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Is it a good idea to get a high wattage phone charging brick and standard USB C cord to use for a laptop charger? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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My laptop charges with USB C, so when the standard charger broke, I just used the USB out port from an EcoFlow battery. The display on the battery said the laptop pulled 25-30 watts while charging. So, why can't I use just any USB brick that can output more than 30 watts?

Is there something that is bound to go wrong that I don't know about?

Are laptop chargers really that special?

(Edited for clarity)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Whatever you do, buy one of those cables that tell you how many watts are going through. Sometimes on paper you did everything right but power delivery just won't work and this will help you blame the laptop or the charger.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

How will it help determine if it's the power source or laptop?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I tend to buy chargers with multiple ports since I have several devices to power in the family. I noticed some charger ports behave different than others, and when having some devices charging others can't draw as much power as they need. Also not all chargers from my brand behave equally. So all my cables have indicator so I know my devices at least are putting in more charge than they're using..

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Also, be aware that some USB-PD passthrough docks/devices will have enough resistance that it will drop the voltage lower than required for full speed charging. My laptop drops in to a lower power state when connected through a USB-C/PD passthrough dock because the mains voltage is lower than rated.