Battery Best Practices: How to Take Care of Your Toy's Battery
You're probably familiar with toy hygiene, but what about battery hygiene? No, we're not talking about actually cleaning your toy's battery, but the maintenance of it. We've listed some best practices that you can incorporate into your ~toy routine~ to ensure your its battery life lasts longer.
DO: Use a UL certified USB power adapter with maximum 5V output.
Don’t use a power adapter that’s more than 5 volts, even if it’s 5.1 or 5.2 V. (Looking at you iPad and / or fast chargers!) Because the current of these adapters are greater than what the functioning current of our toys. Over time, it will wear down, or even overheat, the battery and cause fire.
TIP: If you don't know how to tell if your power adapter is the correct voltage, look at the packaging or the back of the plug to find more info. We've used an iPhone power adapter as an example above.
DO: Use the Unbound Universal Charger! It’s your toy’s best friend 🙂
Don’t use a charging cable that’s not made by Unbound for an Unbound toy. We’re not snobby by saying this, it’s for safety reasons. Toys in the market now are fairly similar in terms of battery life and size, but that doesn’t mean the charging cables are interchangeable. You might have a cable from a toy that fits the charging pins for a different toy, but the operating current of these toys might be drastically different and can end up giving you a burning cable or product.
DO: Throw away / Recycle your cable if it’s broken or torn and if the wire inside is exposed in any capacity. It’s unsafe to continue using it.
Don’t crush or puncture the charging cable. If the protective outer layer of the cable is broken, the conductive wire inside might be exposed which can cause electric shock or the heat from the wire might light its surroundings on fire.
TIP: If your Unbound charger gets damaged or stops working, we sell replacement chargers for just $5 ;) Plus, they're universal, meaning they work with all of Unbound's rechargable toys.
DO: Keep the charging pins on the charger and the toy clean and dry. If you see any debris, dirt or even dust on them, wipe clean with a dry cloth.
Don’t allow metal objects or trash to contact the charging terminals. The charging terminals are conductive with some metal, it can cause the terminals to short and overheat the battery.
A general maintenance reminder: If you haven’t used your toy in a while (like more than 3 months) be sure to take it out for a charge —the battery will thank you!
