Painfully slow charging with a non-official charger.

[Alfa Kapa]

Hello Windows people,
Today I bought a charger with 2 usb outputs, one is 2.4A and the other is 1A. (it is not OEM, but a pretty fine quality charger)
I bought it because the 750mAh charger that came with the lumia 730 took up to 3 hours to charge to 100%.
Now with the new charger (either putting the USB cable to 1A or 2.4A),
it took 2 hours and 2 minutes to charge 34% of the battery !!

And the same happens on my 630 running build 10136, which show a message of ''slow charging''.
Now what is going wrong with Lumias and the non official chargers??
This charger described by the company as ''for iPhones, iPads and devices up-to 3400mAh''.
Also in the past, i used to charge my Lumia 630 with an LG 2A charger which charge the phone really fast,
as it is supposed to.

Is there any way to make the phone to think that this is an official charger and take the charge??
How can I know which chargers are working properly with the 730?? (e.x. the LG 2A charger is working perfectly fine)
Also can you tell me, if you have a non-nokia fast charger (over 1.5A), which model it is?

Please let me know because I feel that I just burned 20 euro in this purchase..

Thanks.


------> UPDATE:

I returned the samsung travel charger (S6's 2Amps charger)
and got the nokia AC-60 which is a 1.5A smart charger..
I now get what they mean by smart charger. The phone when is left with lower battery level (below 85%) is charging in a very fast rate, especially when the battery is below 25%. It is also apparent by the slight temperature rise of the handset while on lower battery and charging.

After 85% the battery charges slow (similar to the original charger that came with the phone).
Now the somewhat weird thing is that the phone holds the charge WAY better than with the original charger!
Specifically with the charger that came with the phone, the phone was drawing 3-4% overnight and now it only consumes 1%.
This is also apparent while using the phone every day, while browsing, watching tubecast, and other everyday usage the consumption is way more reasonable!

Anyway, the Lumia 730 as well as the 630, don't like iphone chargers (due to different standards as shown below in a link by xandros9) but they really like smart chargers!
They don't charge at a crazy faster rate, but they charge till 85% way faster than the original AC-20 charger, and most importantly, the charge is holding way better (feels like you have a new battery).
I definitely recommend the Nokia AC-60 charger to any one wanting a faster charge for his/her lumia!

Also to be fair, I didn't give samsung's travel charger a chance, as I didn't let the devices to discharge to +-20%, so I can't tell if the S6's charger is charging faster than AC-60 or not..

 

[wgrs]

Huh... 20€ ? I thought it was a chinese 1$ model....

I only use the official one, but I will test it with my iPad Charger which is 2A / 10W. I'll let you know later.

 

[xandros9]

I think the problem is not that its not-official (I use various chargers for my phones with few issues: one for an iPad (2.1 A), the official Nokia one (1.3A), one by Blackberry (1A), etc.) but that it is low-quality.

The phone doesn't care if the charger is "official" or not, it just takes power. You're not going to trick the charger into just working perfectly. Sounds like that charger just sucks, especially since you say your phone works fine with reputable chargers.

A dozen USB chargers in the lab: Apple is very good, but not quite the best
That article is worth a read, not all chargers are made equally. Sounds like you were ripped off.

 

[wgrs]

The charger may not be the problem, but the USB cable. I have some chinese 1$ cables for my iPads, they work well with data transfers, but are crap with charging. Too thin wires. At least it is a quick try to use a better cable.

 

[Alfa Kapa]

Seriously!!
Wow, so this charger is really bad..
So in general you should stay away from counterfeit - non-official chargers for 1000+1 reasons..
I'll shove it back in their shop and demand my money back, and if they don't cooperate, I will be that guy screaming and shouting until justice is shown

So I will go for either the OFFICIAL iPad a1357 charger (which I can't find online in Greece),
or the already tested LG MCS-04 (which is 1.8A and not 2A as I said above).

An article as the one you linked should really somehow be on the frontpage of the forum section, so everyone will understand that we must use only original chargers with our phones, because smartphone chargers are overlooked and is really one of the most important things to consider.
Or even better, some kind of list with chargers that work properly with our lumias!

Thanks for the eye-opener link!

