“What is the best way to charge several devices at once on USB?”

A good externally powered USB hub — that is, one with its own separate power supply — is what you need.

The external power is key because USB is fundamentally a data transfer standard, not a battery-charging standard. Charging takes a lot more power than data-transfer; a PC’s built-in USB sockets are simply not designed to pump out lots of power.

An externally powered USB hub can provide the USB-maximum-allowed power to each socket, regardless of how many devices are plugged in.

The better ones also have separate, dedicated “smart charging” sockets to support various smartphone high-speed recharging standards, which operate at voltages and amperages far higher than the USB standard.

Here’s an example of a hub with its own external, wall-plug, power supply. This one is from Amazon, but there are many, many others.

To recharge many USB devices at once, use a USB hub with its own external power supply, like this example from Amazon.

An added benefit: An externally-powered hub can also recharge devices whether or not the PC is on, which can give you greater flexibility in managing your battery-powered devices.

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3 Replies to ““What is the best way to charge several devices at once on USB?””

  1. Unfortunately, a lot of those hubs have a total amp limit that makes them less useful for charging more than a single modern phone at a time, regardless of how many things it has the potential to plug in. I have killed quite a few of them by plugging in 2 devices at the same time, whose total combined amps drawn exceeded the capabilities of the hub.

    This is why I opted for a better solution being a good power strip with a built in surge protector, and individual, single device chargers.

    Now I don’t have to think about whether or not I am exceeding any sort of totals, because each individual charger is rated for the devices I am attempting to charge, and they do their job without any sort of mental gymnastics on my part.

    And yes, you can get a good power strip/surge protector that’s designed to hold all those boxy chargers. Mine is a Belkin, similar to this one, which will easily hold 6-8 chargers, https://www.amazon.com/Belkin-BE112230-08-12-Outlet-Power-Protector/dp/B000J2EN4S/

    That’s enough for the entire family’s needs, phones, tablets, smart watches, power banks, fitness trackers, MP3 players, Bluetooth headphones & speakers, etc. Chances are, not everything will need to be charged all at the same time, so 6-8 chargers should do it.

      1. The one you linked to has only 1 dedicated charging port with a limit of 2.4 amps. The other 7 are intended for data, with a combined total limit of 3 amps. That’s not very much to split between 7 ports, and you could easily exceed the limit with 2 devices.

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