Charging MacBook with battery packs

[Mike Boreham]

BTW...Anker seem to have reintroduced their 26800 PD battery. They had one advertised quite widely last year, but it was unavailable everywhere. I asked Anker and they said it had been withdrawn. Now it, or a new version of it is available again:

https://www.anker.com/products/B1375111

The above link seems to have died, and I can't see any mention of a USB-C charger meeting USB-PD spec on this page, so I don't know what is going on with Anker.

https://www.anker.com/products/107/201/High-Capacity-Portable-Chargers

Still very happy with my RavPower USB-PD.

 

[Mike Boreham]

BTW...Anker seem to have reintroduced their 26800 PD battery. They had one advertised quite widely last year, but it was unavailable everywhere. I asked Anker and they said it had been withdrawn. Now it, or a new version of it is available again:

https://www.anker.com/products/B1375111

I ordered one of these from Amazon UK and it has just come. It is very well finished as with all the Anker products. It is slightly larger then the equivalent RavPower PD battery. First impressions very good.

BUT Anker have made a serious design mistake with this battery: The only PD (=fast charge) voltage is 9V 3A. This means it can't be fast charged by the Apple 29w USB-C charger supplied with the MacBook. The Apple charger PD output is 14.5V 2A. So the only common voltage the Anker and Apple 29W charger have is 5V , = slow charging.

If you buy it in the US it comes with a 9V wall charger so that you can fast charge the Anker, but I don't know if the MacBook can be charged by the Anker 9V charger. If not then you are lumbered with needing two chargers, one for the battery and one for the MacBook. (EDIT just found mention that supplied charger in the US does charge the MacBook, so no need for two chargers).

The RavPower 26800 PD will accept PD inputs at 9V, 15V and 20V, so has a serious competitive advantage over Anker in this respect IMO, by being able to be fast charged by the Apple MacBook charger.

I am not returning the Anker because at this point I don't know yet how it delivers in terms of charging the MacBook. Being a bit larger than the RavPower it might have more actual capacity, even though the spec is 96.48Wh on the Anker and 99.16Wh for the RavPower.

I am able to fast charge the Anker because I also have an Apple 87W charger sold for the MacBook Pro. This outputs at 9V and 20V. However it is much larger than the 29W charger so not good for travel.

However, there may be a good way forward for me: I have just ordered this Anker charger which outputs at 9V, 15V and 20V:

https://www.anker.com/products/variant/PowerPort+-5-Ports-USB-C-/A2053111

This is also much larger than the Apple 29W charger, but it will also charge iPads and iPhones so is a better travel option as I can leave iDevice chargers at home. This one charger will charge MacBook, Anker, RavPower, iPad and iPhone.

 

[Mike Boreham]

I am not returning the Anker because at this point I don't know yet how it delivers in terms of charging the MacBook. Being a bit larger than the RavPower it might have more actual capacity, even though the spec is 96.48Wh on the Anker and 99.16Wh for the RavPower.

Promising start. I just charged the MacBook from 5% to 100% with the Anker, and the Anker charge indicator is still showing 6 lights out of 10. The RavPower would show 1 light out of 4 after the same.

Currently running the MacBook down so that I can see if the Anker will do the same again from the same charge.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Promising start. I just charged the MacBook from 5% to 100% with the Anker, and the Anker charge indicator is still showing 6 lights out of 10. The RavPower would show 1 light out of 4 after the same.

Currently running the MacBook down so that I can see if the Anker will do the same again from the same charge.

The Anker managed to charge the MacBook form 9% to 92% on the remaining charge.

So that is pretty near 2 full charges, compared to the RavPower's about 1.5.

 

[misterbig]

BUT Anker have made a serious design mistake with this battery: The only PD (=fast charge) voltage is 9V 3A. This means it can't be fast charged by the Apple 29w USB-C charger supplied with the MacBook. The Apple charger PD output is 14.5V 2A. So the only common voltage the Anker and Apple 29W charger have is 5V , = slow charging.

Thanks for sharing all of your results Mike, much appreciated!

Have you tried charging the Anker 26800 with the stock 29W MacBook to see how long it actually takes to charge? You mentioned that it should only charge at 5V instead of 9V so I'm very interested to see if this is really the case.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Thanks for sharing all of your results Mike, much appreciated!

Have you tried charging the Anker 26800 with the stock 29W MacBook to see how long it actually takes to charge? You mentioned that it should only charge at 5V instead of 9V so I'm very interested to see if this is really the case.

I have tried it and it is definitely the situation. I didn't time it but would guesstimate around 10 hours.
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However, there may be a good way forward for me: I have just ordered this Anker charger which outputs at 9V, 15V and 20V:

https://www.anker.com/products/variant/PowerPort+-5-Ports-USB-C-/A2053111

This is also much larger than the Apple 29W charger, but it will also charge iPads and iPhones so is a better travel option as I can leave iDevice chargers at home. This one charger will charge MacBook, Anker, RavPower, iPad and iPhone.

I have now received this charger and very impressed. It is smaller than I expected and because it is capable of charging everything I can leave the Apple 29W charger and three iPad/iPhone chargers at home and just take this instead when we go away. (My wife and I charge two iPhones and one iPad at night when away, so three chargers).

 

[misterbig]

I have tried it and it is definitely the situation. I didn't time it but would guesstimate around 10 hours.

Thanks for the confirmation, cheers!