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Be careful buying powerbanks with high capacity and wattage. Get a trusted brand and not a cheap one from China. My sister left one of these charging for an hour while she went to a friend’s house and came back to a raging fire in her apartment.
Just don’t buy any extremely cheap powerbanks unless you know how to inspect and test them.
The issue is not only about the number of cells, but it’s also about the construction of the charger. Obviously, more poorly managed cells can create more of a problem, but most lithium batteries die violently when damaged, regardless of size. (Lithium batteries are so common now, it’s easy to forget that they can be dangerous. Their construction is generally better these days, but that alone doesn’t mitigate all risk.)
Unfortunately, powerbanks are usually sealed so they are hard to open and inspect. If you do get them open, you need to understand what you are looking for, which can be challenging. There is also a risk of damaging a cell when you open them, which is also bad.
Name brand chargers simply give you someone to sue. (Random knock-off brands don’t.) Because of the liability, name brands usually have better construction and go through some kind of safety testing. Edit: The batteries don’t need to be “name brand”. If you bought a random powerbank at a reputable store, the store itself may assume the liability. (Large stores can distribute name brand products under a house name, in some cases.)
Wiring problems, mismatched cells without protection and poorly designed charging circuits are usually the issues.
Bonus! bigclive doing some destructive testing on batteries: https://youtu.be/EgtKwxzgggg
Just thought about this, isn’t it a bit silly that we all use milli Ah while all the values are above the thousands? Like, 5000 mAh is just 5 Ah
It’s because you can get more when measuring in mA than you can in A.
5000 mAh means you can get 5000 hours out when pulling at 1mA. 5 Ah means you can get 5 hours when pulling at 1A.
You’d think these are commutative, but battery chemistry doesn’t work that way. The harder you load, the less actual power you can get. So a battery that can provide 1mA for 5000 hours can’t necessarily provide 1A for 5 hours.
Damn, interesting! And that chemist sounding name sure does add extra credibility
Don’t read too much into that.
My chemistry is rust(y).
Quickest 5k Ive personally seen is the Anker Hybrid at 20W
For information, I bought the Anker Nano Power Bank 5 000 (22.5W, Built-In USB-C Connector). Not 30 W or slim as I was aiming for, but with this one I don’t need to think about a cable. Only weights 100 g, half of the weight of my slim 30w 10k power bank.
I bought this one a couple of years ago. I ended up not using it as planned because it wouldn’t power my laptop. It claims to output 130w. I’m considering using it to power a heated bird bath and possibly an outside cam if I can figure out a less expensive way to keep it out of the elements.
5000 mAh is pretty small. Is that a typo?
Nope. I need a small power bank that will get me around 50% as fast as possible on the go. I have a 10 000 ( 30w) but it’s too big and heavy.
