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- Hacker News
- Almost seems like it’d be easier to spend a couple weeks in Shenzhen getting cables made to your specifications rather than testing everything on the market.by synack
- Doesn't suit OPs demands as power only, but moved most my USB-C power cables to Anker Nano recently. They sound like described, lovely. Super flexible, don't tangle, nice weight to them - very well built. Nicest cables I've ever owned and an upgrade from prior Anker ones.by AdamGibbins
- Not very sure of heat resistance, but I’ve been very happy with a bunch of LTTStore TrueSpec cables.by tansanrao
- It's not silicon but the _best_ (charging only) cables I've used by far are the Anker Nano [0] cables. they are so flexible, feel amazing, and I wish I could replace all my cables with them (but can't due to cost). It's USB 2.0 speeds so I only use them for charging but that's one of the reasons they can be so flexible/enjoyable to use (they don't have to be as thick to support USB 3+/TB speeds). I own many other Anker braided cables and none of them are like this one.by joshstrange
- These aren't "brands". You can't trust that the random character "brands" on Amazon like SNOALK, TOOALQ, lipr or whatever are even the same from shipment to shipment. Model names and numbers are meaningless here. It's all just a random lottery.by jubilanti
- This article recommending scrabble letter brands seems sketchy.
Anker offers lovely soft silicone sheathed USB-C cables, in black or white and many lengths. They perform for data and do not get stiff or discolor. Our office specifies these unless TB4+ is required.
by Terretta - I cannot understand why silicone rubber is not more commonly available for cable insulation. It is so much better than much of the badly plasticized PVC and other plastics that are now used.
What's made this situation worse is that it seems that worry over plasticizers and health etc. has lead to a reduction in the amount being used in cables. I have some power extenstion cables whose jackets have gone so hard that I can no longer coil them effectively — even though I take care the coiled cable still ends up a tangled mess.
Even if silicone jacketing is more expensive it's so good I'd pay extra. Trouble is it's not normally available on products found at the local hardware shop.
by hilbert42 - Just beware that an awful lot of "silicone" cabling coming from China is actually overplasticized PVC, particular cabling used in instrument probes. It feels like silicone until it starts getting stiff while at the same time outgassing plasticizer like crazy, or you touch it with a soldering iron or similar. I would expect most or even all of the cat-ran-across-the-keyboard Amazon brands to be overplasticized PVC, not silicone (hint: Use the Knockoff plugin for Chromefox, https://github.com/Shpigford/knockoff, which will warn you for stuff that's sold on Temu West, aka.Amazon, it's warning on almost all of the pseudo-brands listed in the article).
I've also run into way too much cabling that's CCA or even CCS. Garbage on the outside, garbage on the inside.