ISelector Nylon Braided Lightning Charging Cables – Item of the Day
Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.
Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the ISelector Nylon Braided Lightning Charging Cable. As a long time iPhone user I have always been frustrated by how quickly the expensive cables that come with them end up damaged. Worse yet when you buy aftermarket cables they tend to not always work.
So I went on a quest to find a durable iPhone cable that just fricken worked and worked all the time. What I settled on was this, ISelector Nylon Braided Lightning Charging Cable. These things are tough! How tough? While I don’t recommend this, I took one and folded it half and whipped my desk with it 5 times, no damage, plugged it in and it worked.
They are quite affordable too at 25 bucks for a three pack. About 8.30 a piece and given an Apple Lightening Cable no where near as durable sells for 19 dollars for one, they are now the only thing I use.
You can find them on Amazon at this link ISelector Nylon Braided Lightning Charging Cable
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But what about you folks with Androids and other phones that use micro usb. While they are not as costly as lightening cables given they are so universal, they do still tend to get damaged. I also keep two of these in my charging station for friends and visitors, so I went out to find the best value to quality ratio I could find.
The key was I wanted a braided cable and aluminum connectors just like the iPhone cable I found. And what I came up with is the iSeeker Nylon Braided Tangle-Free Micro USB Cable.
I will be totally honest I have not used these anywhere near as much as the ones for the iPhone because I don’t have a phone or primary device that uses them. But based on their reviews and my inspection they are the best you can get for the price. I mean seriously these are three bucks a piece in a bundle of three!
During disasters especially weather related ones communications and info gathering is often vital and smart phones are a key link for that. For this reason I keep chargers and cables in all my vehicles, with my battery back up systems, in all my bags including my BOB and EDC bag. I also keep the micro USB ones and a few other form factors like standard USB, because you never know what you may need, especially to help others.
When I stick cable into a bag and know I may not see it again for 6 months, I want to damn well know it is going to work when I need it. If anyone knows of better cables, tell me and I will try them out. For now these are my highest recommendations.
Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com
The iseeker cables I have bought have been awesome. I just ordered a bunch more after a 3 month review.
One note of caution on the iSeeker cables: They may or may not charge much slower than the OEM cable and the reviews seem to show they’re having quality control issues recently.
Out of the three I ordered about a year ago, only one still charges at an equivalent rate. The other two will still charge (and connect), but at a much slower rate: 20 minutes vs 2 hours to full charge. Better than having a useless cable but not very convent for everyday use. Troubleshot chargers, phones, etc., it’s definitely the cable that’s limiting the charge rate.
It looks like there are several similar cables now in the same price range that are more reliable, but none that I’ve tried, so I don’t have any particular one as an alternative.
Our household destroys cables at a disturbing rate. I bought a three pack of these cables. I agree they are tough, but they are not indestructible. My young son has a tendency to rest his ipad mini on the cord. This bends the cord at the connector. Eventually it destroyed the cable. This is more a user function error than a product error. My solution going forward w/ any cable is shrink tubing over the cable and end of the connector to act as a strain relief.