Power Delivery advertised but unsupported in PowerCore III 20K bank

#1

I just bought the PowerCore III 20K power bank (model: A1364). This model’s single USB-C port is supposed to support Power Delivery.

I own a USB-C cable (both ends) that has a LED display at one end that shows the actual power going through while charging. When I connect this cable from my Samsung Fold 3 phone to a desktop charging station that I have (which supports PD), the LED shows “PD 14 W”. This is expected.

HOWEVER, when I connect the same cable from my phone to this Anker power bank, the LED shows “9.3 W”. There’s no “PD”. Seems like the advertised specs is wrong and Power Delivery is not supported in this bank model. Can someone confirm/deny this?

BTW, don’t think it’s a defective product I got, because I bought two of these banks and neither appears to support PD.

#2

Let me see what I can find out.

#3

It could be that the cable you are using is conflicting with the charger electronic is a potential reason as well.
or
The device can not deliver PD to that device brand vs other brands.

To test if the cable is the issue, I would get it to the same percentage and time how long it takes to charge from one percentage to another percentage. I would use the same percentage as I believe at a certain percentage will slow down the charging process as it approaches 100 percent. (I would test it the led cable and a device and then the same device being charged with a non led cable. You can then at least know if it is a conflict with the cable with led.

Just a thought

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#4

Were you able to find out anything?

#5

not yet, but I was on vacation last week. Let me check in with the team rn.

#6

Can you link me the cable you’re using to test? It’s possible my colleague will want to know, but also, I’m super curious about this myself, lol.

#7

So, it turns out that the PowerCore III doesn’t support PD. My sense is that you’re confident it is supposed to, so feel free to share with me where you see that. I’d like to pass it on to the branding/ecomm team if we need to make a correction. (I can’t find it onsite, so I’m not sure it’s a product we’re still making either.)

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#8

This is the cable I was using the test:

This the PowerCore III bank I bought from Best Buy. Read the features there. It says “Deliver an 20W high-speed charge to phones, Tablets, and more via the USB-C power delivery port or the Qualcomm Quick Charge-enabled USB port.”.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/anker-powercore-iii-20k-mah-usb-c-portable-battery-charger-black/6482792.p?skuId=6482792

So I bought 2 of these, on the belief that it supports PD. So if you’re saying it doesn’t, then isn’t that false advertisement (either by Anker or Best Buy)? It’s way past the Best Buy return policy for electronics so now I’m stuck with these non-PD banks. Shouldn’t I be entitled to a replacement for a model that does support PD? Thanks.

#9

Can you show me where we say it does support PD? A link or image of packaging will help. TY

#10

15%20PM
Screenshot 2023-11-17 at 12.18.15 PM.png1149×1439 123 KB

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/anker-powercore-iii-20k-mah-usb-c-portable-battery-charger-black/6482792.p?skuId=6482792

#11

gotcha. I’m thinking PD is a specific type of delivery; Anker long has been known for high-speed charging. Let me check on this, however.

#12

So, here’s what I learned:
The USB-C port of the 325 Powerbank is input port only; it’s not output.

The USB-A ports are compatible with Samsung. They don’t, however, support PPS fast charging.

This model is “old,” and so it doesn’t support PD. For its time though, it was a fast charger via USB-A, comparatively speaking.

#13

Your information does not seem correct. People (including myself) that own this product confirmed that the USB-C port can be used for both input and output charging.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/questions/anker-powercore-iii-20k-mah-usb-c-portable-battery-charger-black/6482792/question/6f872c49-d242-38fc-9728-e2386a84b591

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/questions/anker-powercore-iii-20k-mah-usb-c-portable-battery-charger-black/6482792/question/89dfcb4e-199e-3eca-91b2-8132885827da

#14

PD charging includes many protocols, and those protocols each have their one max power limits. It relies on the two devices (the source and the target) communicating over the cable and comparing protocols and finding the one that allows the highest power. If the source (the Powercore) lacks the higher power protocols needed by the target (the Samsung phone) they will settle on a lower power one - which appears to be happening here. Either of the two can use a much higher power protocol in other circumstances.

For example. I have a Samsung Note 20 Ultra. If I set the phone to “fast charging” in the phone settings, I get a max of about 9W from my Anker 737 Power Bank using the USB-C port, but 14W using the USB-A port. When I change the phone setting to Ultra Fast Charging (enabling another protocol on the phone), the USB-C charging goes up to 15W matching the USB-A. (I normally turn off Ultra fast charging on my phone to protect the phone battery.)

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#15

Juiliette, I have the PowerCore III and the USB-C port is bidirectional - in fact, it is the only way to charge the battery pack. I just checked it with my Note 20 Ultra set to Fast Charging (using a meter to measure the power) and saw 8.7W. I then set the phone to Super Fast Charging and saw 14,4W. Checking on the much newer Anker 737 Power Bank I see 15W (essentially the same). The limit is on the phone, not the PowerCore/Power Bank.

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#16

Thank you. I was misinformed on the port. My thanks to @jef3 for confirming and to you for bringing this up.

Thanks also, @jef3, for the additional education on PD standards. (It makes sense that it would be bi-directional, good grief.)

#17

Thanks for helping with the research on this. In which menu(s) do you see the options to set the charging speeds for your Note 20 Ultra? I have the Samsung Galaxy Fold3 and not sure if it has those options…

“The limit is on the phone” – I’m not sure this is accurate. In my original post, I said that when I charged my phone using a desktop charger that supports PD, it shows “PD 14 W". In fact, just a minute ago, with my phone at 40% full, I plugged it into the desktop charger again, it read “PD 17 W”. Point is, my phone is not the bottleneck here…