Hot charger/AC adapter

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Greetings,

My wife has a late 2011 model 13" MacBook Air. It has the 45W AC adapter to charge. When it's actually charging and the light is orange, the plug (square adapter) gets extremely hot. Like I picked it up and had to quickly put it down because it about burnt my hand.

Is this normal? Is this any idication of going bad or needing a bigger one?

Thanks
 

pigoo3

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Difficult to say. What one person thinks is "extremely hot"...another person may think is "normal" or "comfortably hot".

Just ask any professional chef what they think is hot (handling hot plates, hot pots & pans, hot serving dishes, etc.)...and I guarantee you...this sort of "hot"..."normal" folks would think is extremely hot.

Sorry...it's just VERY difficult to say how hot "normal hot" is for a laptop power adapter...and what is "abnormal hot". We really have no diagnostic way of determining this over the internet...or in person.

All I can say is...the power adapter probably gets hotter while recharging the battery. And the more discharged the battery is...the longer it's going to take to charge the battery to 100%.

Thus it's very possible for a power adapter to get hotter recharging a battery that's been drained 80%...compared to a battery that's been drained 20%. Simply due the longer time it takes to charge an 80% vs. 20% drained battery.

- Nick
 
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A few years back, noticed my MB's adapter was getting really hot when it was plugged in for awhile. Then one day it caught fire! Smoke coming from it and it was all singed. I pulled it out and burned my hand a bit. Apple sent me a new one, tho' it was out of warranty. Be careful with that thing. I'm paranoid to ever leave it plugged in if I'm not right there watching.
 

pigoo3

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Yupp...this does happen from time to time (rare). Unfortunately I don't think (or I'm not aware of) a method to determine a good power adapter & a bad one from an "At Home" DIY perspective (one that's about to do what your previous one did). All I can say is monitor it carefully.

For example...my 2011 13" MBP's battery is fully charged (100%)...and the power adapter is "comfortably warm". Comfortably warm to cool hands on a Winter's evening at home.

How warm is this in °F...I'm not sure. 100°F...110°F...??? And still...what is "normal"...who knows. I haven't seen anything published. I would certainly expect its temp to increase if my battery needed charging (but again what is a normal temp during charging)?

And will the charger get hotter...the longer it needs to charge a more discharged battery (20% vs. 40% vs. 60%+ discharged battery)? This really isn't a well documented area.

I guess this is just one of those areas we need to trust Apple (assuming this is a genuine Apple power adapter).:)

- Nick
 
C

chas_m

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If there's ANY doubt that this isn't a genuine Apple charger and not a clever knock-off, all bets are off and you'd be well-advised to get rid of it asap.

If you're very concerned and sure it's genuine Apple, take it to an Apple store and have them check it out.
 

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