Design feature on Anker USB-C travel power strip --> Dead phone battery

#1

I own a ton of Anker products. Love all of them except my latest purchase, the Anker USB-C Power Strip with Power Delivery. On first trip with it last week, I checked into the hotel after a long flight, plugged in everything (Anker power strip to wall, phone to Anker power strip), and promptly fell asleep. Next morning: dead phone - battery at 0%. Huge issue created the entire day at my conference because of this.

Any guesses as to why my battery was dead?

After plugging it in, I had forgotten to ALSO press the little !@#$ % round button that toggles power for the USB ports. This is the first travel power strip I’ve owned that requires a button press to power on its USB ports. I really really wish that button didn’t exist. At a minimum, I wish the LED were RED if it didn’t have power, and GREEN with power.

Even then, it’s so easy to accidentally press off.
Example: When plugging something in nearby, my finger or knuckle could easily accidentally press that round USB power button OFF. I’m sure I would not realize it till it was too late!

Anker, why is that button even needed? If I have something plugged into one of the USB ports, give it power. If not, then don’t!

Options for me:
I’m worried I’m going to make this mistake again. I want to return it for a travel outlet without this extra “feature” that gave me so much grief on a critical day.
However,

  • I don’t recognize the brand name of any of the other travel power strips I see.
  • I really want the USB-C port too but don’t see that on any.

Could I somehow disable that button? (i.e., remove it?)

#2

I don’t own one of these but I can see how this can be troublesome. I own serversl power strips with on/off strips but they all have LED indicators. Maybe anker will fix this in an updated model. You should be sure to make sure they find out though, otherwise they will never know there’s anything to fix.

#3

In addition to posting in their anker.com community, how do you suggest I make sure they find out?

#4

You can always send an email to support@anker.com and let them know your frustration with this product design

1 Like
#5

I own a power strip which has an off and on button, however, this button is quite noticeable and it has an LED light letting you know of it’s on or off. Perhaps Anker should have made the button or LED light more obvious it. Let’s hope Anker can correct this issue in future products

#6

@ikari04warrior, Yes, I have a lot of big power strips with those rocker switches that turn off and on the entire strip. However, I’ve never experienced a travel power strip with a button that toggles power on. Especially never one that turned off / on ONLY the USB ports.

If the button turned power off and on the entire strip, I would have realized something was wrong.
Normally I double-check everything, especially something as critical as phone recharging at night on a work trip the night before a conference.
However, because something I plugged in to the outlet was obviously working / getting power, my brain concluded that all was good and obviously the USB ports were getting power too.

Not!

Sincere question - why is that button needed AT ALL on a travel power strip?
Or at all?

Why can’t the power strip just recognize when something is plugged into the USB and then give it power?

#7

Not sure what phone you have.

On my Samsung Galaxy S8, I have the option to.turn up SYSYEM volume. I have it about ⅔ full, that way, when I charge it, it pings to let me know it’s got external power, same with removal of the power lead.

#8

@amangons, that’s a cool feature - a volume specific to system noises. I don’t believe I have that on my iPhone XS.

When I’m in must-sleep-now mode after arriving in a hotel, I’ll already have my put my phone in silent mode and turned on Do Not Disturb before plugging it in. My iPhone does give me haptic feedback (a small vibration) when it plugs into power. But the absence of that small vibration was too subtle a reminder.

#9

Yea i think the button is unnecessary and shouldn’t even be there at all. And like @amangons said, Samsung phones make a sound less than a second later after you plugged it in to let you know it’s charging. Actually, I think all Android phones do that

#10

Here’s another situation that could create a dead phone battery because of that button:

from a review on Anker’s product page, I bolded the key sentence.

>> Kendrick Vargas01-15-2019
SO MY ONE COMPLAINT: The power button for the charger portion should be mechanical. Either a push button that physically switches power to the charger and remains depressed during operation, or maybe a more traditional toggle / rocker like most power strips have.

I make this complaint based on the experience I detailed above about when I first received the charger, as well as an experience I just had where my home had a brown-out. The power went off and the charger switched to an off-state when that happened. Since I placed the device out of sight and under my side-table, I didn’t see that. I set my phone to charge and the following morning found myself with 8% battery left. With a mechanical switch this would now have happened.

So even a momentary power off-on would leave all the USB ports powered DOWN.
Wow.

#11

Looks like this power toggle button is affecting its Amazon reviews too:

I’m updating my previous review because I was able to resolve the issue. It’s not obvious on the power strip, itself (though, as it turns out, there’s ample reference to it in the product page and I just didn’t notice it), but the small depression in the center of the strip is a button which activates or deactivates the USB ports. It lights up when the ports are active. Once I pushed that button (and it lit up) the ports worked as designed.

#12

Tag @AnkerOfficial or like @elmo41683 said send them an email. They will listen. Especially if you show them the other complaints about it.

#13

I have also wondered why we have this button. It’s on the cube too. personally, I see no need at all.

#14

OMG that’s even worse! Definitely should be a mechanical button @AnkerOfficial