So I have been looking to buy a compact power bank to carry around with me for a while and I have been aware already about how many have already been cloned.
The Milk charger casing was particularly appealing to me as it was something that I am not likely to lose if I set it down and it looks really unique and quirky in comparison to a lot of the other power banks.
I had bought a Mystery Gadget Box from Firebox.com back in December 2015 which came with a “Long Life Milk Charger” but I gave that away as a Christmas gift.
In January I discovered an Amazon seller had a generic version which looked very similar to the Firebox so I thought I would buy it. The price was particularly appealing at a little over £3.00 including postage. It came in bubble wrap with a small USB cable packed in with it. Given the fact that Firebox were selling theirs at £14.99 I thought I would give it a go and buy two – one blue, one white.
The Generic Charger
I gave the blue one to my wife and kept the white for myself. After charging the white one and then plugging in to a switched off, discharged Nexus 5 phone which has a 2300 mah battery. The charger claims it has a 2600mah capacity. After charging overnight I came back to the phone, noticing that the milk charger was depleted by the lack of notification light. When the Nexus 5 had been switched on it managed to charge the phone to 63% which is good enough for me if I was in need of an emergency charge.
I charged the milk charger again and then brought it to my office where I tried to charge my work phone which is a Nokia Lumia 630. I noticed that after connecting the milk charger to my Nokia with the cable which came with it, it did not charge but instead the red light stayed on and it started to get very hot around the usb port of the charger. I left it for a few minutes and then touched the plastic by the USB port and found it so hot that I thought it would start to melt the plastic. Immediately I used a screwdriver and pried the cover off and disconnected the battery. I have contacted the seller on Amazon and they have agreed to give me a refund. The refund does not really matter to me as I was more afraid that if I had left this charging in my room at night it could be a potential fire risk. Needless to say my wife has decided not to use the other one.
Firebox Charger
Since then I have bought a Firebox Long Life Milk Charger in banana yellow on sale for £7.99 plus £2.45 postage and have yet to use it. Instead what I thought I would do is inspect both of chargers and see what the differences are.
So what is different about them?
The charger from Firebox came in a colourful box and has a 30cm USB cable with it. The generic one came in bubble wrap and has a 12cm flat style USB cable.
The embossed Milk and 1 litre text along with the lines look identical which leads me to believe that that the case has come from the same place. The only noticeable difference is the logos on the top the Firebox one saying “Long Life Milk Charger” in blue and red and the generic one saying “100% FRESH” in white.
On the bottom the holes for the USB slots along with the text look identical.
The back of the yellow one is sitting up a little as I bent the plastic removing the cover.
Although quite difficult to read I can assure us that both chargers have exactly the same back cover which has the iPower Milk logo and all of the tech specs of the charger along with the various copyright and standards marks. Both say Made in China at the bottom.
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On the inside everything appears to be the same except the battery labelling and the PCB. The PCB on the Firebox model seems to be blue and looks a little more intricate that the other which is green and has a lot more space left on the board. Unfortunately I don’t know a lot about electronics so I am afraid I cannot formulate an opinion on whether one is superior.
This is not so much of a review but more of a friendly advice as to how many of these chargers are out there and how many are using similar or copied components. I am concerned at how similar these two items are and how the price varies so much. Are we paying for a name or is it actually better engineered or using better components?
Thanks for reading!