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macchiato2009

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 14, 2009
1,258
1
any chance to use the 12W adapter on the iPad Mini (supplied with the 5W adapter - same as the iPhone 5) without damaging it ?
 

mtj111

macrumors member
Jun 23, 2010
93
8
It will work absolutely, the question is have Apple enabled it to charge it any faster.
 

tann

macrumors 68000
Apr 15, 2010
1,944
813
UK
So is this a new thing for the 4th gen iPad?

If so will it charge the 3rd gen faster? :)
 

HazyCloud

macrumors 68030
Jun 30, 2010
2,779
37
But they haven't tested on an iPad mini yet if I'm reading that correctly. If it DOES charge faster, then the leap from 5W to 12W will be very big.

It definitely should be. Once the Mini is in my hands, I'm going to order one.
 

Anfield

macrumors newbie
Oct 26, 2012
18
0
Why doesn't the mini ship with a 12W? I remember reading quite a few articles that quoted Apple saying the mini would ship with their new 12W charger.
 

lianlua

macrumors 6502
Jun 13, 2008
370
3
Yes, it will.
12W charges faster than the 10W if and only if the connected device can draw more than 10W. The iPad 3/4 can. It is unlikely that the iPad mini will do the same.
But they haven't tested on an iPad mini yet if I'm reading that correctly. If it DOES charge faster, then the leap from 5W to 12W will be very big.
On either the 10W or 12W adapter, the iPhone 5 will draw 5W. Since the iPad mini comes with the 5W adapter as the iPhone 5, it stands to reason that it will not charge any faster on the 12W version, just as the iPhone and iPad 2 will not.
Why doesn't the mini ship with a 12W? I remember reading quite a few articles that quoted Apple saying the mini would ship with their new 12W charger.
Power adapters need to be matched to battery capacity. Pushing too much power into the battery shortens the battery's life and can damage them. That's why chargers will run at full power for 80% or so and then start dropping down to a trickle as the battery approaches 100%.

All genuine Apple power adapters will manage the trickle charging cycles well and are compatible with all devices. They will not overcharge your device if they're more powerful than what the charging system takes--and on the flip side, if you use a 5W adapter on an iPad 4, it'll work just fine. It will just be really, really slow.
 

tsa1

macrumors 6502
Nov 8, 2008
265
190
I was under the impression from a cnet article that only the new ipad 4 has the ability to charge faster, all previous iPads will not benefit.
 

EdGEdG

macrumors newbie
Jan 17, 2013
1
0
Too much current?

The 12W supply can provide more current than the 5W. The connector and its protocols are the same, and anything that can be powered by the 5W can be powered by the 12W. Any device that can't take in more current than the 5W can provide won't take any more current just because the 12W can supply it. The same thing would happen if you took 5 D-cell batteries and wired them in parallel versus wiring 12 D-cells in parallel: the same voltage for both, but having more batteries allows for more current.

The question is: can the iPad mini take in more than the 5W supply can provide, thus making it charge faster using the 12W? My guess is that it probably can't, but it might be close or just over the 5W charger's capabilities. If that's the case, then the 12W unit would charge it a little faster.
 

Ladybug

macrumors 68000
Apr 13, 2006
1,874
1,013
My experience is that it does charge faster. Technically how much faster I don't know. Back in early Nov. I tested mine. It went from 14% charge to 100% in 2 1/2 hours. I'd be happy to run some test if someone would like...all unofficially but should give a general idea. I have the 5w, 10w, and 12w chargers so a comparison can be made. The 12w charger is all I have used on my Mini since I got it, because my charger arrived before the Mini.
 

Che Castro

macrumors 603
May 21, 2009
5,878
676
Ladybug I think everybody knows that it will charge faster

What we want to know is , will it affect the battery on the mini in a bad way
Long term
 

darngooddesign

macrumors P6
Jul 4, 2007
17,989
9,571
Atlanta, GA
...Power adapters need to be matched to battery capacity. Pushing too much power into the battery shortens the battery's life and can damage them. That's why chargers will run at full power for 80% or so and then start dropping down to a trickle as the battery approaches 100%.

That's a carryover from the first iPod. One of its selling points was a very fast charge to 80% and then slower the rest of the way.
 

Ladybug

macrumors 68000
Apr 13, 2006
1,874
1,013
Ladybug I think everybody knows that it will charge faster

What we want to know is , will it affect the battery on the mini in a bad way
Long term

Thanks Che, I must have misunderstood. Hopefully it doesn't affect the battery life negatively since Apple does say its compatible. At any rate, I'll continue to use mine.
 

AppleRobert

macrumors 603
Nov 12, 2012
5,726
1,132
I tried it only once when I owned both devices. I didn't measure the time it took but the 5w is no slouch.

Does one get hotter while charging versus the other?
 

lianlua

macrumors 6502
Jun 13, 2008
370
3
That's a carryover from the first iPod. One of its selling points was a very fast charge to 80% and then slower the rest of the way.
It's certainly not an iPod innovation. Trickle charging has been in common use since at least the 1950s and portable electronics have used some variation of it since the 1980s to preserve battery health and consumer safety.

Apple products with rechargeable batteries long before the iPod made use of the same basic method, as did products by countless other manufacturers.

----------

The question is: can the iPad mini take in more than the 5W supply can provide, thus making it charge faster using the 12W? My guess is that it probably can't, but it might be close or just over the 5W charger's capabilities. If that's the case, then the 12W unit would charge it a little faster.
No. The 12W adapter may move faster over the first 70-90% of the charge cycle, but the slow tail end is still going to take a long time--overall time savings would be measured in minutes for a complete charge.

Where it might help is getting an almost-dead battery up to a decent partial charge on the run--say, at an airport between flights.

You're not going to hurt it significantly by using a higher-powered charger (charging it faster will generate a little more heat, and more heat is bad, but it's well within the standard deviation for consumer use patterns), but you're also not going to gain much.
 

darngooddesign

macrumors P6
Jul 4, 2007
17,989
9,571
Atlanta, GA
It's certainly not an iPod innovation. Trickle charging has been in common use since at least the 1950s and portable electronics have used some variation of it since the 1980s to preserve battery health and consumer safety.

Apple products with rechargeable batteries long before the iPod made use of the same basic method, as did products by countless other manufacturers.

Of course Apple didn't invent trickle charging.

IN APPLE DEVICES, the fast charge to 80% and then slow charge the rest of the way is a carryover from the first iPod.
 

lianlua

macrumors 6502
Jun 13, 2008
370
3
Of course Apple didn't invent trickle charging.

IN APPLE DEVICES, the fast charge to 80% and then slow charge the rest of the way is a carryover from the first iPod.
Again, no. Every battery-powered Apple device since at minimum the PowerBook G3 (four years older than the iPod) uses this charging method. It has nothing to do with the iPod.
 
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