Man killed charging phone: Thai police

[MaxYakov]

there have been a few cases reported in the uk , one child if memory serves all to do with copy Chinese

chargers, I warned my bird not to just plug in a charger and to use the extension with on/off switches

You must have a very smart feathered friend to use a charger. Or did you mean woman or gf? Why use slang to a international audience?

That's ironic - you're trying to correct circusman, but using terms yourself that you assume an international audience will understand.

I had no idea what a "gf" was - I had to Google it!

R

Then I guess your knowing about a GFE is out of the question. Although there are some conflicting definitions reflecting whether a GFE is a good thing or not. Hint: It's not GF Electrocution ... although ... now that I think about it ...

Edited November 26, 2013 by MaxYakov

[smileydude]

cuckoo stories from cuckoonuts?

[MaxYakov]

My gf said that when this appeared in the Thai news, they specified that the charger was a cheap copied version, rather than an official apple one.

We have quite a few of these as well (I get annoyed having to move chargers from the computer to bedroom to car to hotel etc), and often get small shocks from it.

My gf has always been quite concerned about the shocks, while I've just told her it's only a tiny shock and not dangerous. I'm not quite so sure about that anymore though lol.

The difference between a tiny shock and lethal electrocution is only a few miiliamps. Do something about it - asap.

Absolutely. Not a "lol" matter. I was getting tingles from the metal cart for my microwave and discovered that the three-prong power strip I was using as an extension cord did not have the ground continued internally.

Maybe they ran out of wire at the factory!? Cheap (poor design/QC) three-prong power strips should be opened-up and inspected or a VOM used to check ground continuity for this, potentially deadly, condition.

Edited November 26, 2013 by MaxYakov

[JRSoul]

Any way to get better protection to avoid what happened to this guy?

Earth leakage detection relay is the best, but a cheaper and portable option (if you are renting) are current rated mini-circuit breakers that plug into the power box fuse holders. They operate much faster than the time a fuse takes to melt and can be reset by the push of a button or switch flip depending on style.

[wilgoster]

Grounding? We don't need no dam_ grounding!!!

It's "stinking", we don't need no stinking grounding.

Yah, it's like "We don't need no stinkin' Malaprop Lesson. Leave the kids alone."

[SjaakNL2013]

I don t believe a word of this and other stories from people electrocuted by their chargers. The modern chargers have a output from 5 Volt DC. Older ones 12 Volt DC. With voltages like that you can 't even kill an ant.

An the inlet side of the charger is 220 V. This side is normally well shielded.

Stories like this belong in the "dog in microwave" story corner.

[chiang mai]

Grounding? We don't need no dam_ grounding!!!

It's "stinking", we don't need no stinking grounding.

Yah, it's like "We don't need no stinkin' Malaprop Lesson. Leave the kids alone."

Wrong! "We don't need no stinking badges", Sierra Madra, 1927.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinking_badges

[g8krasher]

Why do all these hard-to-believe stories come from this coconut site?

Why would you not know. Its not hard to figure out...... thats what they specialize in printing.

Seems that every country has it wacko news printer.... for example the Enquirer in the US, ..... maybe the

Daily Mail in the UK. For those looking for the sorid or lucrid stories they soon find the paper for their fix.

What?? The Daily Mail is in colour - it MUST be true!

[silent]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/apple-replacing-fake-iphone-chargers-after-electric-shock-death-1.1313112

[Jim walker]

Urban legend

[daiwill60]

Grounding? We don't need no dam_ grounding!!!

The "electrician" who installed a water heater in one of my bathrooms a couple of years ago: "No need to connect the green wire? It will work that way."

A culture that cannot see beyond the tip of its nose.

Same here in the house in issan ( new build, old builders ) "why i need green for cooker hood, and all other appliances sockets in house, Will work OK . Mai khaow Jai, and these guys are still alive ??

Edited November 26, 2013 by daiwill60

[PeterSmiles]

Grounding? We don't need no dam_ grounding!!!

I haven't seen much, in fact none that I remember, phone chargers with a three pin plug .

Edited November 26, 2013 by PeterSmiles

[daiwill60]

Grounding? We don't need no dam_ grounding!!!

I might sound counter intuitive but you can be safe without grounding. The electrical world changes frequently and many of the DIY people may not realise this.

A device called an RCD - residual current device, or safety switch (depending on where you come from) will give a lot of protection (although not 100%) and does not a require an earth or ground connection.

In laymans terms it looks at the electric current going in to the device with that flowing out of the device. It should be equal. If it is not equal it operates and turns off the electricity supply.

