Do you see having more than one charger a waste of money?

[kiwigirl]

Is it safe to get a universal/third-party charger from Amazon as a backup? I wont use it to fully charge the SP3 everyday. Just to keep one in the bag in case I need it. Maybe Ill use it once or twice a week just for 10-20% charge. The thing is, the original charge is so expensive for that use, yet it cant be used for other laptops in case I replaced the SP3 with something else that's not a SP4 (unlikely, though).
Do you use universal chargers?

(man I wish the SP3 could last just 2 hours longer)

Lots on ebay as low as $15. Just the risk not knowing what quality it is.

 

[laestrella]

I have one charger at home and one at work. And I'm one of the weirdos that want a second one for the house. I need one for the bedroom and one for the living room and the I will be happy.

 

[talon90]

Not at all. I generally keep two power supply's for my widely used mobile devices. I travel for work and like to keep one at home and one in the travel bag. In the case of the Surface (with the seemingly frequent charger issues) I wanted to have a backup in case of a failure again. In this case, I actually have three chargers. I use a SP3 Docking station at my remote office which I travel to one week per month and it came with it's own charger. So I have one at home, one in the travel bag just in case and the power adapter for the dock.

 

[fonsecaj]

I have three, also. One is the dock (which I think is one of the best designed I've every seen) and another I actually keep on my night table. I often read magazines on the SP3 before sleep and then I slap in on the charger so it's ready for action in the morning with a full battery.

 

[r0b123]

I have 2-- one for home while the 2nd is in the bag/office. Usually I can last the entire day at the office so I normally don't pull it out my bag. This is actually pretty good considering I'm able to let the battery run pretty low which from people say it conditions the battery and lasts much longer.

The additional item I did buy though with the charger is the longer cable that plugs in. I can't understand why MS went the short cable route.

 

[kundas1]

I'm with you guys, I have 3 also, one for the house one for my GF's place and one I keep on me at all times so I'm not left without when I'm out on the road.. which is alot

 

[Rahul]

One @ home via the dock, and the other (that came with the SP) at work.

 

[B.E.McAllister]

I basically have two, I keep the dock at my desk at home where it lives most of the time hooked up to a monitor. I'm a night owl and the wife doesn't like the glow in bed so I'm in the office studying and working most of the night. My original is my bag which along with my surface goes with me everywhere.

 

[markusbeutel]

Battery should be good enough so that you don't need multiple chargers...

 

[DutchYee]

Can someone link me wich charger you using? Or all you guys using the original one twice?

 

[kiwigirl]

let the battery run pretty low which from people say it conditions the battery and lasts much longer.

Actually, wrong. The more you kill a battery, the more you shorten its life. Li-Ion are meant to be constantly topped up and if you can minimize the number of times you run it below 70%, your batteries will last extra long. I do this with all my batteries for all my electronics and my batteries still feel like new years later.

It's a good idea to drain a NEW battery after its first charge, just to train it and once every couple months or so...but aside from that, never drain a battery on a regular basis.

 

[bluegrass]

It's obviously the consensus here that 2 or more charges is the norm if you use your Surface in more than one location. BTW, I believe in operating my Surface with the charger anytime I'm close to electricity. Why waste battery power when you don't need it?