 

[Alfa Kapa]

The charger may not be the problem, but the USB cable. I have some chinese 1$ cables for my iPads, they work well with data transfers, but are crap with charging. Too thin wires. At least it is a quick try to use a better cable.

I used the nokia (grey with black ends cable), a sony cable (from an M2) and a beefy flat cable I bought with this charger.
The thing is that non of this cable even got warm, if the cable's diameter was the problem, they should heat up.
Isay this because I had a terrible experience with a charger that came with my old netbook which MELTED while charging the computer!!

 

[wgrs]

No no, the cables will not heat up. The clever software in your phone will measure the cable quality and then reduce the charging current. That's why it may take a long time.

 

[wgrs]

Ok, I made a test:

Using the original USB cable, but my iPad 10W charger. This charger is high quality and should charge quickly.

My Lumia 730 says: "slow charging, please use original charger" . I still have to see how slow is "slow". But this is indeed quite strange.

 

[wgrs]

Ok, with the iPad charger it charged slower, but not too bad. Maybe 25% per hour. Not sure why is that and how it has detected the iPad charger. Not a drama, but if you can, use the original charger.

 

[Alfa Kapa]

Yea, I found more weird aspects of this ''slow charging'' issue.

I gave back the charger I mentioned above and bought the samsung travel charger (the one that comes with the S6)
Altought it is 2A, as you said above it charges 20% per hour.
It doesn't mention the ''slow charging'' message, but the charging is weaker than the 750maH ac-20 charger that came with the 730.
It is weird because the sales dude on the shop told me, this samsung charger is the same charger type as the nokia chargers!

So if I'm able to return it, I'll get the Nokia ac-60 which is 1.5A and nokia.
If even this doesn't work properlly, I'm gonna paint the phone blue and throw it in the ocean!

 

[broar94]

Chill, it takes about 2-2.5 hours to charge 15% to 100% of battery for my lumia too. It's because of the painfully slow charger which's included in sales package by Nokia india (ac 20-in). Switch to AC-60, and im sure the phone will charge alot quicker..

 

[rhapdog]

I used the nokia (grey with black ends cable), a sony cable (from an M2) and a beefy flat cable I bought with this charger.
The thing is that non of this cable even got warm, if the cable's diameter was the problem, they should heat up.
Isay this because I had a terrible experience with a charger that came with my old netbook which MELTED while charging the computer!!

If you have a problem where a cable was heating up and melted, it's because the poor construction of the cable left a short in it somewhere along the wire. Use a better quality cable.

I have about 20 or so cables in my collection. About 5 of them will only "slow charge" my phones and other devices. The remainder of them will charge at full speed. Cable quality will make a difference, but it isn't the only thing to look at.

Having a "high amp" charger makes no difference. What you need is a charger with the amperage that is a "smart charger." Smart Phones and Tablets require special charging circuitry to properly charge. The charger needs to communicate with the phone to keep track of how much has been charged. The phone will report the charge percent, and a smart charger will slow the charge as it gets close to 100%, and take a long time to go the last few percentage points. It will charge quickly up to 90-95%, then slow it down.

If the phone does not detect the smart charging circuitry in the charger, then it will automatically switch to slow charging mode.

I paid $18.99 for a 5 port, 10A, 50W charger. Yeah, it was inexpensive, but it charges 5 smart devices quite well. Fast charging on every port. Great for travelling with a family that all need to keep their stuff charged. I plug it into my power Inverter when travelling in the vehicle to keep the family's devices charged on long road trips.

Most likely the charger the OP purchased has the appropriate amperage, but lacks the smart charge circuitry. I noticed a lot of those that had the amperage without the smart circuitry that sold for more than what I bought. I made the mistake of picking up a portable power pack once that advertised up to 2.1A charging power. Problem is, it doesn't have the smart circuitry, so it only slow charges my devices. It lasts a long time, though. I get 4 full charges on my L635 before the power pack needs to be recharged, it just takes a long time to charge the phone.

 

[ramyZgHR]

I used HTC's charger few times at work. It took ages to charge my 930 just for 1%. Don't know why but now I keep in mind to charge phone at home. I wonder if same thing happens when charging via power banks since they don't have original Nokia cabels?

 

[8051topic]

Hi, I wish I seen this topic earlier, I bought some charger from some manufaturers, and now I use Nokia charger for my lumia, it is really quick!