Potential Electric Shock Hazard ?

femina wrote:

Yes it is a charger hardware problem it is called a dummy earth prong on the plug.

Ok, but not necessarily due to a dummy earth.

In the UK we have a square 3 pin conn.........

I know, I'm in the UK.

...........and it is unacceptable that apple would use such a shoddy system on both its ipad and ipad2.

You are joking? Ok, now I also have an HP laptop. That has a metal cover. This has a charger that has an earth prong too as do countess other items I could mention yet there is 240VAC across the conductors all the way down to the IEC type C7 connector at the charger itself, BUT it has no earth - except the dummy. If it faults then I am in the same position as the iPad.

There are also countless other items that have a dummy earth and they are double insulated and so shouldn't need one, but anything that is metal bodied or has exposed conductive parts has the potential in fault conditions to shock the user. Apple might not be right but I suspect that they have met the regs, as I suspect would have HP and virtually ever other manufacturer of any other goods I could probably mention.

Hi,

I also had this problem but put it down to having bought my iPad in the States and was using a US adapter - ie there was by definition no earth pin! I bought a 10w supply at my local UK Apple store and the tingling stopped. I do still get the problem if I charge through my dock stand. This suggests the earthing is not working through the docker.

I often use some external speakers which are battery and mains powered. I usually use batteries but used the PSU rather than battery yesterday. The speakers are also US and use a 2 pin psu with adapter. The iPad was on battery. I got the tingling again. Any thoughts?

I did wonder about a general earthing fault which lifts the case to a low voltage. It's not a major problem. I agree with others comments that it's uncomfortable once you know about it although I did nearly drop the iPad the first time!

aejp

I noticed this problem. I found I was using my iphone 4 s charger for my iPad 2 instead of the one supplied. I changed them around and no tingling. The iPad charger on the uk standard has the 3 pin plug with the USB cable directly into it. It doesn't use the adapter which fits into the plug as does the iphone. Hope this helps as it is easy to think that both chargers are the same.

carl wolf wrote:

"It had better not be doing that!"

Well, it is. It's the industry-standard method that ALL computer-related product manufacturers use to assure that the device complies with (inter)national agency specifications for emitted radiation.

Then please explain why I measure ZERO with both of my chargers.

I had my iPad plugged in at the mains on Tuesday night in a leather (not metal) case and I got a tingling in my finger when I used it. This was two days ago and I still have pain in my arm and finger. I have a two year old daughter who uses my iPad so if it does that to me, there's no way I'm risking her using it! I'm taking mine back to be tested.