Monday, August 6, 2018

The Frugal Guy: USB Car Charger



Hey party people.  This week I'll be reviewing a USB car charger.  I received the charger for free from Achoro through Tomoson (click here if you want to check Tomoson out and try tons of free products).  Click here if you want to see Achoro's other products.




So, I think this is the first time I'm giving a review on a product that didn't work for me.  This is advertised as being for the Nintendo Switch, which is why I wanted to try it out.  But, I plugged it in and nothing happened.  If you go on Amazon you can see there are two different ports you can plug into.  The first port didn't do a thing (like nothing happened on my Switch) and the second port said it was charging the Switch but no actual battery charge happened (the second part was allegedly the quick charge port).  I had a long trip over the weekend, and the charger was going for three hours of the trip, but when I got home the battery on the switch was still zero.  If you find that hard to believe, check out my Youtube videos by clicking here and here (two parts to show the start time and the stop time, and how nothing changed).  See the below image of my no charge when I got home.



That being said, I also tried this out for a phone, and it does charge a little faster for that.  On the same trip I plugged my phone into my car USB charger (the port that comes standard in most cars) and that charged at about 1% per hour while being used (google maps).  The Achoro car charger charged the phone at about 1% per minute, so it was faster than just plugging it into the car, but I didn't try all the ports since my main concern was charging my Switch (charging my phone was more or less to determine if the product was defective).

Other downsides to this are the fact that it doesn't come with any instructions (it has two USB ports and another third port, and I have no clue what that third port is for), and also it doesn't come with a carry case. Not having instructions is important, since the three ports are labeled differently, which leads me to believe they have separate uses, so knowing what they're for is vital.  The Amazon page briefly touches on the different types, but doesn't say much about the third port so I'm still lost to that and instructions would have been nice.  Plus, when I was trying to start using this I couldn't get on Amazon (being on the road and all, didn't want to be too distracted) so I had to figure it out on the fly.  The carry case would have just been nice.

Here is the package/box it came in.  This was all I received.  No box with signage or anything, just plain cardboard.  It did come with protective wrap though.



So, I can't recommend this product as a Nintendo Switch charger, as it did absolutely nothing for that.  If you need a faster car charger, then this should be okay.  Also understand that it's possible I used the wrong port for my phone, since it didn't come with instructions I'm not sure if it was used properly.  Still, if you are interested in buying click here.




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