Baofeng Chargers - Fire Hazard?

A very interesting post on the Charlie Tango forum from Jamie (Cookster) who reports that he has had overheating issues with Baofeng chargers:

"Hello Guys,

I bring you greetings and some disturbing news....

I had a UV-5R charger almost catch fire a few weeks ago. It started to melt, the PCB was charred and split in two and the fumes that it gave off were nauseating.

Here is what happened next.......

I quickly complained to the Amazon seller. After a while they sent me another. This was identicle to the one which melted.

Today I decided to use it for the first time. ...

Guess what.... that same strong chemical fume cloud filled the room, the plastic dock started to melt again and the plug charger was red hot. I opened the bottom and once again found the board burned out. 

Now, my other Baofeng radio has a different plug and does not get hot or seem hell bent on setting fire to my carpet.

See photos ....... it's groundhog day all over again"

(Click images to enlarge)

Jamie then posted a photo of the two chargers that he has:

"The charger on the LEFT is the dodgy type which gets hot and melts the docking station.

The charger on the right is more stable, nothing to worry about, no heat, no melting"

It would appear that different suppliers are sending out different chargers with the radios. I decided to take a look at which chargers were sent out with my Baofeng radios:

 

My Baofeng UV5R came with above charger which delivers 12v to the base. The base actually states that the input voltage should be 10v!!!! (This could certainly cause excess heat)

My Baofeng GT3 came with the charger shown above which delivers 10v to the base, the correct voltage!!!

I must point out that I have not had any issues with either of my chargers, but both of my chargers are different to those supplied to Jamie. There does not appear to be a 'standard' charger.

Of course this problem is not unique to Baofeng radios, many other radios and indeed completely different electronic devices such as mobile phones have seen reports of overheating chargers.

Personally I never charge anything unless I am able to keep an eye on the charging process. I certainly would not put one of these devices on charge then go out and leave it unsupervised.....

Have you had any problems with your chargers?

Does your charger look like those shown above or do you have a different one?

What is the output voltage of your charger? Does it match the input voltage of the base?

I would be interested to hear from you....!