Now if we think about this it becomes clear that if the current going in and the current going out are not equal then the difference in current must be going somewhere else - maybe through a person!!!

Bear in mind that the current may also be equal if you grab one of the electric wires in each hand you most likely will still be fried.

One of the drawbacks of such a device is that you can experience nuisance tripping if you have moisture in a device such as a hot water system or even an electric stove element, although in my experience this is not so common any more. The installation of these devices has become mandatory in some jurisdictions.

They are available in Thailand. I've seen them, and purchased then at Global House.

But my electricians ( jack of all trades), did not fit any cicuit breakers to cooker hood, only + and - ve cables and the sockets for my tv and M/ave are also not grounded as the simple light up screwdriver and sweaty hand methods also prove inconclusively. They did fit them to the showers however , Bless 'em . ya have gotta watch the darlings.

Edited November 26, 2013 by daiwill60

[pistachios]

Any way to get better protection to avoid what happened to this guy?

Differential switches?

I have no idea what it looks like or if they have it as a standard in Thailand, but I think it's supposed to prevent that kind of problem to happen.

[laobali]

Most Thai electricians are from another planet; they know little about Earth.

[Mrjlh]

The cheap charger (or imitation ones) people buy from China are the problem. It has nothing to do with the grounding of the charger although it would help if it did. It has to do with the cheap microcircuit inside the voltage converter that plugs into the wall. It the board that converts 100-220 volts to 5 volts has a chip of poor quality it over heats and it shorts out. Now you have anywhere from 50-220 volts and a lot of Amps running down the wires to the phone. Touch the phone...Bam! It's over. And in many cases already reported people get very bad burns.

So now you have the facts straight.

[PeterSmiles]

The cheap charger (or imitation ones) people buy from China are the problem. It has nothing to do with the grounding of the charger although it would help if it did. It has to do with the cheap microcircuit inside the voltage converter that plugs into the wall. It the board that converts 100-220 volts to 5 volts has a chip of poor quality it over heats and it shorts out. Now you have anywhere from 50-220 volts and a lot of Amps running down the wires to the phone. Touch the phone...Bam! It's over. And in many cases already reported people get very bad burns.

So now you have the facts straight.

But it seems they make these cheap Chinese chargers only for Iphone, since I haven't read a similar story about a Samsung or a HTC or alike.

[rwdrwdrwd]

The cheap charger (or imitation ones) people buy from China are the problem. It has nothing to do with the grounding of the charger although it would help if it did. It has to do with the cheap microcircuit inside the voltage converter that plugs into the wall. It the board that converts 100-220 volts to 5 volts has a chip of poor quality it over heats and it shorts out. Now you have anywhere from 50-220 volts and a lot of Amps running down the wires to the phone. Touch the phone...Bam! It's over. And in many cases already reported people get very bad burns.

So now you have the facts straight.

But it seems they make these cheap Chinese chargers only for Iphone, since I haven't read a similar story about a Samsung or a HTC or alike.

HTC and Samsung (and Android phones in general) tend to use MicroUSB - already as cheap as chips and easily replaceable, not much point making fake ones.

[PeterSmiles]

The cheap charger (or imitation ones) people buy from China are the problem. It has nothing to do with the grounding of the charger although it would help if it did. It has to do with the cheap microcircuit inside the voltage converter that plugs into the wall. It the board that converts 100-220 volts to 5 volts has a chip of poor quality it over heats and it shorts out. Now you have anywhere from 50-220 volts and a lot of Amps running down the wires to the phone. Touch the phone...Bam! It's over. And in many cases already reported people get very bad burns.

So now you have the facts straight.

But it seems they make these cheap Chinese chargers only for Iphone, since I haven't read a similar story about a Samsung or a HTC or alike.

HTC and Samsung (and Android phones in general) tend to use MicroUSB - already as cheap as chips and easily replaceable, not much point making fake ones.

Micro usb works the same way as a charger, the conversion from AC > DC is done in the wall plug.

I think an Iphone has it's own version of Micro usb.

[Torrens54]

there have been a few cases reported in the uk , one child if memory serves all to do with copy Chinese

chargers, I warned my bird not to just plug in a charger and to use the extension with on/off switches

You must have a very smart feathered friend to use a charger. Or did you mean woman or gf? Why use slang to a international audience?

Why not ? I understood him perfectly.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Maybe ZOZA is still "living in the 70s" don't worry he'll probably grow out of it one day.

[rwdrwdrwd]

Micro usb works the same way as a charger, the conversion from AC > DC is done in the wall plug.

I think an Iphone has it's own version of Micro usb.

