A phone charger spends its life plugged into the mains, often in a bedroom, often while nobody is watching it. Most do that safely for years. A poor one can overheat, give a shock or start a fire. This guide explains what UK law asks of a charger, how to spot one that falls short, how to use a charger safely at home and in the car, and how to check whether a charger you own has been recalled.
Why charger safety matters
A charger has a hard job in a small space. It takes mains electricity, the same supply that runs a kettle, and turns it into the few volts a phone battery wants. Inside, a well-made charger keeps the mains side and the low-voltage side well apart, with insulation and space between them, so that nothing dangerous can reach the cable or the phone. It also has to shed heat, cope with being plugged in thousands of times, and fit the socket firmly.
A cheaply made or fake charger saves money in exactly those places. The gap between the mains parts and the USB side may be too small, the insulation thin, the pins the wrong size, the parts unable to take the heat. None of that shows from the outside, which is why the checks below matter.
What can go wrong
- Electric shock. If the mains side and the USB side are too close, a fault can put mains voltage onto the cable, the phone or the person holding it.
- Overheating and fire. A charger with poor parts, or pins that make a poor contact in the socket, can get hot enough to melt or catch light, often at night on a bedside table.
- Damage to the phone. A charger that does not regulate its output properly can harm the phone or its battery.
The point of the law, the markings and the habits in this guide is to keep those three things from happening.
The cable counts too
The cable between the charger and the phone is part of the same chain. A cable that is frayed at the ends, split, kinked hard or showing wire inside its jacket can overheat at the damaged point, and it should go in the recycling rather than back in the socket. Most cables fail just behind the plug, where they are bent every time the phone is picked up while it charges. Holding the plug rather than the cable when you unplug it, and not wrapping the cable tightly round the charger, both help it last.
The UK three-pin plug and what the law asks of a charger
In Great Britain, mains chargers fall under the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016. They cover electrical equipment designed for use between 50 and 1,000 volts AC, which includes every charger that plugs into the wall. The government's statutory guidance on the regulations sets out who must do what.
What the maker must do
- Make the charger safe, and check it against the safety requirements before it is sold.
- Put a conformity marking on it, visibly, legibly and indelibly. In Great Britain that is the UKCA mark or the CE mark. In Northern Ireland the rules follow the Windsor Framework, so it is the CE mark, sometimes with UKNI beside it.
- Draw up a declaration of conformity, the maker's signed statement that the charger meets the rules.
- Label the charger with their name, registered trade name or trade mark, and a postal address.
An importer bringing a charger into the UK must also check that the maker has done this, and add their own name and postal address, on the charger or, where that is not possible, on its packaging or paperwork. Shops selling it must check the marking and the instructions are there.
The plug itself
Regulation 35 of the same regulations deals with plugs. A device for home use in the UK that plugs straight into the socket, as most phone chargers do, must be made to fit a UK socket built to the British Standard BS 1363. A device with a mains lead must have a correctly fitted UK plug, or an approved conversion plug over a foreign one, with a fuse to BS 1362. The UK plug is the familiar one with three rectangular pins, defined in the Plugs and Sockets etc. (Safety) Regulations 1994.
The fit matters more than it seems. The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), the government's product safety regulator, has published reports on fast chargers whose pins were outside the sizes BS 1363 allows. Pins that are too short, too thin or in the wrong place can make a poor contact in the socket, and a poor contact gets hot.
What this means for you
Choose a charger with a built-in UK three-pin plug, rather than a foreign plug in a travel adapter, for everyday use at home. The wall chargers range is for chargers with a UK three-pin plug. Then use the checks below to make sure the one in your hand looks like it was made properly.
Signs of a poor or fake charger
Counterfeit chargers made to look like a phone maker's own are a known problem in the UK, and some fakes are convincing. Electrical Safety First, the UK electrical safety charity, has published simple checks, which the Chartered Trading Standards Institute has repeated. None of them proves a charger is safe, but a charger that fails one should not be used.
The pins
Look at the face of the charger with the pins pointing at you. There should be at least 9.5mm between the edge of the pins and the edge of the charger body, about the width of a ballpoint pen. A charger body that is smaller than that around the pins risks your fingers touching a live pin while it is half in the socket. The charger should also slide into a UK socket easily. One that needs pushing or wiggling may have pins the wrong size or spacing. Electrical Safety First also has a free online plug checker.
