At last! A UK folding pin Anker wall charger!

For years we’ve been asking Anker to make folding pin wall chargers for other than just USA two-pin type.

I just gifted a tablet to someone and they needed a more powerful wall charger, and look what I found.

Good job Anker! Do more!

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Delivered.

Looks a good design. I’d like to see such innovation wider across the Anker range. Not just sticking a UK non-folding plug on a USA folding pin design.

Hopefully Anker engages in this community, listens, and we win-win move forward together.

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Great.
Is there such a foldable charger already available for the EU-norm
If not, why not.
EU is a bigger market than UK!

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Folding EU pins has the same challenge of a USA folding pins that the friction from only 2 pins risks in a worn socket for the wall charger to fall out. There’s also a tendency if you place the fulcrum beneath for it begin folding as it falls away.

You don’t have that same set of issues with UK folding pins as the earth central longer pin increases total friction, as the earth pin folds different direction to the other two pins if they begin folding within the socket it increases friction so slows or halts unintentional falling out of socket.

If Anker wants to benefit from our collective owners experience then please come here with some possible designs for our comments, or I can probably design one for them.

How about a competition where we submit designs and best one gets made by Anker and you get it for free?

Imagine if this GaNPrime 65W charger was folding pins?

The design you published is not the normal EU one.

The prongs of all EU chargers look like this.

So it should be easy to create a foldable one.
Dont think there is electronics in the front part.

Weird. EU engineer was a Star Wars fan?

image

Correct, the pins are dumb, it’s just a solder to the same electronics regardless of pin type then glued. I’m sure a folding version can occur, but as folding makes it wider it’s also best if paired with a wider charger so you’d make it shorter.

This Anker habit of long chargers doesn’t lend itself to folding pins as you see from the model I’ve shown the pins section is wider.

Their 20W single port is a good example how you can maximise the use of the width. So if you begin the design with the folding pins you get a given width and height, if you then design the electronics in a shape of that same width and height you’ll make it shorter hence smaller.

What Anker has been doing is making the width and height of a USA folding pins then sticking a UK plug on which is wider so you get all the length of the pins and electronics in a narrower so longer package.

Looks like Anker are making a 65w GaN charger with foldable pins for the UK


Although that’s from the Anker (Amazon) store, i cannot find it on the Anker website.

Interesting.
UK is a pretty small market compared with EU.
They got those prongs, we don’t. :grinning:
What’s going wrong ANKER?

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It’s up to Anker to explain but I can give an engineering reason.

The UK is 3-prong design, and Anker make them have opposing fulcrums so if the prongs began to fold they would pinch the socket and resist the fold and resist coming out of the socket.

If you’ve ever used Anker’s 2-prong USA folding pin products, they tend to want to fall out and you have to try to place them with the hinge above pins so gravity reduces the chance of folding.

Then the EU and UK have 240V, higher than USA 115V, so the spark you’d get from a folding partly-falling EU folding pin would be twice as bad than a US folding pin.

But having explained the engineering reasons, I’m sure they could do something if they wanted. Where there’s a will there’s a way. So no way means no will.

Personally I’d have a cog in the middle between the pins and make them fold in opposite directions so a fold would like UK fold and so increaase socket friction.

Thanks for letting us know

That happens to be the perfect answer to my imminent needs. I’ve recently been given a work laptop which really needs 65W and I’ve got some travel for work within UK with that laptop coming this next couple of weeks so I’ve just ordered it.

There’s a 10% voucher currently I paid £35.99 and considering it comes with a 5ft USBC cable that’s actually good value.

Good to see Anker listening to our wishes for more folding pins UK chargers.

While I can empathise with out EU brethren on EU folding pins I also can understand the engineering challenges

The 67W folding pin charger is bigger!

I notice no mention of GaNPRIME may be one reason. So why they not putting folding pins on their smallest chargers for some bizarre reason.