BriteOn AC Laptop Power Adapter
Item Purchased: BriteOn AC Laptop Power Adapter
Location Purchased: Jacob’s Parts / Ebay
Price: $8.95 + $19.95 shipping
Review: As if leaving positive feedback on the time-tested social shopping system of Ebay isn’t enough, I’m going to hype my seller with a review. Ebay has always been the place I have gone when i need electronic accessories. Sure, people selling these things may have scored them from the backs of trucks or have an actual physical store of their own (how 20th century!), but I’ve found that the best prices for essentials such as power supplies can usually be found on this time-tested auction site without even having to bid on them. Take Jacob’s parts, for example. When my laptop’s power supply started to stutter, it took me all of five minutes to find the power supply I needed at a set price. Jacob’s listing strategy is a bit suspect at first since the price of the item is less than half the shipping price (of the $19.95 I paid for shipping, only about $5.00 of it was used for such), but unless you are a complete neophyte to online shopping, you know to add shipping and sale price together to figure out the best price. At a grand total of $28.90, Jacob’s Parts was the absolute least expensive supplier of power I could find. Sure, the low item price gets him listed at the top of the page, but the total price would keep him there anyway.
As for the power supply itself, I couldn’t be happier. Where my original power supply had an L-shaped plug for the back of my computer, this new one is a straight line from cord to plug. This area of the cord was where I was having problems due to excessive cord bending and twisting anyway, so this lessens the likelihood of wear. The power box that sits in the center of the cord doesn’t get as hot as my original adapter did either, so I am not so worried about burning myself when I pick it up. Good enough for me BriteOn! I now feel secure that my laptop is no longer on life support and back to its youthful spry computing self.
Did I mention that the item was sent and received in less than three days? To put it in Ebay terms, this guy is a Power Seller A+++++, would do business with again!
Update (09/13/07): Shortly after my initial review, the adapter box of this item began getting unbearably hot and the 90w output to my laptop caused my computer to overheat and shut down several times. After approximately nine months of use, the cord got “touchy” and wouldn’t send a charge to my computer without a few minutes of twisting and bending in order to complete the internal connections of the cord. I guess you get what you pay for.
Rating: 4.25 2.5 / 5
September 13th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
[...] paid the price begrudgingly in hopes that this thing would last longer than a mere 9 months. My old BriteOn adapter served its purpose, but began heating up more than originally expressed in my review and soon [...]
December 15th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Just thought I’d post and say I had the exact same experience - I ordered an adapter from this seller and received a BriteOn. It worked great, but two days after getting it, it started to warp and buckle and is so hot to the touch I actually can’t pick it up when it’s plugged in.
I’m in the process of returning it, and trying to get my old brand of adapter (Delta Electronics) from the guy. His website says he has some in stock. We’ll see how it goes. I’m not feeling too positive about this if you had the same issue almost a year ago though…
March 8th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
I am having the same problem now. The yellow plastic inside of the adapter melted and the 2 prongs sunk into it making it a yellow nightmare. Terrible product
May 21st, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Let us not forget the huge EM emissions and feedback into the wall socket that messes with TV signals. An amplifying antenna is not enough to clear up the screen when this thing is plugged in.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:49 pm
mann this adaptor melted on my sofa an also burned out my computer! I lost more than a little Bit!
June 10th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Dear Customers, we are very disappointed to hear of these problems. We are here for you to service the product. Products ordered from JacobsParts have a one year warranty. In cases like this we upgrade you to a higher watt adapter which will run cooler. Our adapters are tested at their rated load, but sometimes computers will draw a bit more. We have switched to a new factory, so these problems should be a thing of the past. We appreciate your business and want you to know that we’re here for you.
June 17th, 2008 at 1:43 am
i wish i could say i had a diffrent reults… but i cannot… i bought an adapeter in febuary’ish and here now in still in june it puked out.. it got so hot to the touch it hurt my fingers. i put an infared therm on it and it red 165 f . i emailed jacobs parts and after 36 hours still do not have a response. i am in alaska with my family and do not have the option of not having a computer so i bought another.. after getting friggne vista set up i was able to get online and order yet another adapter off ebay.. this time not from briteon. the one i bought has a bold advertisment of a one yr warranty i hope to have better luck with the next one. it interesting for me to see jacobsparts on this site saying they will upgrade your supply if you have issues… well i have issues and have not yet heard about an upgrade.
ryan
June 18th, 2008 at 9:09 am
In response to rera3645, you did the right thing by ordering one with a one year warranty. The first adapter was purchased from eBay account briteon, not jacobsparts. Items purchased from jacobsparts include the one year warranty, not briteon. We offer lower prices, next to cost on the briteon account, but we don’t offer the same level of service. We highly recommend that our customers spend the 2-3 dollars more and purchase from the jacobsparts account, where we guarantee a much higher level of service. If the listing says one year warranty then you will get just that. About these overheating issues, we are painfully aware of the problem, and have switched to a new factory. It’s unfortunate that only unhappy customers have been posting in this forum, since over 99% of our customers are satisfied; it makes sense I guess, but as a small business owner I must defend my company; I really feel that we have a great product and offer our customers significant savings over the ridiculous markup that laptop manufacturers charge. I know for a fact that we have a better product than any other aftermarket adapter vendor, as I have sampled products from every other seller I could find.
November 15th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Jacobsparts is terrible never buy from them because:
I have been through FOUR AC ADAPTERS that have all died in various ways! My original 90W adaptor for my HP laptop messed up when the wires got crinkled so I order Jacobsparts via ebay. 90w BriteOn is what I get and it dies due to overheating a few months later. I get a replacement and it has the same problem a few months later. Then the THIRD jacobsparts adapter stops working for no reason and it wasn’t getting that hot. I recieved the FOURTH adapter today and it stops working after 1 hour for no reason. First 2 overheated, Second 2 mysteriously stopped working. I had to pay shipping for the first 3 which brings my total cost way up in spite of the “1 year warranty.” What is even more fun is the fact that the 4th one died one month outide of the original product purchase date so I had to pay in full for the 4th replacement.
November 25th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Daniel,
I’m so sorry to hear this. You should have been upgraded to a 120W adapter. I believe your laptop must be drawing more than 90W, because these problems are not common. It’s a shame that more of our happy customers don’t post here, and I’m sad that you are not one of them. I am constantly trying to improve our product and our service. I wish I could contact you myself to take care of this but there is no contact info on here, but I would certainly be willing to refund the charge for the 4th adapter. My CSR should have reported this to me, it’s would certainly qualify as an exception to our one year warranty.
-Jacob
March 20th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
I agree with the above posts. I purchased 2 A/C adapters from BriteOn power/Jacobs Parts and both are terrible. The first one was faulty after a few months and the second one didn’t even work from the beginning. I had to pay for the shipping to return the faulty adapters and the third one they have sent me is getting unbearably hot. I will likely have to buy a new replacement one after expending nearly 50 is purchasing and shipping costs for the old ones. Note to new buyers:DO NOT EVER BUY FROM JACOBS PARTS OR BRITEON POWER!!!! A call to customer service directs you to one person who is completely unhelpful. I have tried to resovlve the matter by wrtitng to Jacobs Parts and to BriteOn power, and neither seem to care about fixing the matter. All they care about is unfairly getting your money for a very faulty product. Like all the previous messages mentioned, DO NOT BUY FROM THEM!