Battery Bank System Power Capacity May Be Misrepresented

By Brigette Honaker | January 28, 2019

Category: Electronics

Many consumers purchase a battery bank system to extend their battery life but may be let down when the devices have less power capacity than expected.

With advances in technology, electronics are beginning to require better battery life and more power in order to perform advanced functions. While consumers have come to expect high performance out of their expensive cell phones, they also expect the phone to sustain a reasonable battery life.

Every year, reviewers of consumer electronics come out with lists of phones with the best battery, and the release of a new phone is often met with the question: “How is its battery life?”

In an ideal world, phones would be able to sustain long term battery life without needing frequent charging and without compromising performance. However, this often is not the case. To compensate for less than stellar battery life, some consumer looking into phone charging cases, phone mods, or a battery bank system to allow them to charge their phone on the go.

Power banks for cell phone sell on sites like Amazon for prices anywhere between $10 and $130. The amount of power these devices can store often times determines their price. The more power a device can store, the more desirable it may be – potentially making consumers willing to pay over $100 in order to secure their battery life.

A battery bank system is rated based on the amount of milliamp hours (mAh). This unit indicated the amount of power a battery system could deliver in a single hour. This unit also reflects the amount of power stored in a battery. If a power bank has a higher mAh rating, it will generally be able to run for longer.

Uber Gizmo illustrates the electrical concept with the following example: if a 3000mAh battery is being used to power a device which draws 100 milliamps (mA), it could power the device for 30 hours. A device drawing 200 mA from the same battery would be able to be powered for 15 hours due to the limitation of the battery.

Although many consumers do not understand the exact science behind a mAh rating, most consumers understand that the higher a rating on a device like a battery, the more likely it will be able to power their device. Companies may be taking advantage of consumer reliance on mAh rating by overstating their mAh ratings in advertising.

Recent laboratory testing reportedly shows that mAh rating of some power banks is lower than what is advertised, meaning that the devices fail to store as much power as consumers are lead to believe. It is believed that companies might be overstating the mAh rating of their power banks to make their devices seem more desirable and make consumers more likely to purchase them.

Having heard of the possibility that manufacturers were misrepresenting their products, attorneys are investigating these claims of power problems. The legal professionals are looking into several power bank brands including Insignia, Belkin, EC, iEC, PNY, and PocketJuice. The products manufactured by these companies are often sold at retailers such as Best Buy and Amazon.