I stick to Anker for cables, batteries and chargers. I'm sure they've had their own issues but everything I've bought feels well made. The only one I've had an issue with was a USB-C to everything else adaptor which weirdly stopped working after a week or two. I was surprised to find that their support was based in the UK (Cardiff if memory serves) and very efficiently processed a return and replacement.
I've watched Big Clive's videos for too long to trust no-name Chinese things with anything involving mains potential or energy storage.
No comment on Anker quality, but the "feels well made" feeling is something that has been known and gamed (for example, by including dummy weights in devices) in the hardware industry since forever. It is relatively unrelated to things you as a consumer may actually care about (like adherence to safety standards or amount of engineering effort put into the longevity of a product).
> No comment on Anker quality, but the "feels well made" feeling is something that has been known and gamed (for example, by including dummy weights in devices) in the hardware industry since forever.
Yup but for Anker devices you have a lot of nerds picking them apart on Youtube. If Anker were to engage in shady practices, the uproar and resulting shitstorm would be on a scale that could tank the entire company.
IMHO, Anker is one of the last remaining (funny, the company isn't that old) "brands" in the original sense.
I still have an old Anker 20,000 mAh power bank that works fine. Might not have the same charge ability as it once had but I can still get 2-3 charges out of it for a Pixel 8 Pro. Has 4 LED's to display charge level and a button that flashes them when you want to check status.
I bought a UGREEN bank on a recommendation and it was a buggy mess. It discharged more than it should when charging and when plugged in it rapidly charged to 100% which was sus. Graphical menu was weird and displayed ambiguous graphic messages to avoid text. These things feel like time bombs.
I also still have an old 20,000 mAh Anker power bank, and my only issue with it is that the micro-USB charging port is starting to wear out. For the rest, it's still brilliant, and it holds its charge very well while in storage.
I'll be the voice of dissent here. I've heard nonstop praise for Anker online. Bought a couple keyboards and adapters from them and they all failed within a year. My wife got a mobile battery from them and that ended up dying in under a year as well. I'd be willing to write off one bad item, but I've had no good experiences and the pattern is clear to me.
I bought myself an anker powerbank because of all the rave around them. Mine behaves incredibly strange. Charged in seconds, then not containing half a phone charge.
For a 20.000 mAh this was really disappointing.
Probably a one of but still leaves the impression that this was looked at because it ruined the price for others.
Had a tangential issue with an Anker power bank (screen was sometimes showing bogus charge essentially), and can confirm Anker E-Mail support is pretty good in my experience, they sent me a second unit (even though the first is still functional and I still use it just fine to this day), free of charge after a brief exchange.
They also did a recall on speakers (under their soundcore subbrand) for the same thing. I'm not sure if this is good or bad - they proactively contacted me to let me know about the recall.
IKEA 45W and 65W Sjoss chargers and braided cables are also good. Pretty cheap too. There's also a 30W charger, but it has cheaper, presumably poorer quality components.
Those chargers have nice specs too. They support PD PPS (programmable power supply).
Yeah same. I’ve bought Anker power adapters, cables, power banks, headphones. All of them have done incredibly well. They’re not immune to issues, because sometimes their suppliers let them down. But if that happens they’ll replace your product for free.
The more interesting thing is that they were actually pulled. Did the manufacturer send a recall notice? (And if so why didn't they send a statement). I can't imagine Amazon themselves taking any action since they allow other junk to stay up
FWIW, the Haribo charger seems to be rather well made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT_t5nvFcoY (26:50, by ZeroBrain, a German YouTuber that disassembles electronic devices)
This reminds me of when pvs-studio would post every single analysis they would make of popular C++ projects. It was a fun novelty back in the day. Just like these scans, which now are boring and overplayed.
> How or why does a candy company decide to electronics? That's the mystery I need an answer to.
A few years ago, Haribo was in a serious crisis [1] - they didn't catch up on competition when it comes to new trends such as vegan candy, and a few years prior they had dismissed their marketing face Thomas Gottschank [2]. The closure of the Saxony plant also seriously soured relations with local politicians [3]. Some of all of that is attributed to the death of Hans Riegel in 2013 [4].
I don't have any particular insights into Haribo, but what I do know is that (especially struggling) brands tend to go towards making money off of the brand by licensing out rights... some of such deals tend to go well for everyone involved (see e.g. anything Lego touches), some run okay-ish (e.g. that's how you end with a "CAT" rugged phone made by Bullitt [5] - the things were rugged, but the performance was abysmal), and some end up in a massive clusterfuck like the Haribo batteries.
