Is this safe?

[Stonecold]

I just asked Amazon. They said it was OK if it was a standard USB charger. They said that it shouldn't overheat or damage my Kindl. They did say it could take up to 3 days to fully charge, though!

[Piper_]

The only negative results I've seen reported from using a non-Kindle charger has been slow charging, and some actually draining the Kindle's battery, somehow. (Not that you couldn't have something go more wrong - just sayin, so far, I haven't seen it reported.)

If you want to play it safe (and want it to work faster than 3 days), there are chargers rated for Kindles for sale for just a few bucks on Amazon. Like $3.

I also saw one bundled with a K3 case, for around $10. You can also look under K2 accessories to find just the chargers for cheap.

[Stonecold]

Of course some chargers drain the battery! If the Kindle draws X watts and the charger supplies 1/2X watts, then the battery still has to supply a little current (1/2X watts instead of X watts in this case). The only time a charger will charge a device such as Kindle even when you are using it is because it has enough current to power the Kindle's CPU as well as charge the battery itself.

[curstpriest]

If you don't have a usb charger, find a usb port? There has got to be atleast a computer with usb port in your house, if not a media box, tv, or something else that will give you 500ma (as others have stated) that will charge it over 4 hours. Which is what I do. I just set it on top of my PC while I load it up with books, or I plug it into my TVs usb port (for pictures or w/e) and let it charge there if i'm too lazy to go plug it in.

But then I don't use it that much so it usually only takes about an hour or so to charge with this method.

[Stonecold]

Actually, Kindle will gladly draw 850 mA if it's allowed. It's just that 500 mA is the average computer USB port maximum (well, the maximum for USB 1.0 and 1.1).