Posted 4 hours ago

Charging a Switch/3DS via Powerbank

Hi, I keep reading allsorts of stories about this.
Basically, is it ok to charge the Switch and 3DS with a portable power bank away from home via a non Nintendo cable?

The portable bank is a fast charger. It does have a trickle charge option but I think it would be too slow for consoles.
Thanks
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  1. jco83's avatar
    It is safe to charge the Nintendo Switch with a third-party USB charger or power bank. There have been no confirmed reports of quality charger damaging a Switch console. There have been problems with third party docks. But those issues stem from bad Power Delivery protocols on the dock’s power transfer chip. As with any accessory do your homework and buy well-reviewed and quality products.
    switchchargers.com/safely-charge-nintendo-switch/
    Read this website
  2. Deedie's avatar
    Try it and see. Can't do any harm
    Robloxian's avatar
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    It works but I don't want to fry the internals by not using the original chargers.
  3. EndlessWaves's avatar
    IIRC all switches were updated to support the standard USB-PD protocol that's rapidly becoming the standard so there's no issues there. It also has a fairly small 16Wh battery so even a standard USB connection will charge it in a reasonable time.

    This is purely a power delivery thing, the actual battery management and charging will be done by the console itself. So it's much more likely that any issues from a power supply that doesn't implement USB properly will happen soon after plugging it in rather than slowly destroying the battery over time.
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