Cheap power banks

I have been geeting sub $4 power banks 3-4 cell, filling them with cells that testedbelow my target,And gavethem away.

Second person came back recently to say they think the power bank charges to fast and caused the iPhone battery to go bad.

I recall a thread maybe 6 months back on a user that would change out the pcb to one with better quality.

Has anyone else noticed a similar trend.

Is there anyone that has found a good source with acceptable quality so as not to damage other electronics?

I don't know if this is a result of sellers in CN offloading defective product or if this is just a poor design.

Best I can figure is to start paying a little more for power banks with both a 1 and 2 amp port.

I could start giving away lights, but I like the idea of giving away 3-4 cell vs just one.

Tks

Chablis_m said:

Second person came back recently to say they think the power bank charges to fast and caused the iPhone battery to go bad.

Click to expand...

This I can say with pretty much certainty is not accurate. The phone itself has a regulator to determine how fast it can charge. If it cannot get the proper signal from the charger, then it will default to it's lowest/safest limit. So I really doubt your powerbank killed their battery. The battery was probably faulty or old already.

To understand how this works, there are 2 resistors of certain values that sit on the D-/D+ pins on the charger side. The phone/tablet/etc device detects these resistances and adjusts its internal charging to compensate for what it can be fed. If there are no resistors, or of wrong values (iDevices use a proprietary set of resistors instead of standard. This is why you can't use an iDevice charger to fast charge an Android/Windows phone/tablet), then the device will charge at 500mA @ 5V, the default charging mode.

Thanks for reply.

Would you expect a battery bank to charge more quickly then the OE charger?

I would think the OE wall charger would be close to fastest way to charge.

Chablis_m said:

Thanks for reply.

Would you expect a battery bank to charge more quickly then the OE charger?

I would think the OE wall charger would be close to fastest way to charge.

Click to expand...

Pretty much. There may be power banks out there that can fast charge. But aside of perhaps a few that have USB C connections I haven't seen any.

Most cheap power banks struggle to deliver any where near there rated current.

Phones have their own internal regulators. There is no way an external source killed the battery in a phone. If there was a problem with a power bank, it would most likely be some kind of voltage spike, and it would kill the whole charging circuit.

Chablis_m said:

I have been getting sub $4 power banks 3-4 cell, filling them with cells that testedbelow my target,And gavethem away.

Second person came back recently to say they think the power bank charges to fast and caused the iPhone battery to go bad.

Click to expand...

It's a Apple product, even a single drop of moisture can make them go bad.
Go watch Louis Rossmann on youtube, eg this video
Can 1 drop of liquid destroy a Macbook Air?

There is one model of iPhone Apple had to offer discounted battery replacement on, after a lawsuit proved it didn't last.


If anything a cheap powerbank would charge the battery slower, thus increasing it's lifespan. The phone protects the battery itself.

station240 said:

It's a Apple product, even a single drop of moisture can make them go bad.
Go watch Louis Rossmann on youtube, eg this video
Can 1 drop of liquid destroy a Macbook Air?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I was trying to stay outta that territory but I agree.

Chablis_m said:

Would you expect a battery bank to charge more quickly then the OE charger?

I would think the OE wall charger would be close to fastest way to charge.

Click to expand...

The OE will always charge faster, as long as it's in proper working order. The aftermarket chargers will never come close to what the OE standard is unless it's specifically a design for that type of device and authorized/certified by that manufacturer. So, for an Apple device, it will never charge as fast as the OE as Apple doesn't certify aftermarket chargers

Thank you for the solution.

I am using 3.1 amp chargers from amazon and it has is even faster than the ipad charger on the iPhone...

I also got a 7p powerbank with 3.1 amp output and it is also very very fast!