I don't know about other parents out there, but I seem to have the worst luck when it comes to the Apple Lightning charge cords.
This little accessory rules supreme in my house hold. It is needed for our iDevices, like mommy's iPhone or the family iPad. However, the Apple branded cords all seem to have roughly the same short life span, just over 2 months.
Most of them meet the same untimely demise of fraying cord casing and internal wires at points in the cord where they meet up with the connectors.
Now I have found two brands of cords that I like as my replacement lightning cords. Kash and Beam Electronics both make functional and affordable replacements.
The Beam Electronics lightning cord is only 1 foot long but is great for charging devices at the desk. The cord covering appears to be a little thicker and a bit more durable than the Apple branded cords. It charged my iDevices in roughly the same amount of time that the original Apple branded cords used to.
For longer lightning cords, I prefer Kash Technologies. They have a four pack of 3 foot long cords that as of October of 2015 were just under $16.00.
They like the Beam Electronics have the thicker cord coating making it more durable than the original Apple branded cords. However the length of the Kash Technologies cords are more suited to charging the iDevices in the car where a little extra reach on the cord can go a long way.
Not all lightning cords at my house get the pleasure of living out their sort lives to the fraying end. Especially when my whirlwind incarnate number 2 gets a hold of it. She is fantastically and almost comically accident prone (think Martin Short in the movie Pure Luck).
Our family had just received our beloved iPad back from the local tech repair team with a brand new screen after a particularly bad week of accidents staring Number 2. She'd had the iPad maybe an hour contentedly watching cartoons on Netflix with it plugged up. She then decided to change location from the couch in the living room to the kitchen. She got up and started walking, forgetting that the iPad was plugged in.
By the time she remembered, it was too late. The damage had already been done. She hung her head and brought to me the pieces of the newly deceased charge cord. Somehow, when she stood up and walked away from her spot on the couch and the outlet next to it, the metal connector of the lightning connector came out of the connector's housing. Thankfully there was enough to grip and we were able to liberate the metal connector from the connector receiver of the iPad.
Disclaimer: Items mentioned in the blog may have been received for free or at a discount in exchange for an honest and fair review.
