Einova Wall Wart vs. ThermoJoe Heated Cup
3I tried to charge my TJ power base yesterday from the USBC and then by the regular USB on my computer at work. After 3 hours it was about half charged.
Today I brought in my Einova wall wart I bought from Meh.
I drained the cup down to zero in a 3-4 hours. I plugged it in to the 100W jack on the Einova at 11:45. It is now 12:30 (45 mins) and it is basically fully charged.
The base is not warm. I was worried it would overheat charging too fast. I guess the circuitry draws only the current it needs.
I’ll post again if it explodes or starts smoking and leaking lithium goodness all over my desk.
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If it explodes sufficiently violently I am pretty sure you will make the news on my phone’s feed when I swipe to the right from the home screen!
Update. I decided to get brave today. After the cup ran down I plugged it into the 140W jack. In 15 minutes the first four lights were solid and the last was pulsing. The last bit of the charge takes much longer than the rest.
@tweezak yep, I wrote a long thing up earlier today about this and decided it was too long winded and technical, but essentially you can charge lithium batteries to about 80% very quickly with high current but as soon as you hit their maximum voltage you have to switch to holding voltage constant and backing off the current which takes longer.
Fast charging will shorten the life of the battery a little bit.
OTOH stopping at 80% will extend the life of the battery.
So if you don’t need the full capacity each use you could fast charge to 80% then stop. That’s probably a wash or a very slight positive (my guess) for your battery lifespan. Someone is geeky enough about batteries to have tested it and determined the effects of each.
Update!
The cup is dead. Long live the cup!
It should be fully charged but it will not power on.
The instructions say clearly you can charge it with “any usb-c charger.” Based on my experience that is not true.
So, I would say their charging control circuitry is not working as claimed. Oh well. It was really just an experiment anyway.