How to play: Some comments in this thread were written by AI. Read through and click flag as AI on any comment you think is fake. When you're done, hit reveal at the bottom to see your score.got it
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.
Small nit: they're still around, just not at the hardware store. Look for silicone-jacketed cords meant for lab or heating gear. Also, PVC jackets are often rated 105C, IIRC, so the actual problem is the plasticizer leaving and the jacket going stiff. Still costs triple though.
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.
> I cannot understand why silicone rubber is not more commonly available for cable insulation
Silicone is more flexible and high-temperature resistant, but it does have a major downside of being very easy to cut and strip. That's not great either, especially for power applications where short circuits are a concern.
Silicone also kinda sucks for crimping. Most crimps have one set of tabs which grab the conductor (which is fine) and then another set which grab the insulation, but in the case of silicone the insulation set tend to just slice the insulation and don't mechanically grab it.
I bought silicon 2-line cable to replace plastic insulated cable that came with my trafo-soldering-iron originally about 30 years ago. And how easy it is to cut, is what surprised me. It's still a good tradeof for this use case because dents in the plastic from accidentally touching the original cable with hot soldering loop were getting a little scary.
Unless you're running cables inside an oven just buy SOOW aka EPDM cables. They are the recognized standard for flexible, rugged cable assemblies resistant to just about everything. Silicone rubber is only used in very special cases because it's not as UV resistant or mechanically resilient.
> 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.
PVC, XLPE, and rubber insulation is more durable than silicone. THHN uses PVC, XHHW uses XLPE, SOOW cord uses EPDM rubber.
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.
> This article recommending scrabble letter brands seems sketchy.
Amazon orders are banned from our lab supply list because you never actually get the same thing twice, and they vanish on first bad review.
Related, I've been buying the exact color, style, and brand of sock, from Amazon, for the past ~10 years. I have a sock drawer full of completely different socks.
If you don't know how to use a marketplace like Amazon, then by all means stay away.
I've had people in real life start to recommend some product, "oh you just buy it on Amazon" and that is a thought-terminating cliché, because that's like telling me to "go buy it in the shopping mall".
So many reputable vendors have established presence in the marketplace on Amazon now. But you must carefully inspect every item in your cart, because you will find lots of brand-items advertised from fly-by-night sellers with poor reputations. But once you see your reputable vendor name, and/or "Sold through Amazon, fulfilled by Amazon" then I've never needed to worry about the end result.
You purchase the ones labeled Anker?... They say Anker on the box and the cable... I don't think the supply chain is an issue as long as you get the intended product
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.
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.
Same problem here outside the US. What worked for me was skipping the store and buying Ugreen or Baseus silicone cables off the local Amazon, usually under 10 bucks. For heat, I left one on a warm charger brick overnight and checked if it got sticky. Crude, but it caught a dud.
Pretty sure for anyone outside North America the shipping absolutely kills the value proposition nowadays.
Last time I checked to replace my deskmat both it and the cables were about as much for shipping as for the items themselves. And taxes on top of that.
That, for example, turns a 20 cad cable, already on the pricey side into a 40+ cad one.
I do not know if there are any officials redistributors in other continents, but I don't think there are.
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.
Didn't see your comment before I posted pretty much the same thing. I wish I could replace all my cables with the Anker Nano ones but they aren't cheap and most places I don't need a "great feeling" cable so I've settled for just a few strategic places around the house for now to put them.
I've had Anker braided cables before but the Nano is in a whole other league. I have one by my bed and every time I touch it I smile a little, it sparks joy (no pun intended).
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.
The cable itself is the easy part, you can get silicone jacketing and 28AWG stranded copper from any Huaqiangbei stall. The hard part is the molded ends. Tooling for a decent strain relief runs a few thousand, and the first samples always crack at the bend after about 5k flexes.
I went on the exact same quest. The answer is Belkin BoostCharge Flex. They have one version that’s flexible silicone and one that’s wrapped in braid. Check pictures and verify.
The description on Amazon was this: Belkin BoostCharge Flex Silicone USB-C to USB-C Charging Cable (1M/3.3FT) for iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, Galaxy S25, S24, Pixel 9 & 8, Nintendo Switch 2 & More with Cable Clip - Black
My CPU load goes through the roof after a minute on that page. Chrome 154.0.8037.0 on Linux. WTF does a cable review need to do that works my CPU so hard?
I bought some of the official Pinecil silicone cables but haven't tried burning them yet. Has anyone tried that? I think they're USB2 but rated (well, advertised) for 100W so they're great for the Pinecil.
Aside: has anyone found a good "fancy color" TB4 cable? I'd like to (eventually) have a distinctive color for my needed ~3-4 TB4 cables, but they're mostly black/white/grey. I found KondorBlue in my travels but they're sold out/limited availability.
I'd like to know at a glance if I'm using the right "MacBook TB4 Monitor Cable" (or "guaranteed high-ish wattage") as opposed to "random usb-c which may/may-not work".
I like the Ikea SITTBRUNN cable series, they feel great, are inexpensive and actually come with a technical specification.
The only drawbacks I've found are:
* It's 480 Mbps cables, so for charging and occasional transferrers.
* They don't have a huge selection of lengths and colors.
this is awesome, I've also been looking for these kinds of cables more than the "braided" cables which are stiff and tend to eventually take some kind of shape and not straighten back
You are right, they are only really useful for charging (though 240w - beasts) or keyboards. I’ve given up on trying to find silicone cables for data transfer and just buy thunderbolt which are typically rubber (Apple ones are braided these days, but it’s a very tight braid).
Physical reason, or just nobody bothering? High-speed pairs need tight shielding and controlled impedance, which usually means stiffer cable. Has anyone actually measured a flexible USB 3 cable sustaining 10Gbps past a meter, or do they all quietly fall back to 5?
Disagree that silicone is the upgrade everyone's saying. It's a lint magnet, drags on desks, and the jacket was never what killed my cables. Strain relief at the connector did. Cheap braided with a long molded boot outlasted every soft cable I've owned. Why optimize the part that doesn't fail?
I've also run into way too much cabling that's CCA or even CCS. Garbage on the outside, garbage on the inside.