FAQs

EVERYTHING!

recable is assembled by us in Merseburg - made in Germany. We decide for ourselves how and when we work.

We source almost all individual parts from within a radius of 500 km. The parts from Europe are therefore produced fairly.

We can also be sure that these companies comply with European environmental regulations. In addition, short delivery routes save CO2 and reduce the impact on the climate.

Only the plugs come from China. But they are produced fairly there! Our manufacturer guarantees its employees health insurance, English courses, working hours of 40 hours per week, vacation and fair wages.

recable doesn't cost that much more than other brand manufacturers!

On the other hand, small quantities and production in Germany have their price. We don't process in bulk, which means we can only offer a small volume discount.

In some countries, the extraction of certain raw materials has contributed to the financing of violent conflicts. For example, the illegal mining of conflict minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo is an important source of money for armed rebel groups. Copper is also mined there, and copper is contained in almost every cable. That's why we use 40-50% recycled copper in our recables.

It is important for us not to use raw materials that are used to finance conflicts or are mined using child labor.

When selecting our suppliers, we therefore make sure that they comply with international regulations such as the US Dodd Frank Act or the EU regulation on conflict minerals. The regulations require proof of origin for tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold. recables copper strands, for example, are tinned.

The Dodd Frank Act obliges US listed companies and their suppliers to provide proof of origin for conflict minerals. The companies must prove that these raw materials do not originate from conflict regions in and around the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example. Our suppliers also have customers in the USA. They therefore comply with the Dodd Frank Act throughout their production.

Yes, recable can be repaired. You can find the Repair instructions here. Less waste is good for the planet. If you don't want to repair your recable yourself, talk to us!

recable can be repaired because the plugs are not glued. If you have a cable break, e.g. directly behind the plug, you can remove the plug from the cable with a simple tool. Then reattach the plug to the cable.

You can find the repair instructions here. If something breaks, you can find spare parts here.

Yes, this is also possible. We ask you to send us an individual request  for this, as we have to determine the repair costs according to the work involved.

It is best to send recable back to us. We can then repair the cable, as this is the best and most resource-saving recycling method.

If a cable can no longer be saved, we separate it into its individual parts and can return the individual parts to the manufacturer or dispose of them properly if necessary. We know the individual materials from recable, and “pre-sorting” makes recycling much easier. It is therefore better if we can get recable back and dismantle it.

As a general rule, old cables belong in the electronic waste, i.e. at the recycling center.

Since we started recable, we have been working on the circular economy and trying to implement this for USB cables. All our braided sleeves are made from recyclable plastic or natural fibers. The King Penguin has a sleeve that is now even made from recycled plastic.

For a small company it is difficult to get customized products from suppliers. We can't buy kilometers or tons because we couldn't sell that and it wouldn't be in line with our philosophy of remaining flexible. In most cases, only large quantities are profitable for the suppliers.

We do what we can to make recable better and better. That's why we keep talking to our manufacturers and sometimes it works out with small quantities.

We have chosen a complicated field with cables. The materials cannot simply be replaced. They must have the same electrical properties as conventional materials. Basic research needs to be carried out here, which could expand our “small project” into a research project. If you know any investors who are willing to invest a six-figure sum in research, we would be delighted to hear from them ;) We have the cable manufacturer, the plastics developer and are the distributor ourselves - the only thing missing is the money.

It is somewhat easier to start with the circular economy and recycle the current materials. Here we have been working with our cable manufacturer for over a year and would like to present innovations as soon as possible!

Based on the standard length of 1 m, recable (96.5 g) has a 45% lower carbon footprint than a comparable, conventional USB cable (179.5 g).

The comparison of the two product carbon footprints (PCF) was calculated for us by Fokus Zukunft GmbH & Co. KG calculated for us.

Yes, we offset the CO2 footprint of recable (96.5 g). Based on our annual production volume, we have purchased climate certificates from The Climate Company. The money is invested in a hydroelectric power plant in Guatemala for emission-free electricity generation. By using renewable energies, the country also achieves independence from raw material imports.

Some animals are much more worldly than us humans. We perceive globalization as omnipresent. This may be true for goods and commodities, but most people are pretty sedentary.

In this respect, many people tend to be afraid of globalization and the unknown. Among birds, on the other hand, there are true cosmopolitans. Migratory birds, for example, travel several thousand or even 10,000 kilometers between their winter and summer quarters every year.

But birds are not just a symbol of cosmopolitanism for us. They also give recable its colorful design - you can't get enough of the variety of colors in the world of birds. These color combinations are therefore perfect for a long-lasting product like recable.

We like the idea of having recable editions that are found in nature. People feel good in nature.A walk in the woods, for example, reduces stress hormones and puts you in a good mood. We often lose this positive experience of nature in everyday life. Birds are our connection back to nature, they are our forest. Anyone can be artificial, being natural is special.