Checking a charger you already own
Most homes have a drawer of old chargers, from old phones, gifts and hotel rooms. Before you put one back into daily use, go through it:
- Look at the pins and the 9.5mm gap, and try it in a socket. It should slide in without force and sit firmly.
- Read the markings: a brand, a model number, a batch number, a UKCA or CE mark, a name and address, and the output.
- Look for damage: cracks, scorching, a loose case, or a rattle inside.
- Search the model on the government's recalls list, described below.
A charger with no markings at all, or one you cannot identify, is not worth the risk. Recycle it.
The markings
- A brand name or logo, a model number and a batch number.
- The UKCA or CE mark. Do not treat it as proof on its own, because these marks are easy to forge.
- The maker's or importer's name and a postal address, as the 2016 regulations require.
- The input (the mains voltages it takes) and the output in volts and amps, which should suit the phone.
Spelling mistakes, smudged or missing print, or a logo that looks slightly wrong are all warnings.
The paperwork
A properly made charger comes with instructions and warnings: how to use it safely, the limits of its use, and how to dispose of it. A charger in a plain bag with no instructions at all is one to avoid.
In use
Electrical Safety First lists the signs that a charger already in use is failing: an odd smell, sparking, smoke, swelling, cracks, burn marks, a buzzing or crackling sound, or the charger getting too hot. If you see any of these, switch off at the socket, unplug it and stop using it. Do not open it or try to repair it. Contact the seller or the maker.
Price is not a test on its own, but a charger sold as a famous brand at a small fraction of that brand's own price deserves the checks above before it goes anywhere near a socket.
Car chargers
A car charger plugs into the car's power socket, the round socket once used for cigarette lighters. It runs on the car's 12-volt supply, so it sits below the voltages the 2016 regulations cover. It still falls under the general rule that every product sold to the public in the UK must be safe, set out in the General Product Safety Regulations 2005.
Choosing one
- Look for the same things as a wall charger: a brand, a model, the input and output printed on it, and USB PD if you want fast charging. The guide to fast charging explains the labels.
- Check the input range if you drive a lorry or a large van, some of which run on 24 volts rather than 12. The charger's input will say which it takes.
- It should sit firmly in the socket. A loose charger can lose contact over bumps, and a poor contact gets warm.
Using one
- Do not leave a charger, or a phone, in a parked car in hot sun. Electrical Safety First warns that extreme temperatures can be dangerous.
- In some cars the socket stays live when the engine is off. Unplug the charger when you leave the car, so it cannot drain the battery or sit powered while nobody is there.
- Run the cable where it cannot catch on the gear lever, the handbrake or your feet. Short cables and right-angle cables help here.
If you use the phone for directions, it needs to sit in a holder that does not block your view of the road. The guide to car phone holders and the law sets out what the law allows. Everything for the car is together in for drivers.
USB sockets built into the car
Many newer cars have USB sockets of their own, in the dashboard or between the seats. They are fine for keeping a phone topped up, but some are mainly there to connect the phone to the car's screen and supply only a little power, so a phone running maps may charge slowly or not at all. The car's handbook says what each socket supplies. If the phone falls behind on a long drive, a fast car charger in the power socket is the answer, with a cable of the right length so it is not stretched across the controls.
Using a charger safely at home
Most charger fires start with a good charger used in the wrong place or a damaged one kept in use. Electrical Safety First's advice for USB chargers, in plain terms:
- Charge in the open. Uncovered and somewhere with air around it. Not under a pillow, on a duvet, on a sofa cushion or inside a bag, where heat cannot escape.
- Keep it from heat and water. Away from radiators, direct sunlight, damp and drinks.
- Unplug when the charge is done. Do not leave devices on charge for long periods when they are not in use.
- Use the charger for what it is for. Follow the maker's instructions.
- Look at it now and then. Check for burn marks, a buzzing or crackling sound, or heat. Check the cable too, for fraying near the ends, where most cables fail.
- Never repair a charger. If it is damaged, replace it.
