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iPad 10W Power Adapter - Safe To Use On iPhone and iTouch?

boltjames

boltjames

macrumors 601
Original poster
May 2, 2010
4,876
2,852
I've got 3 kids and 3 iPod Touch's throughout the house and need to know if one of them sees my iPad connector and decides to grab a recharge if its going to cause any harm to the iPod's.

Additionally, when I travel for business I take care to eliminate every unnecessary ounce of equipment and I'd rather not carry around multiple Apple chargers if I don't have to.

TIA

BJ
 
It's the standard power-only USB port thing right? It should be fine, the difference is in how much it allows the attached device to draw; the iTouch won't draw enough to hurt it.
 
I have the same as you. According to the Apple store reps the charger for the iPad can be used on iPhones and iPod touch. If I use the ipod touch charger for my iPad, the charge will take longer.

I did purchase a new car charger and the box clearly states use for iPhone, ipod touch and iPad so I wouldn't need to carry extra chargers. hth
 
It won't even let me use it on an iPhone. It just says "not charging". Apple really shouldn't have used the same adapter. Very few of the iPhone accessories work and it just confeses people.
 
Haven't tried it myself but the Apple Store rep that helped me activate my iPad 3G this weekend specifically said that I should not use the iPad charger with an iPhone as it might fry it. I doubt his statement, seems like a major oversight on Apple's part if true.
 
no its not. just use logic...
compare the size of the ipad and touch battery. and the ipad charger rates 10W.

better to be safe than sorry...
 
says right on the box that they all work with the 10W (says compatible with ipad, iPhone, itouch, nano, iPod classic, shuffle, iPod video, mini, iPod with color)
 
How long does it take to fully charge the iPad with the 10W charger? I think it takes about 4 hours with the standard charger that comes with the iPad.
 
Thank you all for the mass confusion in your replies. I have a headache.

BJ
 
well one of us actually read it off the box when we were in the store :D


btw ... love your sig line :D
 
From the box:

"Compatible with iPad, iPod touch, iPod nano, iPod classic, iPod shuffle, iPod with video, iPod mini, and iPod with color display."
 
I bought the 10 watt charger yesterday. I bit of a bargain I must say as it comes with the long cord that the Macbook / Macbook Pro have going to their inverters for only $29! This is very helpful when traveling with my multiple Apple devices.

Anyway back on point. I charged my 3G iPad with it last night and my 3GS iPhone and no smoke came out of the phone! :) I am charging daughters ipod touch with it now. I will continue to use it to charge all if anything weird happens i will let you know!

PS i just grabbed the box while typing this and it says on the side that it is compatible with iPhone, touch and iPods!
 
It works fine with the iPhone, I just tried it. People, it's a 5 Volt charger that can deliver more Amps. The iPhone ones (like the low power USB ports) can't charge the iPads quickly or at all because they are lower power (read that amps, here, since all are the same voltage) and don't have enough to run the larger display and charge (much) at the same time.

But anything that draws the same voltage from a power supply will NOT have the extra amps shoved down its throat. It's a maximum, not a 'requirement to use'. :D

So, if you have iPhones and iPads around and want to use one charger for either one, use the iPad one(s).
 
It seems to me that using the iPad charger to charge my iPhone is alot faster than the iPhone charger...
 
The original iPhone came with a charger that looks the same as the iPad, though I never actually checked that it was 10W.

I have a small battery back I use to charge my iPhone in emergencies. When I tried the iPad I got the expected "not charging" message but it did power the iPad -- after 60 minutes of use I was still at 22%
 
aluren said:
It seems to me that using the iPad charger to charge my iPhone is alot faster than the iPhone charger...
Click to expand...
I need to try it when my iPhone is really discharged. I have a POS charger I use at night and it takes several hours to charge back from 20%. The iPhone should take all the power it can handle safely, and the iPad charger should be capable of more than the iPhone charger (legal or knockoff...).

I would hope that all chargers with the same plug, especially from a firm like Apple would work in all the devices, at least to the point of doing no harm! :D
 
TheMadBrewer said:
The original iPhone came with a charger that looks the same as the iPad, though I never actually checked that it was 10W.

I have a small battery back I use to charge my iPhone in emergencies. When I tried the iPad I got the expected "not charging" message but it did power the iPad -- after 60 minutes of use I was still at 22%
Click to expand...

I also have an older charger that looks the same as the new iPad charger. For those of you under 40, you can probably read the low contrast light grey on white microscopic text wth the use of a magnifying lens. For those of us over 40, you can probably do the same with a scanning electron microscope. ;)

Mine says it is a 5W charger. I used a labeling machine to create a 5W sticker so that I do not get confused and use it to try and charge my iPad.

FWIW:
Normal USB ports support .5A @ 5V which is 2.5W
The charger I mentioned above is 1A @ 5V which is 5W
The iPad charger is 2A @ 5V which is 10W

With Apple products, you can always use a higher wattage charger with a device (iphone, ipad, etc) with a lower power requirement. If you try to charge a device using a charger without enough power output, it may either take a long time to charge, or it may not charge at all.

/Jim
 
The iPad charger won't fry your iPhone or iPod Touch for that matter, there's resistors built in to limit the amount of current to protect it from spikes, hope this helps. :cool:
 
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