Yes, you can design your own recable! In our Fantasy bird configurator you can configure your own USB cable color combination and put it together according to your wishes.

We see that our customers value personalized USB cables more, treat recable with more care and the USB cables last longer. Because people like their personalized smartphone accessories so much, they are also more likely to repair their charging cable. It is no coincidence that DIY and “do it yourself” are very strong trends. Our USB cable configurator makes recable even more sustainable and you get a super stylish product that fits you perfectly in terms of color.

If you want to configure more than 50 cables for your own store, for example, you can also have recable customized with your logo. You can find information on this on our B2B page.

The two drops circling each other symbolize Yin & Yang. The two terms from Chinese philosophy stand for opposing yet interrelated forces. They do not fight each other, but complement each other.

When we found the fair plug manufacturer in China, we came up with the idea that we wanted to unite these two forces, East and West, Europe and China, in our logo.

In order to keep delivery routes short, we want to source USB plugs from European production. But USB plugs are now only manufactured in Asia - like almost all consumer electronics. Globalization cannot be stopped, we humans must pay more attention than ever to living in harmony with one another. This is what our recable logo symbolizes.

The “re” in the logo is handwritten. We like to make things ourselves. We started with manual work, that is our root. Every recable is unique.

The two colors in the logo are based on the Spiral Dynamics model. It describes the development of people, organizations and societies based on skills and values, which are based on colors. The colors orange and turquoise stand for the two different stages of development.

recable is a made-up word and means something like “rewired” or “repair cable”.

For us, “it” stands for the English word “it”.

So in our URL you can read the request: “Recable it!” Which means something like “Rewire it!”

recable assumes USB 2.0 and makes 480 Mbit/s data transfer.

Our USB C cables also have the USB 2.0 standard.

USB 3.0, USB 3.1, USB 3.2 or even USB 4.0 would make our recable unnecessarily complex. In our experience, 99% of our customers are interested in charging their smartphones - but only very rarely in data transfer.

With our USB cables, energy transfer of up to 100 watts is possible. This is enough for most tablets or even small laptops, such as the MacBook Pro 13” or ThinkPad X1.

USB A power source:

With Quick Charge, you can charge your phone quickly with up to 3A. The recable with USB A plug achieves the highest output at 9 volts and 2 amps, i.e. 18 watts. The Lightning adapter (iPhone) is limited to 2 A.

USB C power source:

You can charge via recable with up to 60 watts (20 volts / 3 amps) using Power Delivery! This allows you to quickly charge smartphones, most tablets and even smaller laptops. The Lightning adapter (iPhone) is limited to 2 A.

This is a good and important question, here is the data sheet!

Yes, recable is even safer than other USB cables. We build each recable very carefully by hand and check it for function before it leaves our store.

The statutory warranty applies to the purchase of a recable, i.e. 2 years. However, the burden of proof is reversed after 6 months. This means that you would have to prove that you did not break your recable yourself, but that the fault has existed since it was manufactured. However, we will be happy to take care of your (defective) cable beyond this six-month period and we will find a solution together.

We are concentrating on USB cables. HDMI or Cat cables are not on the agenda for the time being.

Yes, you can even swap the plugs on other USB cables with our spare parts! You can swap all plugs with each other, except for the cable and the plugs in the USB C to USB C variant.

The prerequisite is always that USB 2.0 is used.

We use recycled material for the sheathing of the actual cable under the braided sleeve. We deliberately opted for a polyolefin blend because it is very easy to recycle. There is also no need for plasticizers in the plastic.

However, the material is somewhat firmer than you may be used to from other cables.

But this is the only way that material that is discarded in the factory during production can be directly reused for a new cable. Because all colors are mixed, our cable is grey/brown/green on the inside.

During production of the recable charger, the screws holding the lynch pin may not be sufficiently tightened in rare cases.

You can solve this problem yourself with a small Phillips screwdriver.
Simply tighten the two housing screws slightly.

Yes, none of the individual parts we use to build recable are made from animal products. They are also not tested on animals.
Nevertheless, there is a big and a small but:

1. First the big but: One of our cable manufacturer's suppliers processes stearates as additives, which can be obtained from vegetable or animal fats. The supplier's statement on this is that its suppliers produce the stearates in accordance with European directives/regulations.
2. The smaller but lies in RoHS (EU Directive 2011/65/EU ). According to this directive, certain toxic substances may no longer be used in electronics. These include heavy metals or certain plasticizers, for example. Tests are carried out to determine whether a substance is toxic or not. The substances that are subject to RoHS were also tested a long time ago - most probably on animals. Can an animal test become time-barred?

The adapters must be glued to the apple as prescribed by the licensor. Unfortunately, our manufacturer cannot provide any precise information as to whether the adhesive used contains no animal ingredients.

Synthetic adhesives also often contain additives that can be derived from plants or animals. Therefore, we cannot simply assume that the Lightning adapters are vegan. But we will find out!