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by skystone on September 12th, 2006

skystone

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I often leave my cell phone charger plugged into the outlet after removing the jack from the cell phone. Does the plugged in charger pose a possible fire risk without the cell phone being attached to it?

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Answers. 7 helpful answers below.

  • by PocketNut is as sure as a peanut on January 31st, 2008

    PocketNut is as sure as a peanut

    Most phone chargers continue to draw power even when they're not charging a phone, they are usually warm to the touch, therefore there is heat, and that means it IS a potential fire hazard, particularly if accidentally exposed to moisture.

    On top of that, it wastes electricity, costing you money and increasing your impact on the environment.
    The same is true of any electrical items left on standby, like VCRs, DVD players, TVs, music centers and the like, anything electrical with power running through it is a potential risk.
    I have heard of people whose houses burned down because they went out and left their dishwasher or washing machine on.

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  • by OmegaWolf747 on August 21st, 2009

    OmegaWolf747

    I leave my phone chargers plugged in. I touched them one time when the phones weren't plugged in to see if they were warm, and they were not. This means they were not drawing electricity.

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  • by scubaguy on June 5th, 2009

    scubaguy

    question for all of you - if I assume that it is using some miniscule amount of power/current/electricity (sorry, I don't know the right term)... what does that really equate to in dollars/cents? Would I have to leave it plugged in 24/7 for a year to equal the electricity a light bulb uses in an hour?

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  • by Ex Eagle Dr. on December 31st, 2008

    Ex Eagle Dr.

    It is true that no current is being drawn from the charger, but that statement is only correct in theory. If the transformer in the charger is 100% efficient then that statement is correct. However there are no 100% efficient transformers that I know of. There is no output from the charger, but it will still pull a small amount of current from the outlet to convert AC to DC. It will also pull current if there is an LED on the charger.

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  • by jeff on January 7th, 2008

    jeff

    Yes! Yes! Yes!

    I nearly lost my entire home to a charger that shorted out, over-heated and melted onto adjacent materials, igniting the fire. It was in a GFCI outlet with proper grounding and circuit breakers. Check out the following for another one:

    http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2005/04/008072.htm

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  • by oggjack on January 31st, 2008

    oggjack

    My father is an electronics engineer. If the charger is plugged in but no phone connected there is no current being drawn from the charger, therefore no heat, therefore no fire!! It's pure physics logic.

    2 comments | Post one | Permalink

  • by chaosmaster on September 12th, 2006

    chaosmaster

    No.I leave mine like that all the time.
    It can only become a fire hazard if it gets really wet

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