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I just bought a battery Viking Smartech II, and I have this problem. It started slowly to charge, from 1% up to 20% after an hour. I wanted to test it so I unplugged the power cable from DC-IN - and the battery suddenly discharged (the number on the display went immediatelly down to 1%). The battery couldn't be turned on.

So I started to charge it again - and it went again slowly from 1% up to cca 15% when I unplugged the power cord again - with the same result! And had to start over again from 1% slowly up (this time it seems though that the charging goes a bit faster).

What is going on?

  1. Is this a common way the external bateries (powerbanks) work? Or is it a malfunction?

  2. Does the battery have any (intentional) discharging mechanism? Or is it a failure?

  3. Or does the brand new battery need to be fully charged first?

I just wanted to take it out ASAP with those 20%, but apparently one can't trust what the display shows (?).

enter image description here

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    It depends on the battery tech. Give it 24h initial charge then try again. If it does the same, send it back.
    – Tetsujin
    May 9, 2020 at 13:21
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    Definitely wait until it shows more than 20%, especially if it is new. Charge it to 100% the first time, and every time after that, if possible.
    – Michael Harvey
    May 9, 2020 at 13:25
  • Thank you guys! I was impatient because outside it's beautiful spring, so I didn't want to wait :) But seems it's necessary, thanks for confirmation.
    – Tomas
    May 9, 2020 at 14:22

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The Viking Smartech II is a huge battery with 40000mAh.

Even with fast charging support, the above link says:

Charging time:
About 6 hours

So 20% in one hour seems about right.

I suggest to let it charge for at least 7 hours. If after that time it is still far from 100%, or if it again discharges very fast, then the battery is defective and requires replacement.

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  • Thank you Harrymc. I was impatient because outside it's beautiful spring, so I didn't want to wait :) But seems it's necessary, thanks for confirmation.
    – Tomas
    May 9, 2020 at 14:23
  • And wow, you post link from Alza, I just bought it there in Prague... it's crazy that Alza is known all over the world :-)
    – Tomas
    May 9, 2020 at 14:28
  • Thanks. In the end, the behaviour was the same even after whole weekend of charging, so I returned it. A new one of the same type behaved normally, so it probably was a defect.
    – Tomas
    May 16, 2020 at 19:24

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