All the time.
My phone charger has been plugged in for at least two years. Works just fine. I can’t be bothered to plug it in/out of the outlet, I’ll take the expense of whatever vampire current draw and wear and tear it takes.

I leave mine plugged in to a power strip switched off when not in use.

I leave everything that is from a reknown brand plugged in, including lesser brands that are tested to be electrically safe by HKJ.

All else is suspect, and usually not in use anyway. And stuff that uses old-school transformers I do not leave plugged in because they use up too much power.

Most stay plugged in, but those are generally the heavy use devices, the unplugged stuff gets a charge and unplugged and removed from the charger.

Calif is about to do some of its wacky stuff and require all chargers sold in the state to shut off or something like that.

On my list of things to do some day, make a nice individually switched charger farm. Maybe two of them, one in the house and one in the garage.

I unplug all chargers and also switch off the power strip. I don’t trust them, I also have no smoke alarm and sleep with plugs in my ears (help me get deeper sleep). I used to leave my Mac on but since the battery is dead now I also switch it off.

Buy yourself a plug in watt meter and check your chargers you will be amazed how much some will use in stand by.

I have everywhere switchable powerstrips which I always Switch off when not in use. Laptop, Chargers,TV, PC everywhere.

If you have 10devices which consume only half a Watt in standby you get
10*0.5*24*365=43kWh which are used for nothing….so doing that is very unecological and uneconomical.

Especially with the smart devices we have today which only consume very small amounts of energy it’s ridiculous.
For example if you use a phone with 10Wh and recharge it 365 times a year you would only consume 4kWh for using it one year. I choosed 10Wh because that is also the energy for recharging a18650. so recharging a battery everyday consumes the same amount of energy like to let the charger stay plugged in but with the big difference that it has no use…

None of my chargers, adapters stay plugged in. I fear wear and rare.

I keep mine plugged into a power strip, and when not in use I switch off the power strip. I do this in the hopes that they will not be damaged by power surges or brownouts or whatnot.

Also some chargers (usually the less smart ones) used to want to be power cycled before inserting the batteries. I’m not sure if this is the case anymore.

I keep my RCA USB outputs and LaCrosse BC700 plugged in all the time but they are CSA approved items. Both have been tested and use less then 1 watt idling, and are on a powerbar that i can turn off when i want to.

I NEVER leave any direct from china items plugged in, they are typically not CSA, UL or CE approved and even if they have a sticker saying they are its more then possible they are counterfeit.

Quote:

I NEVER leave any direct from china items plugged in, they are typically not CSA, UL or CE approved and even if they have a sticker saying they are its more then possible they are counterfeit.

I use about 130 kw of electricity per month and don’t sweat the chargers much, but a surge protected power strip seems to be the right idea, and you can get ones with individual switches if you want.

I keep meaning to set up a charging station using a power strip with individual switches so that I can leave everything plugged in, yet have individual control, and separation from surges when not being used.

Bort wrote:

I NEVER leave any direct from china items plugged in, they are typically not CSA, UL or CE approved and even if they have a sticker saying they are its more then possible they are counterfeit.

^^ Best answer yet.

I resell dozens of flashlights each month (with cells and charger) and make each customer promise that they will not leave their chargers plugged in after use or leave them unattended while charging. Its good practice to unplug and takes so little effort, which might prevent your house from burning down and/or injuring someone.

Good discussion. What is a surge protected power strip?

Only one left plugged in is on USB charge from desktop.  It's off when I shut down every nite and go to bed though.

However, I do leave Iphone charging over nite.

Since about four weeks ago, I always unplug or power off any chargers.

My brother lives on a grid where there are too many people connected with solar panels on their roofs. He had a Nitecore i4 plugged in but empty of batteries.
He and his wife were eating lunch one day, and they heard a loud “pop” in the next room. He investigated and smelled acrid electrical smoke.
His nitecore was dead!

A nice bright sunny day and with all those solar panels producing extra power, seems their grid voltage gets up over 255v when it should be ~240v.

His TV went out another day (a small power board fried) . His neighbours have reported similar issues with over-voltage in the area.

