Mine caught on fire at the mag connector, luckily I had it charging on my granite kitchen counter top and happened to wonder what that burning smell was when I walked in the kitchen for a minute.

They swapped it out very, very quickly with no questions, sadly the replacement power adaptor died out of warranty and wasn't frayed.

jmckee

@superduperadam: If you're using your MagSafe to stop your vehicle, that would probably be why its "breaking"

/grammar nazi

jayhawk11

sweet sweet
mine is about to brake

superduperadam

Crap. I bought a new one one week ago. It was worth over $100 dollars for some reason, but since they're the only Apple seller in the state, I had to buy it. I live in Mexico.

Lasarett

Thats awesome. I was just in an Apple store 20 minutes ago getting a MagSafe swapped out. Its under warranty, so still free, but still good nonetheless.

jayhawk11

that's nice

vgart

My cord broke a week before the warranty ran out on my Rev A Macbook, but my friend was less lucky-it cost him about $100 to replace it. He's gonna be pissed when he finds out about this.

On a side note, this cord has been doing much better than my original did-Apple must have changed something so that they stopped exploding. It's still good that they enacted this policy though.

jopari

WTFFFF I HAD TO REPLACE MINE FOR $120 LIKE 4 WEEKS AGO

jozen

They replaced mine last year for free after the frayed bits ignited. Bummed I didn't photograph it, but was more concerned with saving the data on my MacBook Pro and the wood coffee table at the time. Fortunately, nothing came of it. Except that new power cord.

davezatz

I brought my melted (and no-longer-working) one in a few months ago, and they wouldn't replace it because it was out of warranty... so, considering that I've gotten 2 free replacement batteries from them, I ended up buying another charger. I wonder if I can get a credit for it now.

morcheeba

I wonder if Bose does that . . . The fabric covering on the wire to my headphones ripped and now there's I kink in the wire where the hole is. I can't get the wire back in without making too much heat and therefore making it vulnerable to breaking.

RP747

And what about pre-magsafe power adapters? Apple's power adapters have been doing this for years. Seriously. My G4 Powerbook went through 3 power adapters in 2 years. Heck, I just received some sort of stupid class action suit postcard in the mail regarding my G4's crappy power adapter. If I still had the receipts for those things, I'd certainly jump on board.

Magsafe or not, anything after the old ugly black G3 adapters has been a fire hazard waiting to happen. This is more the faulty manufacturing, it's crappy industrial design. From the yo-yo adapter to the magsafe, they've all had a skinny cord connecting the adapter to the computer. That cord needs to be significantly beefed up at the head and base.

aquaosx

I took my "Late 2007" Macbook in recently to get my adapter replaced. About two weeks ago. The Apple Store in Ann Arbor did it without a second thought.
I'm pretty concerned, will I be going through them at least once a year?

thomasav

First, who on earth bought a MBP that had a glossy screen?

Second, what on earth does "MacBook (13-inch Late 2006), MacBook (13-inch)" mean? Okay, the first part is ok, but what about the second part? Which revision? All the ones following the late 2006 one? If so, why didn't they just say "MacBook (13-inch Late 2006 - Current)?

CutePuppyz

@oyanobaka: They seem to be made of a thicker plastic now. The new cord on my third one of these (see post above) is definitely much "stiffer" than the first two were.

distortedloop

I have a June 2006 purchased Mac Book Pro 15". It has gone through two of the connectors in two years. Both were replace by Apple for free (I assume under the original warranty on the first one, and under the extended Apple Care on the second).

Interestingly, mine separated at the point where the thin cable connects to power block, not the end where it connects to the computer.

I commented on going through two of these two the genius and that I thought it was a poor design and got a little "lecture" on how I was probably just wrapping it too type around the power block when traveling with it. (Since there's two little flip out hooks I hadn't even known about, I was skeptical, but didn't argue.) Based on this news, I'd say Apple is acknowledging it's a poor design...

distortedloop

Like some of the others, I paid for a replacement a year ago. On the bright side, it seems to be holding up much better than the other one. Either they've made them better or I've been more careful about using it.

oyanobaka

Word to the wise on this: Apple is requiring all Apple Techs to call and verify on these. So that means if your local replacement source normally is able to replace things from stock (i.e. a local third party service house that is qualified by Apple), they have to have you wait in queue and chat the replacement over with AppleGSX as opposed to just doing an exchange over the counter. At least that's what we're having to do at the Service Department where I work (The Eugene Mac Store). Had a couple of pissed off customer's because of the new policy, so beware.

~ JYH

JYHASH

@AHemp: Bring in your receipt and explain it. I'm sure they'll give you a refund or at least store credit.

jayhawk11

God damn it... Mine caught on fire Saturday night and I was forced to buy a new one on Sunday. I can't believe this.

