Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsESR MagSafe Charger, Love it!...and a modification that makes it even better...
Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2023
First off, you should be powering this charger with some real juice. At first, I was simply plugging the USB cable into one of the available USB ports in my Chevy, wrong! I soon learned that these factory ports are much too wimpy to power this charger, I would keep getting intermittent charging, on and off. At least this is my experience. I learned that I need to use an accessory port using a high power adapter like this beautiful one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BLYX8SHZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
All power problems solved! Also fyi you can also purchase this exact ESR charger with their own included charging adapter for about $10 more, as a kit.
My set up includes mounting the ESR charger to the ball end of a flexible metal gooseneck and it works great. I had to wrap a bit of electrical tape around the ball end to make my ESR charger fit tightly. This gooseneck has a big spring clamp at the end and can work great for any DIY install. I purchased it locally at a computer store but I believe this is the same one here on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/SLBSTORES%C2%AE-Gooseneck-Universal-Bracket-Flexible/dp/B01GNQD5J2
I would not recommend mounting this charger to a vent, especially because this magnet is super strong. I use an ESR MagSafe compatible case, see picture. It works and holds super strong on to the ESR charger, it is not going anywhere!
So everything has been working great except for one thing. If you're like me, you are constantly switching back and forth between Portrait and Landscape orientation. Every time I rotated it, the magnetic strength was so strong it would begin to rotate and unloosen the entire charger from the ball mount. Very frustrating. At first my solution was to stick on one of those charging metal rings on the back of my phone case, on top of the already existing ESR MagSafe ring built into the case. Because this provided a harder, smoother surface to rotate on as opposed to the soft plastic case material. This worked okay but the more I thought about it, I wondered why there was always so much friction when there shouldn't be any on the smooth glass surface of the charger. Upon further inspection, I figured out that the friction was being caused by this tiny black plastic lip that surrounds the outer edge of the entire glass surface of the charger. I am talking only about .5mm in height above the surface of the glass. You can feel it with your fingernail. This is what the case surface has actually been resting on, not the glass! Is this a defect? I don't know. But I have purchased two of these chargers and they both had this lip. Any ways, on to my modification....
I modified this ESR Charger by slicing off the excess lip surrounding the glass charging surface with a razor blade, see picture. Super easy. This allows for all surfaces to connect flat on to the charging surface. I held the razor blade at about a 45 degree angle all the way around. This eliminated the ridge that was causing the great amount of friction. If you always keep your phone in one orientation then this modification is not necessary. But for those that constantly rotate it, this makes a world of difference in smoothness! I removed the stick on metal ring on my case, don't need it anymore. The magnetic hold is super strong and I can smoothly and easily rotate between Portrait & Landscape, it works amazing! Now it is perfect, yes!
