MagSafe Power Adapter - DIY Strain Relief

Frayed Cables

It's no surprise that most of us have seen a frayed Apple cable be it a charger or an earphone throughout our ownership of an Apple product. This is due to the lack of a strain relief in the design of the cable. Unless Apple decides to include a strain relief of some sort in their design, be prepared to fork out money for the purchase of a new charger from time to time. Fortunately, there are a few ways that may prolong the life of that cable. An easy way would be using a spring from a retractable pen as a strain relief. There are already quite a handful of guides on the Internet on this topic but I wish to share a few additional tips.

Extending the Spring

Prior to winding the spring onto the cable you have to extend the spring (especially on the ends) so that it can fit on the cable, doing so also makes the winding process easier. I do not recommend winding a spring that is tight onto the cable as it may damage your cable during the winding process. You can support the spring on the tube of the pen when extending to get a straighter and more evenly extended spring.

Winding the Spring

To wind the spring onto the cable, start from the thick end first. If you start from the thin side, the spring will tend to slide down when winding and this makes it difficult to cover the thick side. Estimate by yourself how much spring it takes to reach to the end of the cable. Take note, to make this work you need to make sure the spring covers both the thick side and the thin side. Some tutorials online only wind the spring onto the thin side of the cable and this has no meaning. The spring must be wound across the weak point to act as a support. As mentioned earlier, for maximum effect try to estimate so that the spring ends as near as possible to the end. Below is the finished product. Also make sure that the end of the spring does not have sharp ends poking into the cable. If there is, use a cutter to trim the end slightly.

Strain Relief Loop

In addition to adding a spring, I think that by making a loop and hold it down with the clip on the cable you can reduce some strain on the MagSafe connector. For better results, make sure the loop is pressing on the desktop. The loop should also be at the back if you need to use any of the ports on the side. This idea is actually inspired by antenna installations where a loop is usually made at the point of connection with the antenna as a mean of strain relief. Apparently the loop is known as a service loop.