Just noticed it stops charging one port as soon as 3 devices are connected.
when you connect three devices, power will be distributed efficiently between ports to ensure you get the best charge.
Nope.
Have had it for a couple months, and this explains why sometimes I plugged my phone, went to sleep, and next day noticed my phone wasn’t charged 100%
Have other Anker products, but this one, I do not recommend
I am not initially too surprised by your finding. Consider that 65/3 ~ 22 W. Stand-alone iPhone chargers are 20 W. You’d guess the three port equal distribution would be OK. But 20 W must be supported by a sufficient voltage to push current, and the current must be adequate to charge in a reasonable time. The three port is doing one of two things. It is pushing too low a current at a higher voltage, and your iPhone needs more than overnight (current limited design). Or it is ready to push sufficiently higher current but cannot give adequate voltage (voltage limited design).
As an experiment, try plugging in your phone and waiting for twice as long. If it charges, the current is limited in the equal power distribution mode. If it still does not charge, the voltage is limited in the equal power distribution mode.
Otherwise, does Anker have an answer to explain your problem?
–
JJW
I have this same charger. I suspect the issue is with the USB-A port as I can charge 2 USB-C devices without issue (obviously slower than if I only plug one in), but as soon as I connect a USB-A (even with only one USB-C device plugged in), performance falls off a cliff.
The only device we charge semi-regularly off USB-A anymore is a TI-84 calculator, so I’ve always attributed it to that device. But USB-A can’t draw that much power, so that explanation seemed suspect right after I cooked it up.
I’m assuming there’s something wrong with your charger. The Amazon listing shows the max per port when all 3 ports are used. There might be others with the same issue in the reviews
Same! The USB-A port is the one that stops working.
TI-84 calculator
I have even tried a PS4 controller but no luck so far, and it only draws 5 watts
The USB-A port stops working completely? That’s not what I’m observing. What happens to me is if the USB-A port has something plugged in, the USB-C port charges much slower.
Power is voltage times current. Ports are limited in one or the other. One or the other is being overdrawn by the device, even as the total product may not be overdrawn.
15 V x 1 A = 15 W. If a port is limited to 15 V and your device (unequivocally) requires 16 V to charge effectively, you are out of luck using that port. The same thing will happen with a device that (unequivocally) requires 2 A to charge and you try using a 1 A / 15 W limited port. The port will be current limited. The port will not downscale its voltage to 7.5 V just to be able to push the required 2 A current (and maintain the 15 W power load).
Some devices may also not be acceptable to charge on ports that can free-range their voltage. IOW, seeing a 15 V charging input demand on a device may not be just a “must use at least this voltage” indication, it may also be a “do not use (substantially) more than this voltage” limit.
–
JJW
So, the USB-A is pulling current away from the USB-C port. Not unexpected. Instead of hanging an LED light bulb on the port, you hung an incandescent bulb on the port. You get the same 30 Lumens light output from either bulb, but the incandescent draws far more current than the LED at the same voltage.
The charging device compensates by giving more current to the incandescent light bulb. You can still plug in bulbs on either of the other two USB-C ports. But they had better be LED bulbs, not incandescent bulbs (and, just for fun, they could be higher voltage LED bulbs, thereby giving the same 30 Lumens at the lower currents).
–
JJW