My indulgent aunt once let me get a five pound bag of them from one of those Scoop Your Own candy stations. I left them in the rear window of her VW Rabbit for the better part of a summer day and they melted into a horrible blob that scarred me for life. Not sure why this Gummi Bear post is giving me flashbacks to that.
But yes, those folks. Check the product shot in the article for their logo.
not sure what is more interesting, the detailed information on lithium battery construction, or how they got a CT(cat) scanner, or the idea of having an industrial
cat scanner around.
those batteries were bizarely cheap and there was prior suggestion that these(others) were
actualy fake with empty space or filler, which isn't the case, and all in all they just need to up the precision of there automated processes.
nice piece of journalism.
I think they are becoming a lot more prevalent in labs, these days. They aren't the monster devices that many of us may be (unfortunately) familiar with.
Has anyone reported issues with this battery, from what I've seen online everyone has been happy with its performance. Maybe the uneveness called out by the article is not enough to matter. Not following the industry standard is not necessarily the tipping point of everything going wrong.
"Well the batteries haven't caught on fire yet. I'm sure they're fine, despite the serious manufacturing defects that increase the risk of a fire substantially."
You realize they stopped selling them, right? They don't do this for "nothing to worry about."
No they are definitely not. You’re completely correct! They are, instead, an authority on what might get their asses sued to the moon and back and apparently found the cost/ benefit of selling this popular product to be negative. Any ideas what might cause that?
That lower than .5 mm margin on those edges may not have caused fires - yet - but if nothing is done about it then one day they will. That's an accident waiting to happen.
I stick to Anker for cables, batteries and chargers. I'm sure they've had their own issues but everything I've bought feels well made. The only one I've had an issue with was a USB-C to everything else adaptor which weirdly stopped working after a week or two. I was surprised to find that their support was based in the UK (Cardiff if memory serves) and very efficiently processed a return and replacement.
I've watched Big Clive's videos for too long to trust no-name Chinese things with anything involving mains potential or energy storage.
> but everything I've bought feels well made
No comment on Anker quality, but the "feels well made" feeling is something that has been known and gamed (for example, by including dummy weights in devices) in the hardware industry since forever. It is relatively unrelated to things you as a consumer may actually care about (like adherence to safety standards or amount of engineering effort put into the longevity of a product).
> No comment on Anker quality, but the "feels well made" feeling is something that has been known and gamed (for example, by including dummy weights in devices) in the hardware industry since forever.
Yup but for Anker devices you have a lot of nerds picking them apart on Youtube. If Anker were to engage in shady practices, the uproar and resulting shitstorm would be on a scale that could tank the entire company.
IMHO, Anker is one of the last remaining (funny, the company isn't that old) "brands" in the original sense.
I still have an old Anker 20,000 mAh power bank that works fine. Might not have the same charge ability as it once had but I can still get 2-3 charges out of it for a Pixel 8 Pro. Has 4 LED's to display charge level and a button that flashes them when you want to check status.
I bought a UGREEN bank on a recommendation and it was a buggy mess. It discharged more than it should when charging and when plugged in it rapidly charged to 100% which was sus. Graphical menu was weird and displayed ambiguous graphic messages to avoid text. These things feel like time bombs.
I also still have an old 20,000 mAh Anker power bank, and my only issue with it is that the micro-USB charging port is starting to wear out. For the rest, it's still brilliant, and it holds its charge very well while in storage.
I'll be the voice of dissent here. I've heard nonstop praise for Anker online. Bought a couple keyboards and adapters from them and they all failed within a year. My wife got a mobile battery from them and that ended up dying in under a year as well. I'd be willing to write off one bad item, but I've had no good experiences and the pattern is clear to me.
I bought myself an anker powerbank because of all the rave around them. Mine behaves incredibly strange. Charged in seconds, then not containing half a phone charge. For a 20.000 mAh this was really disappointing. Probably a one of but still leaves the impression that this was looked at because it ruined the price for others.
That's obviously a dud cell. Contact support if it's not several years old.
Had a tangential issue with an Anker power bank (screen was sometimes showing bogus charge essentially), and can confirm Anker E-Mail support is pretty good in my experience, they sent me a second unit (even though the first is still functional and I still use it just fine to this day), free of charge after a brief exchange.
Might be worth a shot.
Okay thanks, I’ll try!
They recently did a massive recall on a line of power banks for being fire hazards. Make sure it’s not one of them.
They also did a recall on speakers (under their soundcore subbrand) for the same thing. I'm not sure if this is good or bad - they proactively contacted me to let me know about the recall.
IKEA 45W and 65W Sjoss chargers and braided cables are also good. Pretty cheap too. There's also a 30W charger, but it has cheaper, presumably poorer quality components.
