Using different power leads on monitors

[KEEMSTAR]

My new monitor came today but it came with an American plug socket lead so I cannot use it, my old monitor lead is 13A 250v while the new one is 16A 250v

will it be okay for me to use the 13A charger on my new monitor 

[SteinerW]

if the output voltage of the DC converters are the same, it will work. Might be a little stressed, but it should work.

 

[Naeaes]

It's probably fine. Your monitor doesn't draw anything close to 13 or 16 amperes. It's more likely in the region of 0,5A to 1A at 240VAC. So using a 13A cable for a monitor is very likely fine. 

 

But that's AC cable. You said charger. If you mean your monitor has an external power brick and it can only supply 13A at like 12VDC or whatever and your monitor actually draws up to 16A at said voltage, it'll burn the brick down and destroy it. The monitor can easily break in the same bang. So which is it? Cable or charger?

[KEEMSTAR]

Cable

[manikyath]

11 minutes ago, 3DGamerOnSteam said:

if the output voltage of the DC converters are the same, it will work. Might be a little stressed, but it should work.

 

i think he's on about just the standard issue power cable.

 

on topic: if your monitor comes anywhere near the rating of that cable you need to stop using cold war technology.

[KEEMSTAR]

Just realised my old cable is 10A not 13 will this still work?

[mariushm]

Your LCD monitor uses at most around 40-60 watts.  At 240v AC input, that's 60 watts / 240v =  0.25A.  Even if at some points the power supply takes more power from mains, it won't go over 1A.

The rating on cables means how much power the cable can transfer without wires and plug itself overheating or breaking. 10A or 13A or 16A means over 2000 watts of power can be transferred without worries through the cable. Your monitor only needs 60w so you will be fine using either of the two cables.

 

As a sidenote (or fun fact, though the fun part is dubious), in UK, they also have a safety fuse inside the plug... if somehow a device takes more power than the cable's rating the fuse will blow and you can get the cable working again by replacing the fuse.

 

[KEEMSTAR]

I just realised there are 2 different power  readings, on the us cable it says 16A 250v on the plug part and then 10A 250v on the part you put into the monitor 

[mariushm]

Like I said, those simply mean the connectors and the plug are capable of handling UP TO that much power.  10 A x 250v  = 2500 watts.  It means the connector in the monitor has plastic thick enough and metal bits strong enough that when you plug something in it, it's quality enough to transfer up to 2500 watts through it.  Doesn't mean that all the time there's  2500 watts going through it.

 

Just the same, with the cable it means the cables are thick enough and the plug is built in such a way as to be able to transfer up to 16a x 250v = ~4000 watts without damaging itself.

If you plug it one of these in the 10A 250v connector, it means the whole ensemble would be capable of transferring a maximum of 10A (the weakest link is the lcd monitor connector).

 

If you try to transfer more power through a cable than its rating, the cable can overheat and the plastic insulation can melt and the exposed wires can become dangerous.

 

In your case, like I said, your monitor is unlikely to use more than around 60 watts  or about 0.25A , so even a 10A rated cable would be more than adequate.