Seriously stop buying $5.00 junk charging cables. For the last 10 years or more I have told individuals and companies looking to save money on charging cables for their devices to purchase quality cables from name brands. Chinese no brand cables often found on eBay, Amazon and Temu for a "fraction" of the price are low quality cables that do not last and need frequent replacing and also often break while using them resulting in costly repairs to replace the charge port on the device.

So this has to do with USB C and Lightning Cables. Lightning cables are used to charge all iPhones, except the iPhone 15 generation, which was changed to USB C. Lightning Cables are also used to charge iPods and iPads, excluding the iPad pro 1st Gen 11-inch or later, iPad Pro 3rd Gen 12.9" or later, iPad Mini 6th Gen and iPad Air 4th gen or later, which were all changed to use USB C. All other models use the lightning port and must be charged using a lightning port cable.

Now for demonstration I will be using a Lightning Cable, again the same concept applies to USB C Cables. The cheap knock off ones break in a similar way and can cause damage to the charging port, albeit I will admit I see USB C cables doing this less often than the cheap lightning cables. However that might just be because prior to a couple years ago Apple exclusively used lightning ports and have just made the switch to USB C. I guess we will find out in the years to come.

Evidence:



This cable was purchased and used over the course of 4 weeks. The tablet that it charges is an iPad and its usually plugged in once per day to charge. So lets give it the benefit of the doubt, in 4 weeks time it was plugged in 30 times (once per day, for 30 days). Look at the damage on this cable. There are cracks in metal surrounding the lightning port and there is visible wear as well. Bear in mind that this cannot be seen with the naked eye, so without a microscope someone would probably think this cable has nothing wrong with it.



For comparison we have the same cable on the left and an Anker cable on the right. The Anker cable has been used for over a year. It is also used to charge an iPad once per day. So again, lets apply the same principles, this cable has been plugged in (once per day, for 365 days) 365 times. There is no cracking, there is no visible wear on the metal surrounding the port. The same can be said about Apple cables, the metal is as durable as the metal used in Anker cables.


Here is another comparison, Anker Cable on the right and original Apple Cable on the left. The Apple Cable has been used for over 2 years. There is barely any wear on the metal surrounding the port and again there are no cracks in it. These cables are made with much better quality metal on the lightning port, which is important because this is what is being unplugged and plugged in on these devices hundreds or thousands of times over their lifespan. 



Now have a look at this. This is the same cable after I use a metal spudger tool to separate the cracked piece from the rest of the cable. This is what would happen if I had plugged it in a device. Except it would have left the broken piece of metal inside the charge port, which could end up causing damage to the port.

I have created a youtube video below with further details. In the video, you can see me separate this under a microscope as well as go over some additional details of why its a bad idea to buy cheap charging cables. I have a long history and 15 years experience in the repair industry and have seen a lot of evidence over the years that provide a strong argument against using cheap cables that are often sold on Amazon, eBay and Temu. Let me be clear, I am not suggesting that products made in China are no good. What I am suggesting is that these inexpensive $5 no brand or Chinese brand cables claiming to be the same quality as name brand or apple cables are no where near the same quality and often times result in damage to the charge port, which ends up costing people hundreds of dollars to repair.