Can I use a charger with the same voltage, but a different amperage rating?
Hi, everyone. Leo Notenboom here for Askleo.com,
this question keeps coming up again and again and again.
And I want to see if I can't make it as
clear as I possibly can about what can and cannot be interchanged when you're
using different chargers and different power supplies.
Here's the original question.
"I'd like to know if it's OK to use a different power charger for my netbook.
Originally, the charger specs are 19v and 1.58A.
This charger is not available anymore
and I can only find a 19v and 2.15A.
Can I use this as a replacement?"
Yes, with a couple of caveats, of course,
here are the rules as simple and as explicit as I can make them.
The voltage must match, so in your case,
19 volts, 19 volts, you're good, the amperage provided by the power supply
must be greater than or equal to that required by the device.
So your old one indicated that your device wanted one point five eight amps.
Your new power supply can provide two point one five amps.
That's greater than what the device needs and therefore should work just fine.
This even goes to an extreme.
I got the question the other day.
My device only needs one amp at five volts.
What if I've got a five volt 100 amp power supply?
That's OK.
AMP is not something that's pushed.
It's something that's drawn.
The device will only use the amperage that it requires.
So as long as the amperage provided
by the power supply is greater than that required by the device, you're fine.
Now, the other thing that needs to be correct, the polarity
we're talking DC or direct current here, that means that there's going to be
a positive wire and a negative wire depending on the connector you're using.
That could be the inside of a circle.
It could be the outside of a circle.
It could be different.
The bottom line is the polarity must match.
In many cases, the polarity is going to match no matter what you do.
But there are definitely cases
with obscure power supplies where that's not necessarily the case.
So let me go into that a little bit more detail.
The voltage of the voltage must match.
Now, I say must of course, there is some I'll call it wiggle room.
The problem with wiggle room is that it's
entirely dependent on the device you're using.
For example, my ham radios, they'll work on 12 volts.
That's what they require.
But my car, when it's running, produces thirteen point four.
That's fine.
That's what the device is designed to handle.
It'll handle quite a large range of input voltage.
That's not true for all devices.
The ideal solution,
the best solution is that you get exactly the same voltage
always for the power supplies and power chargers that you happen to be replacing.
If you've got an old power supply, you know what the voltage is.
Get the same voltage always.
If you're off by a little bit, it may not hurt.
If you're off by more than a little bit, it may damage the device.
Don't play with this one too much.
The same voltage, always amperage is what confuses the heck out of a lot of people.
Amperage is something that the device draws.
It pulls amperage.
What that means is that if a device needs
half an amp, that's all it's going to take.
No matter how much is available from the power supply,
as long as the power supply can supply at least half an amp.
So if I've got a power supply that could provide one hundred amps of power,
but the device only needs half an amp, that's great.
That's fine. It's only going to use half an amp.
The device will not be harmed.
It's the voltage that's the riskiest. It's the voltage.
You want to make sure it's the same.
It's the amperage.
What you want to make sure that the power
supply can provide at least as much as the device requires.
More than that is fine.
Less than that again.
Now we start getting into it depends on the device.
For example, if you have a device that
takes five volts and one amp, but you only have a five fold, one 1/2 amp charger.
It may work slowly, it may not work at all.
It may work intermittently, I suppose
it's unlikely to, but it is still possible that it could damage the device.
So if you can always make sure, again,
the voltage is the same and the amperage provided by the power supply is equal
to or greater than that required by the device.
Now, I do have to talk a little bit about polarity.
The good news is that for a lot of newer power supplies and connectors,
there really isn't a problem if you've got a USB connector or any other actually kind
of USB connector, the polarities baked in to the standard.
You don't have to worry about anything as long as you're using the correct connector
to actually plugs the power supply into your device.
You've got polarity, right?
The problem is the nonstandard connector.
There are several.
The one that I will use as my worst case
example is a barrel connector where you have a outer ring and a center pin.
The polarity has to be right.
It has to match what your device expects.
And there are power supplies where the center pin is positive and the outside
is negative and there are connectors where it's the exact opposite.
This must match your device or you do indeed risk damaging the device.
If that's the kind of power connector
that's being used, check the device or if you can check
the old power supply that you're replacing and make sure that the indicator showing
you, which is negative and which is positive is the same for both devices.
Finally, this is all about the output of your device.
In other words, I'm talking about whatever
comes out of your charger, your power supply,
whatever is getting connected to your device,
what the walls side, the lines side, the main power side of your connector
honestly has nothing to do with what we've talked about so far.
In most cases, most power supplies,
most modern power supplies can handle and input voltage anywhere between one
hundred and ten and two hundred and forty volts.
They switch automatically between the different kinds of power supply
systems that are prevalent in different countries.
You do have to be careful that your power supply is one of those that will do
the right thing no matter what power it's plugged into.
The good news is that that's also printed on the power supply.
You'll see that it'll say input voltage is
a range from one hundred and ten to two hundred and forty.
If it's not a range, if it's not
that wider range, if it's something like 110 to 130
or 220 to 250, don't plug it into the wrong thing.
I have seen sparks from doing the wrong
thing, but like I said, most modern power supplies these days are
called switching power supplies and they automatically handle the difference
between the different input or lines voltages.
But that's usually not the question that brings people here.
The question we're really talking about here is the output.
And once again, to beat this horse to death,
the voltage must match and the amperage provided by the power
supply must exceed or match that required by the device.
You're plugging in.
I hope that's helpful.
I hope that clarifies for updates for more words that basically say the same thing.
For related links. For comments, visit Askleo.com/5276.
I'm Leo
Notenboom. This is Askleo.com.
Thanks for watching.