Faster charging of big power banks

Modern
phones often can charge 60% in 15 minutes. That’s great progress. I’m wondering
if Anker is working on powerbanks with speeds like
that.

I’m aware Anker is moving from 5v/2A charging to something
faster, like the QC3 inputs. But I want more speed.

Anker sells wall chargers with 3+ outputs, so they would
be a perfect match for a powerbank with
3+ inputs.

The 18650 cells Anker uses in it’s power banks can
handle 3A charging each. Certain Sony batteries can even be charged with 6A
each. So the batteries aren’t the limiting factor here.

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I think we’re already there. First off, to my knowledge, very few phones can charge 60% in 15 minutes, but even if that is possible, Anker’s PowerCores aren’t far off. Take PowerCore+ 26800 for example, which can fully charge in 4.5 hours. That’s extremely impressive for a device 7-8 times larger than the average big smartphone battery. It’s insane the charging rate is that similar on a way bigger battery you would think would have more overheating issues… WOW! :heart_eyes:

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To kind of help me explain this I looked up a similar 18650 battery size used in an anker flashlight (Tenergy 3350 mAh). While the maximum discharge of these is rated up to 3.5A, the constant current charge is listed at 0.5C (half of the 3350 mAh, so 1.67A). If you charge at the full amp rating for a battery you will most likely be dancing around with a potential thermal runaway as a Li-ion battery isnt supposed to charge outside of 0-45^C. I could not find a battery easily that recommended higher than 0.5C, so I cannot attest to the Sony one you mentioned, but the ones most easily found in an Anker system would most likely follow the 0.5C rule.

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18650 cell should not be charged with 3A (it is very dangerous).
18650 cell should only be charged 0.5C meaning take the capacity (for example 3300 mAh) and use half of the current in mA (for the example it will be 1650 mA or 1.65 A). This should be the max current to be used. My advise is to keep it 1A or below to prolong the life of the battery and improve safety.
There are some advanced battery (Sony VTC5 and LG HE4) that can occasionally handle 3-4A charging current. But even for those cells 0.5C should be the max charging current.
Trust me on this, I work professionally in this area. I cannot stress enough about the safety of li-ion cells.

With aging battery as the capacity of li ion falls and its internal resistance increases, it becomes even more important to reduce the charging current for safety.

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Yeah, few phone charge that fast. It’s new tech.
If it causes overheating the tech should be re-evaluated :slight_smile:

Overheating comes partly from the batteries generating heat. Batteries with a to high internal resistance.

The other part of the overheating comes from the technology. QC generates heat by design in the device being charged.

But not all charging technology works that way. Using (something similar to) Dash Charge could
vastly reduce the heat in the powerbank.

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Charge is usually 1C with advised 0.8C

C is based on capacity not on max. drain. Many cells do 20 all the way up to
50A but still need to be charged with around 3A max.

I’ve read your spec sheet and never heard about anything that low. I
Usually charge my cells at 3A. They don’t get hot at all. In fact they hardly
heat up at all

That spec sheet mentions 1.5A as usual, and 4A as max.

But let’s stick to 1.5A. I was mainly talking about big power banks. Those hold
8 cells. Even at just 1A each, the input power would be far higher than any
charger so far.

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Page 3 of that document states standard charge current of 1.5 Amps with a max of 4 Amps. Based off of their stated capacity of 3 Ah on page 4, they are advicating a 0.5C charge rate standard. Pretty nice breakdown here, but rapid charging is recommended 0.3 to 0.5C, when utilizing fast charging its 1C. It will all depend on the abilities of the battery, but a rule of thumb is 0.5C unless you have higher end equipment and systems.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/ultra_fast_chargers

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PowerCore+ 26800 recharges in
4.5 hours?

In the fourth picture it states a full charge takes 10 hours: https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powercore-26800/A1374011

The PowerCore 26800 takes 6.5hours https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powercore-26800/A1277011

The PowerCore+ 26800 and PowerPort+ 1 takes 10 hours https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powercore-26800-and-powerport-1/B1374111

You made a typo? Or am I overlooking something?

I’m currently on the lookout for a new 26800 bank and 4.5 hours surely would
put Anker very high on my list.

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https://amazon.com/dp/B01MZ61PRW

That looks like another model, The Powercore+ 26800 PD, model number AK-848061064070. Needless to say that is very impressive charge time.

The powercore+ 26800 item number is AK-848061066487 so they are 2 different chargers. Good catch!

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