apple.com
Introduced in 2006 by Apple, the MagSafe Charger has been the most well known laptop charger in the history of personal computing. Its best feature, a magnetic connector, ensures tripping over the chord won’t rip your laptop off the table sending it crashing to the floor.
In 2012, MagSafe2 was introduced with a shorter height allowing it to be used in the new thinner MacBook Pro laptops. The problem with the new charger was it came off easier than the previous design which made it a pain in the ass when you were sitting in bed with your MacBook Pro plugged in. Just a little force from your sheets and the charger comes unplugged.
popularmechanics.com
I love the MagSafe design, but the newer design is certainly one of the reasons I won’t be buying anything with a MagSafe2 charger anytime soon.
As with many Apple products, beauty comes before robust design. Fair enough but having to spend $75 on a new charger blows when the old one can be repaired. Lately I’ve been having my own issues with my ‘new’ 2012 MacBook Pro, the newest of which was the charge cable fraying.
The chord on my charger had frayed near the power brick. Specifically, the outer shield wires which are used as the ground line to the MagSafe connector had frayed and only a few strands of the wires remained. As more and more broke, the ones remaining had to carry increased electrical current causing them to heat up and break. Within a few days the charger was useless and I started shopping for replacements. Amazon sells a knock-off brand for $18 which I ended up returning after seeing a notice in the packaging stating ‘excessive heating’ was acceptable from the charger. No thank you.
So I made a video documenting the teardown and repair of my old charger. It is now hot-glued back together as the clamshell design is impossible to open for normal repairs but the charger works as new. I even designed a 3D printed part for it, works great!
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/Oob1Osd8-8I
3D Printed Part: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2011470