our bed. Admittedly, I don't keep an inventory of chargers and who made them, where they are plugged in, etc. This morning, I woke up to the smell of burning plastic all through my bedroom and bathroom. My husband and I went wild unplugging everything, sniffing the cords, checking outlets, couldn't find the source. One of our heaters is scheduled to be replaced due to age and I thought maybe the smell was coming from there. I went into the basement to inspect it. While I was down there, my husband was screaming from the top floor for me to hurry up and get up there, the smell was worse and he could NOT find the source. Something was smoldering somewhere we couldn't see. One by one, I went to all the plugs we had unplugged and smelled them, inspected them, etc. Nothing. Then I remembered the outlet behind the bed. I grabbed the wire for my phone charger and followed it back... inspecting every inch along the way. Nothing. I got the the charger box. Nothing. Power source... nothing... my husband's phone charger... up the wire, down to the ... and there it was. The charging tip had melted just like the one inside my laptop. Only this one had been resting on a piece of plastic attached to the mattress... and began to melt and burn. There was a nice hole in the plastic- only about an inch away from our memory foam mattress. I rubbed it out and looked at my husband. We both were wide-eyed in disbelief at how close our bedroom had come to catching on fire. He had done nothing wrong. He simply did the same thing he does every morning. He unplugged his phone and dropped the cord. Where it landed was irrelevant. Had it landed on the side table, it would have burned that. The mattress. The sheets, blankets, rug, floor, whatever. We were actually quite lucky that it hit the plastic instead, That was probably the least likely thing to burn quickly. The plastic was melted and charred- but didn't actually catch. THANK.GOD. This is the moment you say- "We could have been out. At the store, on vacation... or in a dead sleep." You think about your loved ones. Your belongings. And when you calm down- you get MAD. He was already mid email to Amanda when I typed into Google- "LVSUN CHARGER MELTING" and the "Isolated Incident" Amanda claimed- turned out to not be so at all. It happened to us twice within two weeks and as research would have it- NUMEROUS Amazon reviews claiming that LVSUN had fried their computer, melted, stopped working altogether, shorted, etc- 14% of the reviews are 1 star with many making similar claims to us. In total over 20% were 3 stars or less. But for me, the fact that they had represented that ours was an isolated incident was enough to provoke this post. I contacted Amazon next and explained what took place. I forwarded the photos, and they will now be intervening to recover my costs for the laptop damage. They will also be investigating this seller. LVSUN represents themselves to be a big brand- and also compliant with US and EU regulations- but again, several reviews indicated that the power output either fell short of, or FAR surpassed the representations made- either causing them to not work AT ALL- or as in my case- melt or catch fire. LVSUN appears to only be sold on their website and Amazon. And in the case of electronics, this might be a very good lesson to make absolutely sure you're buying them from a reputable manufacturer. The fact that they are manufactured in China isn't really an issue- as even the regulated authentic chargers can be made there. The question is more- are the components made and attached in the safest manner- and who is making sure of that? I don't believe LVSUN answers to any authority on the subject. That's where the danger lies. So- buyer beware. Avoid at ALL costs buying a "deal" electronics item based on the appearance of size of company if you know that product is coming from overseas. NOTE: When my husband was doing review blogging, this was an item he had reviewed- and was very happy with it. (As many people are when they initially get the product) He will update his review to reflect the new information as soon as an outcome has been reached.