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AC adapter heat question hizark21 09-13-2006
Posted by hizark21 on September 13, 2006, 2:18 am
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 A friend has told me that his AC adapter had been producing excessive
amounts of heat. Not really sure if this a problem since I have had
other wall mount AC adapters that put out a lot of heat.


Posted by TeK on September 13, 2006, 4:06 am
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hizark21@yahoo.com wrote:
> A friend has told me that his AC adapter had been producing excessive
> amounts of heat. Not really sure if this a problem since I have had
> other wall mount AC adapters that put out a lot of heat.

They do get hot, but if he's that worried about it tell him to unplug
it from the wall after he's done using/charging the laptop. my dell's
have a little green light meaning it 's taking in juice wether im using
it or not, witch equates to bigger electricity bill, shorter adapter
life span. i just flip the switch on the power strip. you can extend
the battery life too if you pull it at charge and keep it off the
"heat" meaning if you use the laptop mainly at home on ac all the time
your not letting it cycle completly (full drain/full recharge ect.)
batterys are fickle, especialy dell's.


Posted by Barry Watzman on September 13, 2006, 10:09 am
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It's almost impossible to say what is excessive. It's normal for AC
adapters to get warm, even hot. The question is how hot is normal for a
given model of adapter.


hizark21@yahoo.com wrote:
> A friend has told me that his AC adapter had been producing excessive
> amounts of heat. Not really sure if this a problem since I have had
> other wall mount AC adapters that put out a lot of heat.
>

Posted by shockwa on September 13, 2006, 6:11 pm
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>A friend has told me that his AC adapter had been producing excessive
> amounts of heat. Not really sure if this a problem since I have had
> other wall mount AC adapters that put out a lot of heat.
======================================

Where's an Ac adapter with cooling fans when you need one! I've always
noticed laptop Ac adapters to be very hot.
>



Posted by Plan9 on September 13, 2006, 7:34 pm
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Where I live it was 9/13/2006 2:18 AM, when hizark21@yahoo.com wrote:
> A friend has told me that his AC adapter had been producing excessive
> amounts of heat. Not really sure if this a problem since I have had
> other wall mount AC adapters that put out a lot of heat.

I recently did the following experiment with my HP-DV8000z and its 65
watt ac adapter.

I ran the notebook battery down by using it and then I plugged the AC
adapter/charger into a wall outlet with no surge protection and used
the notebook for about an hour before taking measurements. Here are
the results as accurately as I could determine with "crude" methods.
To get the temperature of the AC adapter I held the bulb of a mercury
thermometer to the side of the adapter with a cotton ball between my
finger and the thermometer and the bulb resting against the case for
about 5 minutes until the temperature seemed to stabilize. That's the
only way I could think of measuring the temperature without drilling a
hole in the adapter case :-)

Ambient temp 30C (86F)
AC adapter temp 51C (124F)

I would guess that those readings are within specs. It just feels a
whole lot hotter. After all "hot" is subjective. So based on this
experiment my guess is it is safe to use. It just might have a
shorter lifetime than if it were running a little cooler.

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