AHemp

@CutePuppyz: I'm on my glossy MBP right now. Awesome for graphics work, and I tend to do most of my photo retouching outside of direct sunlight anyways. I have used other glossy screens that drive me insane, Apple seems to have gotten the materials just right.

lpranal

@jayhawk11: I will probably do that. The thing is, it's an hour away.

AHemp

Are you kidding me? Are the power adapters really dying and catching fire that often?

I'm honestly surprised.

I like Apple, but am honestly surprised.

(And to fuel the fire, I've had my Thinkpad power adapter for like 5 years now, and it still works...)

Awesom-o

@CutePuppyz: "First, who on earth bought a MBP that had a glossy screen?"

People who were lucky enough to get an unbelievably low price on a factory refurb unit from Apple, perhaps?

Johnny_Clueless

i have to say that i was one of the lucky ones with cool apple geniuses (sorry for the spelling, had bout 2 pitchers!) i bought a first gen mbp from my friend and his magsafe was faulty. i went in and ask my local apple rep about a recall (smart way of asking it) about the magsafe since i read a lot on the forums about failed magsafes and one of them happens to used to be a genius but now a manager came up to me and said just give it to me and i'll give u a new one. best service ever! got a new magsafe no questions ask. 2 weeks later they also replaced a faulty battery that was already replace by recall eventho it was 2 years out of warranty. i was just lucky i had really great apple reps. but this news is great for people who had crappy reps and were forced to pay way too much money for faulty products from apple.

sdsviet

Cool, i just got my macbook a few months ago and i hope this never happens to me. But if it does its nice to know apple will replace it for free now since the apple store is about 15 minutes away.

j12

Bugger! I though it was my son chewing on the end that made it stop working. I'm the cost of one magsafe down...

@jayhawk11:

P.S. Adding a full stop at the end of a sentence would make your spelling pedantry a little easier to stomach. ;)

/Punctuation Nazi

mikemystery

...this is also gonna screw over alot of sellers on ebay lol.

GizmoTheGremlin

Anybody know if this applies to the UK as well? And is it just for Magsafe's that are visibly faulty or would it also cover that unbelievably annoying buzzing sound? man i hate that noise.

GizmoTheGremlin

Once again, another wrong blurb on a blog. "Bring in your bad MagSafes to any Apple retailer and they'll take care of you."

Oh really? Where does it say that in that Apple kbase article? Yes, please, by all means, take your power adapters to Best Buy, let them look at you funny.

To quote the article, "to an Apple-Authorized Service Provider or Apple Retail Store for evaluation". So no, do NOT take it to any Apple retailer. You can take it to any APPLE-owned store, or any Apple service provider. Just because a store is a retailer, it doesn't mean they are automatically a service provider.

bitgod

I'm pretty certain it's actually been official policy for a long time, though judging by the comments on here and the very angry reviews of Apple's MagSafe power adapters on the Apple Store, very few people have bothered to check.

Whether your product is in or out-of-warranty, you can take your adapter (you don't need to take the computer) to an Apple-Authorized Service Provider or Apple Retail Store for evaluation and replacement if necessary.

[support.apple.com]

My Rev. A MBP had it's MagSafe die within a month or two of purchase and Apple swapped it for free no question, then when my Mum's melted it was replaced for free (outside warranty), and when my last one succombed to the heat I called and a nice Irish guy sent me a brand new one and took the melty one off my hands.

@GizmoTheGremlin: It absolutely applies to the UK, though I don't think a buzzing noise coming from the power adapter itself would be grounds for a replacement, though if it's your Mac, give them a call.

[support.apple.com]

julian

"(We read that as all models that use the MagSafe power adapter)"

You read it wrong then. They list four distinct notebook models, and those are the only ones that are covered by this program. The MacBook (Late 2006), MacBook Pro (Late 2006), MacBook (Mid 2007) and MacBook Pro (Mid 2007) aren't covered, likely because only the covered models came with the faulty-by-design MagSafe adapter.

harleyb

What about the matte screen 15" MacBook Pro?

FilippoFlea

@Johnny_Clueless: Graphics work? Your colors are accurate? I have a MB 13 inch Mid 2007 and trying to get the most accurate colors on the machine is not so good. It's even worse on the new iMacs. The colors were way off on those (but maybe the ones at the Apple store weren't calibrated). My MB is calibrated too.

For graphics work, the best color to real life is very important especially if you're doing it professionally and for printing. A glossy screen simply wont do in the real field. Matte is the way.

I wish the MBs had matte options. The dust attraction to the screen is screaming for me. I need to wipe it off with a magic eraser at least once a week.

CutePuppyz