PowerWave Alloy lower watt charging than advertised

#1

Hey,
I recently purchased the PowerWave Alloy wireless charger. One of the reasons why I chose this product was the advertised 15W fast charging with the Pixel 4 XL. Anyhow, when I charge my Pixel it charges with 7-8W at best even when perfectly alligned. The PoweWave is connected with my Pixel fast charger so this should not be the issue.
My question is, has my PowerWave any issues? Or is output of the Pixel fast charger not enough for the 15W wireless charging? Or am I missing something else?

Thank you very much :slight_smile:

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#2

Hi @tobiaskroniger
I think the Pixel charger had a 15w output.
I guess it could be down to a loss of power in the conversion to charge wireless.
I use an 18w charger to feed my 10w wireless stand (Samsung S20) and get the full 10w out of it.
So maybe you need a charger with a slightly higher output.
Maybe the updated PowerPort III Nano which is 20w?

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#3

Wireless charging will never be as fast as wired charging. I agree with Paul that your problem might be in part to the energy conversion losing some of that so possibly a stronger power brick would bring you closer to the 15W output you desire. It is also possible that you May never fully get to 15W but you should be able to get close. Hope all goes well

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#4

That’s normal.

15W goes in, wireless is a out 60% efficient, so you’d expect to see about 9W out.

If you’re getting only 7-8 W then are you using a case?

Could be an issue with your charger, to get 15W out of the pad you need to be inserting 18W 9V 2A in, that is what the official Pixel 4 chargers delivers, so try a different cable, a short one ideally. But even so you’re not significantly lower than what the universe can do.

60% is pretty good given the nature of photons is to go in all directions, to get more than half of them in a narrow area is about 200 years of science.

Electrons can be made to go in one direction via an electric field, photons don’t respond as they don’t contain charge, so wired will always be more efficient than wireless.

Look on the bright side, you could have a worse technology with less wireless wattage and get even less.

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#5

Implicit is it’s the charger with the phone, the 4 XL is bundled with 18W charger. It could be faulty so yes try a different cable, try a different charger.

The Nano would be a good choice as it’s actually slightly more than 2A so can help overcome say a bad cable.

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#6

I’d try a different more powerful charger just in case. And make sure the pixel can handle 15w through wireless

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#7

@tobiaskroniger The issue lies within Google, the problem is that the Pixel 4XL can Only charge wirelessly at full, 11-watt power using third-party Qi chargers that support the Extended Power Profile standard (or EPP, for short). Without this extended profile it will revert to slower wireless charging speeds

Also to use 15W Max Charging Mode (you need A Quick Charge or Power Delivery Adapter):

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#8

First of all, thanks to all you guys for responding and your suggestions.

No, I am not using a case. And currently the PowerWave Alloy is connected with the Pixel USB-C Cable, which is not that long. I have a different Pixel charger set at work, I will try changing that first and otherwise think about upgrading to a slightly more powerful charger quickcharger like the nano. 7-8W wireless charging is also not a deal breaker, I am using it for overnight charging. But I was still wondering what piece of the puzzle I was missing.

So thanks again and have a nice day :slight_smile:

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#9

I’d not necessarily spend money right now, this may be as good as your Pixel can do with perfect setup. Only suggestion is to try, borrow, test, and if it turns out a more powerful charger does help then yes buy something like the new 20W Nano.

About 1:5 cables are bad. Just because it’s Pixel cable does not mean anything. Cables are the most common cause of problems.

Even if perfect setup, Wireless is inefficient, nothing can be done about it, consider it a slower charging. But as it’s more convenient you probably can put the phone down often enough in the few places you’ll find you don’t need wired.

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