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by jonhohle 14 days ago
For the vast majority of things I need to power or charge, dumb USB charging is fine, and I have a 10-port Anker “IQ” charger that works great for most of those things. Why doesn’t the equivalent USB-C charger exist? I don’t need 65W on each port. I just needs lots of ports for gadgets that can trickle charge for hours at night (4 kids, lots of devices). I mostly want to standardize on USB-C host cables, but no one makes a cheap device for doing that more than a decade after USB-C became a thing.
4 comments

The reason is because while you want to use the low end the general public does not understand that USB-C is the connector only and that various levels of power and data depend on the cable and the device at both ends.

If you sell a 10 port USB-C charged someone is going to plug 10 MacBooks into it and complain it doesnt work.

The best I have seen for what you want is

https://ca.ugreen.com/products/ugreen-500w-desktop-charger

but is not cheap at all or something like

https://www.amazon.ca/Powered-Aluminum-Adapter-Computer-Prin...

Macbooks aren't the absolute best example anymore, since 20W is plenty to charge ARM-based MacBooks in a few hours, so a 200W 10-port charger could do a fine job with 10 MacBooks.

But your point is still valid. As a nerd I really appreciate being able to use say, my 100W laptop charger or the car jumpstarter pack I have to charge up my earbuds or an electric toothbrush, since it reduces the number of weird little cables or chargers I have to keep track of, but it sure does baffle the non-technical majority that their toothbrush charger fits their laptop 'for some reason' but of course does nothing - plus the confusion when they realize they could physically plug the toothbrush into a pair of headphones, or plug two portable batteries together.

I've seen 1000W (or so they claim) 10 port USB-C chargers on Amazon. Not Anker, just a no name Chinese brand I am not going to trust. But they do seem to exist. Like the sibling comment says, I assume it's because people expect USB-C charging capabilities to be a lot higher.
Do you believe the 16 TB uSD cards from no name Chinese brands on Amazon as well? If so, I have a bridge to sell - limited time offer!

500W (with 1 port being true 240 W) is the highest legitimate one I've run across - and I search often for real alternatives to buy. Even bulky GaN PC PSUs selling for $500 can't exceed 700W without assisted cooling due to efficiency->heat reasons.

> Do you believe

I will just quote myself to answer that.

> or so they claim

> a no name Chinese brand I am not going to trust

Yet if seeing fakes on Amazon convinces you:

> But they do seem to exist

I still have my bridge to sell. Quoting the parts which lead to a reply isn't really a response as it's guaranteed to lead to the same place.

> Why doesn’t the equivalent USB-C charger exist?

Isn't this just a USB 3.x hub?

You know of a 10-port USB-C hub that can negotiate power (old USB style, not PD) without a host device?
I'm guessing it's because people expect USB-C ports to at least handle 18w.