My son, on the other side of the country, has some gadget on his computer, modem etc that trips when voltage gets too high, and it records the time and over-voltage. This happens occasionally in the middle of hot sunny days here in Queensland. His analysis is that it is the over input to the grid by solar panels controlled by cheap Chinese controllers.

Keep ‘em off when not in use, or protect them with something.

MontyPyfon wrote:

Since about four weeks ago, I always unplug or power off any chargers.

My brother lives on a grid where there are too many people connected with solar panels on their roofs. He had a Nitecore i4 plugged in but empty of batteries.
He and his wife were eating lunch one day, and they heard a loud “pop” in the next room. He investigated and smelled acrid electrical smoke.
His nitecore was dead!

A nice bright sunny day and with all those solar panels producing extra power, seems their grid voltage gets up over 255v when it should be ~240v.

His TV went out another day (a small power board fried) . His neighbours have reported similar issues with over-voltage in the area.

My son, on the other side of the country, has some gadget on his computer, modem etc that trips when voltage gets too high, and it records the time and over-voltage. This happens occasionally in the middle of hot sunny days here in Queensland. His analysis is that it is the over input to the grid by solar panels controlled by cheap Chinese controllers.

Keep ‘em off when not in use, or protect them with something.

FlashPilot wrote:

Bort wrote:

I NEVER leave any direct from china items plugged in, they are typically not CSA, UL or CE approved and even if they have a sticker saying they are its more then possible they are counterfeit.

^^ Best answer yet.

I resell dozens of flashlights each month (with cells and charger) and make each customer promise that they will not leave their chargers plugged in after use or leave them unattended while charging. Its good practice to unplug and takes so little effort, which might prevent your house from burning down and/or injuring someone.

This country has switches on all (240V) powerpoints, so I leave chargers plugged in but flick the switch off.

.

laptop/phone chargers are always plugged in. 18650/etc chargers get unplugged mainly because I need use of that outlet.

We got the notebook chargers plugged in and connected to the notebooks all the time until I started reading about the cells. Now I turn the block with outlets they are connected to off in the evening and switch it back on as the first notebook is about to shut itself down because of low battery.

Cellphones I used to let them drain the battery and then recharge to full and kept the adapters plugged in. Now I recharge them when at 20-30% and unplug when 80-90 using 1 adapter for all the rest unplugged and not used anymore.

qandeel wrote:

Good discussion. What is a surge protected power strip?

It is a version of this, with surge protection added.

http://lifehacker.com/how-to-choose-buy-and-safely-use-a-good-surge-prot...

Here is one with American plugs.

Phone chargers: IN

All others: OUT

I leave them plugged in but they’re individually switched so I always switch them off.

Bort wrote:

thats odd, bad design or something, solar power is low voltage D/C that has to be converted to A/C, so it should not be the panels but something wrong with the inverters.

Yes, I should have said the problem is with the inverters. Thanks for the heads-up.

thats odd, bad design or something, solar power is low voltage D/C that has to be converted to A/C, so it should not be the panels but something wrong with the inverters.[/quote]

I believe that the voltage put out by the inverter would have to be slightly higher than grid voltage, otherwise it would not flow(bit like water,air or hydraulics )my 03

just had a look at our inverter presently 10 am putting 245v out

I used to live in the Gladstone area (qld) for 15yrs and never had so much trouble with power ,brown outs load shedding ect.not to mention storm dammage
but I guess qal comalco and the smelter all came first..

My old NiMh charger stays plugged in as it’s very inconvenient to get at it’s wall-wart but otherwise everything else is on surge/power strips, sometimes with a downstream strip for lesser-used stuff at that location.

My desk has a main strip (all PC gadgets and usual lighting) then goes to a radio strip (ham gear and chargers, brighter work-light) so that for almost every use I just hit one or two switches. My old workbench was the similar and when I’m done the new one will be too.

I’m not as worried about “vampire power” as I am fire hazards and damaged equipment from surges/spikes/brownouts. The MOV’s in strips wear out so over time I add a new “main”, downstream ones are usually safe to use longer so I replace them occasionally. I learned from a lightning strike to not leave anything I value plugged in directly when I’m not here to monitor things.

Phil

Only when charging something up.

Or when I forget it there. It happens…

I always disconnect unused devices.
Mike