Is my wall adapter safe to use with my device?

[Asparagusman]

I’ve recently bought an electric cigarette but to my disappointment it does not come with a wall adapter for charge. However, I do have multiple adapters at hand but I’m not sure if I should take the risk of using them on the device. It says that for charging to use a 500mAh (0.5A) but most of my adapters exceed this with the closest one being a 0.55A output. What are the risks of using a higher output than specified and is the mentioned adapter safe to use? Thanks.

 

[Solandri]

You want the adapter to have more capacity than the electronics will draw. The adapter doesn't send power to the device. The device draws as much power from the adapter as it needs. So the device specifying 0.5A and the adapter providing up to 0.55A will work just fine. In other words, you want the adapter's Amp rating to be equal to or higher than the device's.

Also make sure both device and adapter are DC. 99.9% of equipment which uses an adapter needs DC. But I've seen a few which need AC and the adapter just reduces the AC voltage from 110V to something else.

 

[Asparagusman]

Thanks from the reply but after looking at the manual it specifies as follows: “When charging via a wall outlet, do not use a USB to wall adapter that has more than 500mAh (0.5A).”

Seeing as this contradicts what you said I hope it’s incorrect. Would there be any reason for this to be true?

 

[Solandri]

The USB 2.0 standard limits current draw to 0.5A, but that ended up being too slow to charge large-capacity devices like phones and tablets. Consequently a lot of manufacturers have created proprietary USB ports, cables, and adapters which transmit more than 0.5A to the device.

The device is supposed to regulate how much power it draws, so it only takes as much power as it needs. But I suppose if some manufacturer were really cheap and lazy, they could skip the regulation circuitry and simply rely on the adapter's max amperage to limit how much power the device received. If you plugged such a device into a higher amp adapter, it would get too much power, could overheat, and might catch on fire or explode.

Either it's an error, or your devices is terribly designed and doesn't regulate the incoming current. Your quote says it's for a charger? If it's charging a lithium-ion battery, return this device to the store ASAP. Li-ion batteries are extremely temperamental if they're overcharged or over-discharged. If the manufacturer doesn't put any regulating circuitry into a Li-ion battery charger, it's a bomb just waiting to go off.