[Nexus 5 Accessories] mmmmBACON:
The answer was only 4 posts before yours... :(

CurrentWidget

That's the first I've heard of Samsung doing proprietary stuff with their chargers/cables. Wouldn't surprise me if that was true though. The 2 shorted out pins isn't anything special, that's basically how you create a charge only cable. I doubt that is what they are doing though, because if the pins are shorted out, then you can't use that cable to transfer any data to/from a computer. If you can still use that cable to transfer stuff, then the pins aren't shorted. Either way, that's one of the many reasons why I got sick of looking for a good cable, or a good AC Adapter. I just want something that works, and avoid all of the extra BS. At least with these chargers, it's nothing but business, you know you are getting a 1.8A charger and nothing more/less.

I understand, it is difficult to find products that ship to you for a decent price. I have that problem here in Canada as well. Luckily when I ordered these chargers, the shipping stayed close to the same going from 3 to 6 chargers. So it made it worth it (for me) to order more and save on shipping that way.

The monoprice deal is only good if you live in the US, as is their lifetime replacement warranty on cables. It's not really worth it anywhere else, when even if you get free replacement cables, shipping is way more than the cost of the cables anyway...

I find CurrentWidget to do a pretty good job actually. If you do the mathematical equations using the charging time and battery size, then compare it to what CurrentWidget is showing, it matches up pretty well. Of course the math numbers can't be exact as the current is always fluctuating but it does give a good ballpark number which backs up CurrentWidget.

For example:

I went from 14% - 100% for the Nexus 5's 2300mAh battery.

2300 x .14 = 322mAh (14%)

2300 - 322 = 1978mAh is the 86% battery remaining to be charged.

It took 1 hour 19 minutes to complete 86%

Let's compare that to the average of 1700mA that CurrentWidget generally hovered around for most of the charge cycle (this of course is not for the entirety of the charge cycle, it fluctuated above and below that, and slowed down substantially towards the end). But to keep it simple for math reasons, we'll keep it at 1700mA.

1700mAh = 1hour

1978 - 1700 = 278mAh remaining

1700/60 = 28.3mAh charge per minute.

278/28.3 = 9.8 minutes to fill up the remaining 278mAh.

So, if the entire 86% was done at 1700mA, then it would take 1 hour and 10 minutes. But, take into consideration current fluctuations as it is never exact and constant (which CurrentWidget was showing) and that the last portion of the charge cycle slows down substantially (you can see that it slowed by more than half to 791mA when it was at 98%) then you can see why the real world charging time increased by 9 minutes to 1 hour and 19 minutes. This is basing it off the numbers that CurrentWidget was giving. That seems pretty good to me! I used a theoretical max average current (ignoring current fluctuations/slowdown) and was only 9 minutes off the real results. Then factor in those fluctuations and slowdown, and you can account for the 9 extra minutes.

So while I won't say CurrentWidget is 100% accurate, to say it is "highly inaccurate" is not correct at all. It gives a pretty reliable ballpark number and accurate enough to say that these chargers are providing exactly what they are advertised to be outputting (remember no charger is 100% efficient).

I would probably say it is more likely that the 2A charger you received is not providing anywhere near the 2A current it was advertised as outputting, vs saying CurrentWidget is highly inaccurate.