Gadgetory

hey guys it's Joe with pocketnow.com and today we're gonna do something a little bit more serious you see we've been talking all about technology and about gadgets and about phones and it's been really cool but there's something inherently bad about all those things and we really have to take a closer look I know it's not something we normally do but today we're gonna talk about wall warts and why they really really are a big problem let's go take a look okay so wall warts what are they and why are they a problem well this is a phone and that phone doesn't do much unless it's been charged up and it's charged through this little power socket if you've got Bluetooth devices they usually have some kind of a power input as well that might be an inductive charging if you're really lucky or it might be a direct charge either with a microUSB connector or some proprietary connector but all of them plug into one of these now that is what's called a wall wart well why is it called a wall wart because when you plug it into your outlet it looks like a wart on the wall you plug in another and well now you've got just an outbreak that you probably should get some ointment for but no in all seriousness what is this and what does it do why do we have it why do we need it and why is it a problem well in your outlet depending on what part of the world in you've got different kinds of electricity coming into it but it's almost universally AC that's alternating current in the u.s. were 120 volt in other places it's 240 it just depends on where you are in fact the socket that the prongs are different depending on where you are so this is a u.s. prongs and this is not us prongs see how nice and round they are and you cannot plug one into the other you could try but I don't recommend it but these wall warts are universal not that they'll plug in anywhere but everybody has them and their problem everywhere now why are they a problem well this converts from alternating current into direct current so over here on the end is a little mini USB in this case they do also have micro USB and even some proprietary stuff as well but alternating current in direct current out there has to be a conversion process that happens in here and of course I could get into a lot of technical detail of how that's done what it's called but suffice it to say AC in DC out the problem now is inside of this it's always doing that conversion whether or not anything is plugged into it so even when your phone is unplugged so you know if you have your phone plugged in overnight for eight hours then that's doing its job for eight hours but for the rest of the day when you're not even home your phone's not plugged in it's still doing that conversion it's still sucking down power and it looks ugly to boot because it's a big wall work that sticks out from your wall now you add up all of these guys these are called phantom loads they're loads that are sucking down power even when they're not doing anything you add all those up in your house and you get an awful lot now it's not just cell phones and and other stuff like that this camera for example has a relatively large wall wart it doesn't connect directly to the wall it connects to the wall via this wire and then to the camera via that wire I can't show you because they're plugged in at either end but that sucks down power my laptop has one just like this as well my Xbox has one my wii has one my computer has one but it's built inside the computer itself but they all do the same thing they convert alternating current to direct current and they're a problem because they're always consuming that electricity putting that demand on no they don't always look the same here's one from Samsung nice and kind of thin but it still has a USB port in it this is a step in the right direction here is another one from Motorola and it plugs in just like that and there's the USB port now in this case they've omitted the cable because it's just a regular USB cable that plugs into it so now they can give you you know one of these with international-style prongs but no cord out of it and then you can use the same USB cord to plug into your device so it's kind of cost savings you don't have to have two wires you just have one and well you can plug it in here or you can plug it in here or you can plug it into your computer but it's just the same cord besides you probably already have a handful of those laying around so step in the right direction but it still has to convert from alternating current to direct current and that's a problem so let's take a look at something that we could do okay first of all this is a Belkin branded powered USB hub now I say powered because you actually have to plug it in and yes that requires the use of a wall wart but by doing this I can plug four devices into this port we're into this hub and only one wall wart so I'm saving by not having to have four separate wall warts for four separate devices now I just have the one charging does take a little bit longer when you do it this method but since you're charging up all night long you're probably gonna be okay and not have a problem you'll be all fresh and charged when you wake up in the morning but you still have that nasty wall wart dangling around and what happens if you need more than four well in this case it's stackable it's got these neat little beat tabs that'll can just sit on top and clip in so then I can have another four ports actually I can have three ports on this one four ports on that one why this device has kind of a unique setup I can take this plug over here this port and plug it into this port on the one above it so this one will call this hub a 10 power hub be by using one of those power 2 USB ports and plugging it into that so from one to the other just daisy chain them up that way I don't have to have a second wall wart to be able to do that really kind of cool doesn't cost that much these guys runya this one is just a four port so it's gonna cost about 20 30 bucks for a really good one get the highest end one that you can it's just gonna last a lot longer and hopefully be a lot more energy efficient as well you can get them 7-port you can get them quite a bit more than that up to how many you need but this problem still exists you've got to have that wall wart to power it so let's take a look at something where you don't have to have a wall wart but you can still power your USB powered devices so the problem really exists between the power and the device right because we have alternating current here and we need to get direct current via the cable into the device so how do we do that well let's take away the wall warts and come up with a solution that includes that conversion inside the receptacle itself so in this case this is a u socket branded USB powered outlet replacement really it's got your standard two outlets and you can see I'm using both of them right now and in addition to that I've got two powered USB ports now these are just power ports they're not data ports no you can't try and hack the power grid by plugging in your laptop into one of those but you know kudos for you wanting to try that we don't recommend you hack anything by the way that's just some humor so what is it well I can now take my USB plug and I can plug it right in like that and now as long as nothing is plugged in to the other end of the device the other end of the cord it's not taking any power there's no circuit being completed here so when the outlet is empty it's also not using any power that's great we've just eliminated our wall wart problem now a couple drawbacks to this first of all you've got to buy them and install them they're not standard they're not going to come in a new house they're not going to be in your apartment when you get there or your dorm room or anything like that first problem second problem you've only got two of them I would really love to have more than that I'd love to have four of them over here but two is okay if I have to I guess I can always take one and plug it in there and then plug the other end into my powered USB hub there and do that this obviously isn't the right and to do it but you get the point there and then