Those chargers have nice specs too. They support PD PPS (programmable power supply).
Yeah same. I’ve bought Anker power adapters, cables, power banks, headphones. All of them have done incredibly well. They’re not immune to issues, because sometimes their suppliers let them down. But if that happens they’ll replace your product for free.
The more interesting thing is that they were actually pulled. Did the manufacturer send a recall notice? (And if so why didn't they send a statement). I can't imagine Amazon themselves taking any action since they allow other junk to stay up
Why these batteries got all the attention - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45322135
FWIW, the Haribo charger seems to be rather well made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT_t5nvFcoY (26:50, by ZeroBrain, a German YouTuber that disassembles electronic devices)
Batteries that undercut the market price have serious flaws... who would have thought!
I love the summary at the top. Cool thing to have.
I'm curious how the cost of performing these CT scans compared to the profit reaped by Haribo while the batteries were selling.
This reminds me of when pvs-studio would post every single analysis they would make of popular C++ projects. It was a fun novelty back in the day. Just like these scans, which now are boring and overplayed.
How or why does a candy company decide to electronics? That's the mystery I need an answer to. What's next, Durex pizzas?
> How or why does a candy company decide to electronics? That's the mystery I need an answer to.
A few years ago, Haribo was in a serious crisis [1] - they didn't catch up on competition when it comes to new trends such as vegan candy, and a few years prior they had dismissed their marketing face Thomas Gottschank [2]. The closure of the Saxony plant also seriously soured relations with local politicians [3]. Some of all of that is attributed to the death of Hans Riegel in 2013 [4].
I don't have any particular insights into Haribo, but what I do know is that (especially struggling) brands tend to go towards making money off of the brand by licensing out rights... some of such deals tend to go well for everyone involved (see e.g. anything Lego touches), some run okay-ish (e.g. that's how you end with a "CAT" rugged phone made by Bullitt [5] - the things were rugged, but the performance was abysmal), and some end up in a massive clusterfuck like the Haribo batteries.
[1] https://taz.de/Haribo-Werk-im-Osten-vor-Aus/!5755771/
[2] https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/leute/thomas-gottschalk-tren...
[3] https://www.rnd.de/promis/werksschliessung-in-sachsen-thomas...
[4] https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/haribo-chef-ha...
[5] https://www.heise.de/news/Outdoor-Smartphones-Bullitt-Group-...
Duracell gummies (AA battery shaped) would be pretty cool
Gummy bears?
My indulgent aunt once let me get a five pound bag of them from one of those Scoop Your Own candy stations. I left them in the rear window of her VW Rabbit for the better part of a summer day and they melted into a horrible blob that scarred me for life. Not sure why this Gummi Bear post is giving me flashbacks to that.
But yes, those folks. Check the product shot in the article for their logo.
not sure what is more interesting, the detailed information on lithium battery construction, or how they got a CT(cat) scanner, or the idea of having an industrial cat scanner around. those batteries were bizarely cheap and there was prior suggestion that these(others) were actualy fake with empty space or filler, which isn't the case, and all in all they just need to up the precision of there automated processes. nice piece of journalism.
> how they got a CT(cat) scanner
Lumafield is a CT company: https://www.lumafield.com/
Yup! And their whole social media “thing” is doing these kinds of on-topic analysis of (mostly consumer) devices
Good use of an advertising budget, much better than classic ads.
> how they got a CT(cat) scanner
I think they are becoming a lot more prevalent in labs, these days. They aren't the monster devices that many of us may be (unfortunately) familiar with.
They can be a lot smaller when neither dose nor movement is a factor in imaging.
Has anyone reported issues with this battery, from what I've seen online everyone has been happy with its performance. Maybe the uneveness called out by the article is not enough to matter. Not following the industry standard is not necessarily the tipping point of everything going wrong.
"Well the batteries haven't caught on fire yet. I'm sure they're fine, despite the serious manufacturing defects that increase the risk of a fire substantially."
You realize they stopped selling them, right? They don't do this for "nothing to worry about."
>increase the risk of a fire substantially
The article doesn't state by how much it increased.
>You realize they stopped selling them, right?
I don't think Amazon is an authority on battery safety and are airing on the side of safety than making an actual judgements on the safety of it.
No they are definitely not. You’re completely correct! They are, instead, an authority on what might get their asses sued to the moon and back and apparently found the cost/ benefit of selling this popular product to be negative. Any ideas what might cause that?
That lower than .5 mm margin on those edges may not have caused fires - yet - but if nothing is done about it then one day they will. That's an accident waiting to happen.