What's the maximum charging speed of the Framework 16 laptop?

[xol]

Hello all! Not sure if I worded it right but I’m buying the Framework 16 laptop with the Radeon GPU, and I want to be able to quickly charge up my laptop again after using it.
If I buy a 130w charger, as opposed to the 60w charger offered by framework, will my laptop be able to charge substantially faster? Or is there some sort of cap that only allows it to charge up to 60w?

[Charlie_6]

You can download the ectool and “sudo ectool battery” in terminal, there’s a “Desired current”

[Matthew_Quarisa]

Framework sell a 180W charger for the Framework 16. I believe it can charge at 240W (when those chargers are generally available).

https://frame.work/au/en/products/16-power-adapter?v=FRANCR000Z

Framework

[Magic]

@xol

If I buy a 130w charger, as opposed to the 60w charger offered by framework, will my laptop be able to charge substantially faster?

The Framework charger is 180W.

[MJ1]

@Matthew_Quarisa

I believe it can charge at 240W (when those chargers are generally available).

That’s just what it can accept from a power supply. For running the system when it’s on, and charging the battery with whatever is left over. The max charge rate is limited by what the battery can handle. For FWL13 batteries, I believe it’s 1C, presuming it’s the same for the FWL16 battery then that’s 85W max.

[MJ1]

It didn’t seem like anyone was concerned about the AC side. Unless you’re living off-grid or perhaps using an outlet on a plane, most people think about what the AC side draws, conversion losses.

[RandomRanger]

I would highly recommend the 180W charger. Of all the laptop chargers I’ve had, this one is the nicest, is guaranteed to work, and is about the same size as my 60W thinkpad charger.

[Kyle_Reis]

@xol

If I buy a 130w charger, as opposed to the 60w charger offered by framework, will my laptop be able to charge substantially faster? Or is there some sort of cap that only allows it to charge up to 60w?

As Framework’s CEO stated in another thread all Framework laptops are designed for a maximum charging C-rate of 1C.

C-rate is the ratio of charging speed (in W) to battery capacity (in Wh). Since the battery is 85 Wh and the ratio is 1:1 that means the maximum charging speed is 85 W.

However some of the power is wasted in the charging circuitry, meaning that in order to reach the full 85 W charging the battery it actually needs at least a 90 W charger (or possibly a bit higher).

The main reason to have a charger greater than 90 W is for using it while plugged in.

Side note, you mentioned “130w charger” in your post. I am not aware of any 130 W chargers that use the open standard for fast charging, which means that they will not work (at least not at full power) with the Framework Laptop. Afaik all currently available chargers that use USB-C PD standard are either ≤100 W, exactly 140 W, or exactly 180 W (Framework’s charger). So anything listed as 130w is a red flag.

Here is the quote from Framework’s CEO.

@nrp

On both Framework Laptop 13 and Framework Laptop 16, the batteries are designed to charge at 1C, and the charging circuitry will only ever charge up to that rate, regardless of the power adapter wattage. That means up to 55W/61W on 13 and 85W on 16. Charging above 1C would require either putting extra wear on the battery that limits cycle life, or using a battery chemistry that has less energy density.

There is some loss in the charging circuity, so you’ll need something like a >60W/65W power adapter for 13 and a >90W power adapter for 16 to charge the battery at full rate if the system is in standby, or more if the system is in active use.

[Allenx51]

An Item of note, that was brought up in Elevated System’s last review is that with the 180 Watt supply, heavy workload use will still draw from the battery when the GPU module is in use. So something lower like 130Watts will mostly likely do the same, drawing more from the battery while in use.

[Matthew_Quarisa]

Ah yes, apologies I misread the original post.