Yeah it's proprietary which is why there's money to be made faking it with cheaper parts (they cost $19 instead of about $0.50 for a MicroUSB cable) - http://mashable.com/2012/10/29/apple-lightning-micro-usb/ - just commenting on why the cheap Chinese chargers tend to be only for the iPhone.

[Prbkk]

I have the apple chargers, but they seem to get very hot when recharging the devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod) ....only in Thailand though ( quite hot...to the extent that I won't try to fully recharge in one go anymore but in stages...and don't leave them charging if I go out) . This seems weird to me. It happens in hotels as well as at home. But only Thailand as far as I notice

[shaurene]

They are the copy chargers. You must have main appliances grounded no if's or but's.

[Basil B]

Grounding? We don't need no dam_ grounding!!!

Those chargers do not have a earth pin, they are supposed to be double insulated, but the fake ones made in China are deadly, this is not the first such death from those copy chargers.

Not only do they electrocute but they are a fire risk too.

[Prbkk]

I bought mine through the apple store in Australia. It must be a problem with the electricity. I will get a sparky on to have a look

[Basil B]

I don t believe a word of this and other stories from people electrocuted by their chargers. The modern chargers have a output from 5 Volt DC. Older ones 12 Volt DC. With voltages like that you can 't even kill an ant.

An the inlet side of the charger is 220 V. This side is normally well shielded.

Stories like this belong in the "dog in microwave" story corner.

These reports are not false, there have been many instances reported over the last year, these copies are difficult to detect.

One issue is the fake ones have poor insulation so 220V (or higher) tracks across to the low voltage...

Just Google fake chargers, many stories like this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2406185/Fake-Apple-Cheap-phone-chargers-burn-house.html

[Mrjlh]

If you were to go down to an Apple store and compare the chargers you would see the difference. As an example the fake might cost 200B but the genuine one will cost 3-4Xs that.

Other brands probably have the same problem but they just don't get the same news coverage as Apple.

Edited November 26, 2013 by Mrjlh

[MaxYakov]

I don t believe a word of this and other stories from people electrocuted by their chargers. The modern chargers have a output from 5 Volt DC. Older ones 12 Volt DC. With voltages like that you can 't even kill an ant.

An the inlet side of the charger is 220 V. This side is normally well shielded.

Stories like this belong in the "dog in microwave" story corner.

It's not a matter of "shielding"! Your use of the word shielding indicates that you don't know of which you speak. (you do the research - may help you with electric/electronic matters).

It's a matter of insulation and dealing internally with a failed component (or not).

A real world example that happened to one of my power strips. The fuse had a high-resistance contact with it's fuse-holder. This condition will not cause the fuse to blow because excessive current is not going through the fuse in this condition. That caused the fuse-holder, which was bakelite or a similar heat-tolerant material, to heat up enough to actually melt the power strip's less-heat-resistant case. It could have started a fire.

Another example from personal experience:

A minicomputer had a capacitor across the input power, positioned before the power switch. The capacitor shorted and started a fire even though the computer's power switch was "off". Moral of the story: To be confident that an electric/electronic device cannot suddenly have an internal failure which could potentially start a fire, unplug it from its power source (rule applies to both A/C and D/C devices).

One last one, for the really uninitiated:

CRT (glass) TV's have caused many fires even when turned off. This because CRT TV's have a high voltage power supply (HVPS) which holds it's charge long after the set is powered down. If the inside of the TV has a long-term buildup of flammable material such as cobwebs mixed with dust, It is possible that an arc or heat from the HVPS to ignite it, and it has in cases. Moral: Buy a flat-screen TV.

I don't know about dogs in microwaves, but children have died in them such as this US mother arrested after baby dies in microwave (UK Telegraph). You think they fabricated this story?

Put that in[to] your microwave and smoke it!

Edited November 26, 2013 by MaxYakov

[bifftastic]

there have been a few cases reported in the uk , one child if memory serves all to do with copy Chinese

chargers, I warned my bird not to just plug in a charger and to use the extension with on/off switches

I used to have a parrot that was pretty clever, but she never paid any attention to my home-safety tips either.

Must be an Avifauna thing.

[MaxYakov]

I have the apple chargers, but they seem to get very hot when recharging the devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod) ....only in Thailand though ( quite hot...to the extent that I won't try to fully recharge in one go anymore but in stages...and don't leave them charging if I go out) . This seems weird to me. It happens in hotels as well as at home. But only Thailand as far as I notice

Determine that it is capable of 220 VAC and not just 110 VAC (US and other places). Most devices can do both voltages these days. It could have an internal failure that causes it not to be able to handle the 220 VAC. You were wise to not leave it unattended or get too hot. It would be wiser to isolate the problem and/or replace it.