I can do that now the downside is this is a device that is then active it's got circuitry in it so it is taking power but not nearly as much as this plus the wall wart okay so next what else can we do we can plug in all kinds of stuff to it my camera has an adapter that I can plug into USB my Bluetooth headset has a USB cord my phone has a USB cord I can do all kinds of stuff but I do have to replace the receptacle so let's take a look at this receptacle before we do that I want to make sure you guys know I am NOT an electrician I am not giving you a advise or instruction on how to install this that's something that if you don't know how to do you want to make sure that you're going to contact an electrician or someone that is licensed to work with electricity or wherever you are so that you end up not killing yourself that having been said when I replace this I'm gonna tell you my personal experience and it's just that when I replace this receptacle the first thing that I did was I plugged the lamp into it and went down into the breaker box I flipped the breaker that I thought was for this outlet and I came back up and checked and sure enough the lamp was off so I knew that this outlet was it was no longer hot then I took my little electrical probes and I stuck them in there it's a little tester device and double-checked and in fact the outlet had no power to it once I did that then I went ahead and took off the faceplate took out the receptacle and started working on putting in the new receptacle so let's take a look at that this is what the receptacle looks like and other than the two little USB ports and these interesting little ears on the top and the bottom it looks just like any other receptacle okay one disadvantage you don't have any quick plugs in the back like you do in most receptacles you know the kind where you can just stick the wire straight in and it holds on to it because it's got a little spring-loaded mechanism in there this doesn't have that you've got to use the old method of screw-down which isn't quite as fast but depending on who you ask might be a little bit more reliable so there's that second you'll notice this is just a regular receptacle that has this big no I hate to say it but wall wart plugged on to the back of it now this is where all of that conversion from AC to DC happens so it can then go through an output now the manufacturer says as far as I can tell that does not happen unless there's something plugged in so unless you have a phone or some other device plugged in using it it's not sucking down power in this wall wart right here not only that but the wall wart is hidden well inside the wall so it's not as unsightly but let's take a look the first thing we want to talk about is grounding and you'll notice it's got these little wings over here ok these wings are grounding wings they actually ground the front of the the plate here so that when you're touching this you're actually grounding yourself I don't know exactly how they do that but that's the theory behind it so when you're plugging stuff in you're not going to have that dust that zap like you have sometimes when you have a computer that's not grounded properly and you're plugging in a USB device so should take care of that second is it has your regular old grounding scroop grain is ground inside the wall you might have a green wire or you might have a bare copper wire that plugs in right there just screw it down like you normally would on this side is your black wires and I have two black wires two white wires and one ground wire in that outlet box so I plugged my black into both of those and then I had to route it down and around here down underneath this little bump out so they came down and around that way and on the back you'll notice I've only got one white lug the other one is kind of hidden back here behind that USB port so to take care of that the manufacturer includes an extra little wire length here and what you do is you take your existing white wires and connect them that wire nut and then you can take that and connect it right there on that lug and then you don't have a problem with not having enough places to to screw stuff down and it works just fine in fact that is how my ground wire works as well it has a wire lug that excuse me a wire nut that combines the two into one so I can disconnect it right there works great but that's why they included that's what it's for now back to down sides this guy cost quite a bit more than a regular outlet where you can get these for just a couple bucks that's gonna cost you around 20 if you want to know where to get it head over to pocketnow.com when we will give you a link or two to where you can find these download any specifications you want compare them price compare and then eventually buy and have them show up at your doorstep so you can install them yourselves or have a qualified licensed electrician do that for you second thing to take into consideration and this may save you some money by not buying them you'll notice that's very deep a traditional receptacle is only about that deep and some boxes are only about that deep now when I say boxes you don't just take this and you know plug it into your drywall there's actually a box back behind this that holds all of the wires and it keeps it away from from any insulation or anything like that so that if there is a problem with fire in this box it should be kept inside that box and give you some time before it breaks out of the box and starts a house fire yes this is serious stuff so make sure if you don't know what you're doing you find someone who is to help you with it but back to boxes this is about twice as deep and when you have wires coming down here and tucked around in the back especially with wire nuts in the back you've got to have a full depth box to be able to do this that means you might have to replace your box if it's you know a thin box luckily mine is the the full depth box so I didn't have to do that but I did have to work on getting those wires folded up nice and neatly back behind it and it looks a little something like like that's when they're all folded back I had to turn them over to the side but with the black wires the ground wires and the white wires all back in there that made for a very cozy box and you'd want to make sure that you get that nice and tucked away so that you're not causing any problems that could start a fire once that's done you just screw it down top and bottom attach the faceplate and you're good to go now the faceplate like you can see is a special faceplate it has the normal receptacle holes and then it has the USB holes as well so you can't take these and put them in a double gang box which is too wide or six wide and just keep going going going getting more outlets because they don't have these in anything more than just a single receptacle style so you would have to come up with something on your own if you were going to be able to do that keep that in mind it is a little bit wider than most receptacle covers most receptacle covers are a little bit skinnier so that means you're probably okay unless you have trim or something coming up to it but that is the what the receptacle itself looks like it does come with a set of instructions which breaks it down and tells you essentially everything that I have just told you what to do with with wiring this guy up and of course if you have questions consult an electrician and have them help you through it but really cool I like it it solves the problem of aesthetics if solves the problems of being able to get rid of those wall warts that suck down power even when nothing is connected to them and it looks really cool and geeky as well I can't wait until they start becoming standard in every outlet but until then you can retrofit your own again head over to pocketnow.com so you can see where to get those and get some pricing on them if you like seeing this kind of cool stuff make sure you give the video a thumbs up and subscribe to our video channel so you don't miss out on other cool stuff as soon as we have videos to cover that as well and for pocketnow.com showing off the you socket powered USB electrical outlet I'm Joe Levi