Ikea has been getting some attention lately with their new power adapters. Mostly the buzz is around the price, but my questions are more around the price and did they make good adapters or are they really just more rubbish for the pile of adapters. Join me as I go over the different features in this article and talk about why they maybe went too far on this one.
We will go over some of the technical metrics for the performance like the efficiency. I did a review on a couple of other Ikea power adapters and These ones are certainly different from those. The desktop style one has a recall in some countries for its power cord.
Let's see if this one has a similar issue or if it's okay. In this series, I try to answer the question, which power adapter do I want to get? As always, ask questions if you don't understand something. The performance is measured and compared.
Table of Contents
IKEA Power Adapter Review
Ikea has switched to all paper packaging. For some reason, they come with little colored stickers? No idea. Anyway, in sticking with the 30-watt adapter, the user manual is quite good for this unit. It is clear, easy to read, and covers probably too much for something as basic as a wall power adapter.
The 45-watt adapter in the user manual on this one does talk about the power changes with more than one device plugged in, which is nice to see. The 30-watt adapter is loaded with modes of operation.
They really didn't skimp on anything here, which is great. It can do PPS all the way up to the full output power and it can do the 12-volt optional mode and everything in between. It is nice to see a complete power adapter and at the pricing, which we will talk about later, it's very impressive.
When flipping the adapter over, it has a safety listing, this time to Rheinland for the US and Canadian markets. It also has the Department of Energy 6 in a circle indicating compliance with some energy efficiency standards. Which is what we'll get checked next.
Efficiency Standards
This power adapter's idle power consumption is excellent for plugging it in. It is low noise and it is low power. This again at a value-priced option is nice to see. When we start to add some watts it functions and it can meet the power levels that are expected of it.
If it is pushed too far, like a short-circuited cable, it overloads and safely shuts down, then recovers afterward. Here are the basic performance metrics for this adapter.
The adapter doesn't do amazing, but it is acceptable for this power level. There are plenty of adapters at similar performance to this one on the market. It's a little on the high side for the voltage, which makes me think it's using primary side sensing. More things for a teardown. It's on the lower side of things performance-wise.
Moving on to the 45-watt power adapter, this one is almost the same size but you get more watts and an extra port. The adapter's modes of operation get a little more complicated since when you plug in both ports it divides the power between them.
It does evenly share power between the ports. The idle performance is good on this adapter once it gets plugged in. Once we put a load on it, it performs as expected. The real thing is what happens when a second device gets plugged in.
As usual, there is an interruption time when You plug in the adapter and it negotiates for more power. Unless you use this adapter I threw together. Then it holds the voltage up while it renegotiates. You didn't see anything.
The basic performance is not a surprise. The efficiency was actually better on this one versus the 30-watt adapter and the voltages were almost spot on. And the ripple was low. This doesn't seem like a value adapter at all.
This seems like a good adapter. It's not a lot of the same things I was seeing with the 30-watt adapter. This one seems to stand out as being pretty good. I wonder how it will stand up in comparison with others.
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Leakage Current
Next, it is time to talk about leakage current. This is the electricity that leaks through the unit and gives you that tingling feeling while working on your laptop. The isolation performance of the 45-watt product is good.
The data I could find for dry skin and perceptible current is 1 milliamp. Depending on the wetness of the skin, this can be much lower. I can detect 250 microamps pretty easily, so that's my threshold of acceptable.
The leakage current for the 45-watt adapter was 146 microamps at 270 volts RMS. This is Very impressive. This means you should be tingle-free using this product anywhere in the world. Also, don't try this at home.
The story changes for the 30-watt adapter. This one leaks more. This isn't a good choice for higher voltages like found in Europe. I am not sure if they do something different for the models in these different countries, but the US models are not good for higher voltages.
It measured at 148 microamps on 140 volts, but bumping that up means they will have a high tingle factor. There are lots of adapters that match this performance, but it looks like that low cost is costing you some safety factors.
I think a teardown and compare will be in order on these two adapters to find out why one of these is okay and one of these is not okay. That won't be in this article.
Comparing Some Numbers
Okay, time to compare some numbers now. In looking at the idle power data from these in comparison with others of the various wattage values, these are very good.
The 30-watt adapter appears to have more effective filtering so achieves low power consumption and essentially no distortion which is impressive. Usually, only larger adapters achieve this cleaner signal.
The 45-watt adapter performs with the normal noise and low power though. This half meets the energy efficiency standards with ease. The Google adapter still necks out a win here.
In terms of the average performance, this adapter's average efficiency specifically looking at the DOE6 efficiency, that is 25 to 100% load efficiency, shows some of their cheapness. They take the lower spots compared with their peers.
Yes, this is a compressed picture and they are all close, but they are all measurably different. The big thing you notice here is that the highest efficiency adapters are all from one company. So at least it demonstrates that the next thing, the cost, is going somewhere. At least all of these adapters meet the DOE requirements.
Value For Money
Okay. Let's talk about value. Yeah, I saved it all the way to almost the end. But how much does it cost? Well, time to take a look. This is where they shine.
The Ugreen 30-watt power adapter I consider to be an excellent value, but these blow that out of the water. You get more watts per dollar and you get a worse-performing product. I think there is a line. I think the 30-watt is over that line. It's so cheap that it starts to show in its performance. But damn, is it cheap. And if y'all are like me, cheap wins.
The 45-watt adapter is more moderate, represents excellent value still, and is, as far as I can tell, a pretty decent adapter. It's still nowhere near the best, but for 15 it's worth a shot.
Also, this adapter works with lower-wattage laptops, and I was able to charge my phone and power laptop at the same time. So the power-sharing scheme this uses is actually not bad. It isn't going to power anything crazy power hungry, but it's functional.
Size and Weight comparisons
Finally, the size and weight comparisons of these adapters. I switched this up to a comparison table as opposed to absolute values so we can see what is really different here. Basically what we find here is that these adapters are not that small and they're not that light.
The native union adapter which only got a short is very small and very light by comparison. If compactness is the game then keep walking. They aren't massive by any means but they aren't taking any crowns. Can I assume it is cheaper to make it bigger?
Conclusion
So what do we have here? One cheapest chip, a kind of piece of junk 30-watt adapter, and one middle-of-the-road value option, a 45-watt adapter that's probably worth it if you don't want to break the bank.
IKEA is not trying to win any awards with these, but the 45-watt represents a great value and performs at a point that makes it stand out at least in the middle of the pack. The 30 watts is a skip. It's too cheap to be good, but the 45-watt adapter I think is a value champion and they're going to sell a lot of those.