Overnight
Electrical Safety First's advice is not to use USB chargers overnight or while you are out of the house. Phone makers say their phones stop charging when full: Apple, for example, says it is safe to keep an iPhone on a charger overnight. The charity's concern is less the phone than the charger and where it sits. If you charge overnight, use a charger you have checked, on a bedside table or a hard surface, with the phone and charger uncovered.
Travel and adapters
Electrical Safety First notes that most modern chargers take a wide range of mains voltages, printed on them as the input, so many work abroad with a simple plug adapter. Check the input before you travel, and do not overload a travel adapter with several chargers. For a trip, travel kits put chargers, cables and adapters together.
Smoke alarms
Wherever you charge, a working smoke alarm is the last line of protection. Electrical Safety First recommends at least one on every floor of the home, tested every month. Charging in a bedroom makes that alarm on the landing worth checking.
Extension leads and adapters
A phone charger draws very little power, so on its own it will not overload a socket. The risk comes from what else shares the socket. Electrical Safety First's advice is to use one extension lead per wall socket and never plug one extension lead into another, to check the lead's rating, usually 13 amps and marked on the lead, and to keep the total of everything plugged into it below that. The charity has an online overload calculator for checking a full extension lead. If you keep running out of sockets by the bed or the desk, its advice is to have more sockets fitted by a registered electrician.
Keeping cables tidy helps too. A cable trodden on, trapped in a door or bent hard at the plug every night wears out, and a worn cable can overheat. Cable organisers and protectors keep them whole.
Recalls and how to check them
When a charger, cable or power bank is found to be dangerous after it has been sold, the maker or the regulator issues a recall. The government keeps one list for the UK.
Where to look
The OPSS publishes product safety alerts, reports and recalls on GOV.UK, at gov.uk/product-safety-alerts-reports-recalls. You can search it by product name or filter it by category, risk and date. There are two kinds of notice. A recall is for a specific product sold in the UK, and may ask you to act to get a free replacement, repair or refund from the maker or seller. A product safety report covers other action, such as a product being taken off sale. For products sold abroad, the government points to the OECD Global Recall Portal.
What to do
- Find the brand, model number and batch number on your charger. This is one reason those markings matter.
- Search the GOV.UK list for the brand and model.
- If it has been recalled, stop using it, unplug it and follow the notice, which tells you who to contact.
Electrical Safety First also advises registering electrical products with the maker where you can, so that you are told directly if one is recalled.
Reporting an unsafe charger
If you think a charger is unsafe, the GOV.UK guidance on reporting product safety issues says who to tell. In England and Wales it is the Citizens Advice consumer helpline, 0808 223 1133, which passes reports to the local Trading Standards service. In Scotland it is Advice Direct Scotland, and in Northern Ireland your district council.
Questions people ask
Is it safe to use a charger from a different make of phone?
Yes, if the charger itself is sound. Phones and chargers agree the power between them, and a USB-C charger with USB Power Delivery will charge most phones safely. The fast charging guide explains how.
Does a CE or UKCA mark mean a charger is safe?
It means the maker declares that it meets the rules. The mark can be forged, so check the pins, the other markings and the instructions as well.
My charger gets warm. Is that normal?
Warm is normal, especially when fast-charging. Too hot to hold comfortably, or a smell, a sound or any discolouring, is not. Unplug it and stop using it.
Can I use a foreign charger with a travel adapter at home?
For everyday use, a charger with a built-in UK three-pin plug is the better choice, because it is made to fit a UK socket properly. Travel adapters are for travelling.
How do I get rid of an old charger?
Take it to an electrical recycling point, such as your council's recycling centre. Do not put it in the household bin.
What is the difference between a recall and a product safety report?
A recall asks owners to act, usually to stop using the product and get a refund, repair or replacement. A product safety report records other action, such as a product being taken off sale. Both are on the same GOV.UK list.
Where to go next
For a charger with a UK three-pin plug, start with wall chargers, or choose by power: up to 20W, 20W to 45W or 65W and over. Pair it with a USB-C to USB-C cable or a Lightning cable for older iPhones. Delivery is included in every price and tracked to your door.
- Fast charging explained: watts, USB Power Delivery and PPS
- Which charging cable does my phone need?: plugs, lengths and wear
- Power banks explained: safe use, and flying with one
- Car phone holders and the law: using a phone for directions
