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Are cheap USB hubs SAFE?

bathtub321 » Wed Jun 14, 2017 10:30 pm

Recently, I've been browsing the internet for USB hubs, as I have 7 smartphones I am making money on and I have scavenged all of the old power bricks I have found, and now need a USB hub to continue on if i want to save space. I have been looking onto the cheaper five or six dollar ones that have 7 ports, however half of the reviews say things like 'half the ports don't work!' or 'They fried my device!' and this has made me afraid of buying one of those usb HUBS. So first off, are they safe to use, and second off, do I need a power supply if I'm going to be charging the phones constantly, or am I okay just running it like it is. I have a feeling I am going to need to use a power supply, but i want to make sure before I accidentally mess something up and ruin it. Thanks for anyone who reads this and responds to my question.

ekym » Thu Jun 15, 2017 4:55 am

Having just went through most of this myself, I discovered that your normal USB hub only produces 0.5 Amps and in my setup while the Samsung phones I have seamed to charge ok at that rate, the LG's I own would not. I had to find USB hub chargers like everyone is using that produce 1.0 Amps then all the devices will charge.

zerocool » Thu Jun 15, 2017 5:00 pm

did you manage to find a hub if not i can gladly show some that i think are good

ekym » Thu Jun 15, 2017 10:40 pm

No, I went another direction. I found a 40 port phone charger that is typically used in a school or hotel for $115 on Amazon, together with a $20 smart switch to turn it off for 2 hours twice per day.

Sorry, I went to look for it and it's now gone, I'll have to keep checking on Amazon because I would like to buy another one some day. The Anker seams to be the one most people end up going with either the 6 or 10 ports reportedly hold up well.

https://www.amazon.com/Anker/b/ref=w_bl ... -bin=Anker

zerocool » Wed Jul 05, 2017 10:20 pm

is way startup phones at certain or better just leave them running all day and all night