Why do MacBook power cords fray so easily?

**** wrote:

Maybe it's because they're from a batch that's over five-years-old. Mine were one and two years old.

Almost a year later, my three chargers still remain in the same physical condition as when new (with the exception of a few stains which I never clean off).

Ciao.

well the shrink tape option extended the life of my last power cord for an additional 8 months and the cord failure finally passed the shrink tape, so I broke down and bought my 4th power cord.

Once again, my wear and failure is at the magsafe end so the issue of wrapping around the ears of the brick isn't an issue for me, but if you think about it, why put the darn ears there in the first place if they want you to leave so much of the cable loose? Why put any ears at all?

I have a lot of Mac portables, and an even greater quantity of power supplies to go with them. They range from 2007 to 2014 models. None are frayed in spite of constant use by all sorts of people.

From here I see no problem with Mac (Magsafe) supplies.

I don't wind mine - it goes from the power source to my MacBook. It always frays at where it enters the computer. I've had Macs for 12 years. It just the last three years this happens. It's not me. It's the product. A piece of junk.

This is also my guess. The power cable is really bad material. Even cheap Chinese copies are better than the original. I have two power supplies. A Chinese copy and the original. The original always stayed at home on my desk while I used the copy "on the road". After roughly one year on the desk (in the sun) the rubber of the original started to become sticky. I didn't think of anything that time that time. After 1 1/2 year the rubber was that bad that it started to fray just by touching it. Meanwhile the copy shows no sign of deterioration. My bet is Apple or their supplier just use the cheap material.

I thought it was just me. I don't take my laptop out of the house and I don't move it around much. Yet, I have had two unravel in the last year. If it's not where the plug goes in (my old adapters) it's the cord itself.

I can only say that the part in question was treated too brutally.

Seven Mac portables since mid 1993. All but one have their original power bricks with their cables in perfect working condition. In all those years only one brick failed and had to be replaced cause the transformer inside croaked. But its still-good brick-to-wall cord is being used elsewhere in perfect working state.

It's definitely the firmer composition of the power cords. Older model power cords were made with soft, malleable material. My original cord had lasted for the duration of the time I owned my laptop. However, since then I have gone through three power cords - each one of them had split.

The problem is that the firmer material puts increased tension on the cord. Instead of hanging limply, the cord juts out at the ends. Is it any wonder that with continual stress they would eventually fray?

Even after all these years, Apple still won't correct the problem of their own making. The Genius at my local Apple store admitted she encased the cord ends with coils extracted from writing pens in order to provide a support brace. Apple is the new Microsoft with its sadly 20th century workaround solutions.

You are still under warranty. Either report to AppleCare or take a trip down to your local AS or AASP & get a new one.

I'm on my third in a year and a half. First one I was told it was user caused. What a load. Really bad bad product.

When re-winding, make a 1 to 2 inch loop in the air, then wind around the ears. This randomizes the initial contact point and reduces initial strain.

Yup, been preaching and practicing same long time

"no hard loops" 😊

Bad design and or bad materials. This only happened with my one and a half year old Macbook pro - never happened in the last 10 years with other macs.

I took it to an Apple outlet and they wouldn't replace it - this was when it was 9 months old.

Its time to write an independent user tip on winding up charger cables. 😊

It says something when a user tips needs to be created on how to wind up a charger cable properly

(not referring to you).