What is minimum amperage for an iPad charger?

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Level 1

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What is minimum amperage for an iPad charger?

My company has about 6,000 iPad 6th generation units we use. These go out to the public to assist with voting during elections. As you can imagine the charging cables as well as power bricks take a beating. We regularly need to replace these components. Also, the hired staff who set these devices up in various locations often take a shortcut and plug them into the USB port on the power strips.

I can't find on the website where a minimum wattage and/or amperage is for these. I want to put this information in my setup guide.

What minimum amperage and wattage should a USB charger sustain for the iPads?

iPad (6th gen) WiFi

Posted on Dec 7, 2022 4:22 PM

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Answer 1

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brbo

Level 8

35,921 points

Dec 8, 2022 8:43 PM in response to perfectreign

This discussion thread is from some years ago, yet does detail amps:

What is the charging current of ipad? - Apple Community

Eg: says:

An iPad has a rating of 10 Watts. Hence, by simple math we have: iPad Current = 10 Watts / 5 Volts = 2 Amps. This is the current "drawn" by an iPad.

The safest thing is naturally to use the iPad charger, which has been taylored to work for the iPad. But if not available and one must resort temporarily to another charger, the best option is to use one with an output of 5 Volts and 2 Amps".

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Answer 2

brbo

Level 8

35,921 points

Dec 8, 2022 8:47 PM in response to perfectreign

PS: However, Apple Support's article is up-to-date,

and details what the various iPad models need:

About Apple USB power adapters - Apple Support

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Answer 3

perfectreign Author

Level 1

49 points

Dec 9, 2022 8:22 AM in response to LotusPilot

Thank you both! This is good to know. As I said, I'm in charge of the care and feeding of 6,000 iPads used to register and process voters in Los Angeles County. We deploy these to various locations. Typically, we use one or more vendors to handle the deployment and we've had numerous reports of the pads not maintaining charge. I suspected that the field techs were plugging the cable into a power strip USB port but wanted something concrete to tell them.

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Answer 4

Dec 9, 2022 5:42 AM in response to perfectreign

Most models of iPad require a Power Adapter rated at 10-12W (i.e., 2.0-2.4A @5V) or greater to reliably charge.

5W Power Adapters (or some power-strips) intended for charging mobile phones (e.g., iPhone) are inadequate to charge an iPad; if the iPad charges at all, charging will be unreliable or very slow.

Be aware that many computer USB ports cannot source sufficient power to charge an iPad. Unless explicitly designed for charging connected devices, computer USB ports are typically limited to 0.5-1A @5V (i.e., 2.5-5.0W).

Most (if not all) current models of iPad are now supplied with 20W USB-C Power Adapters - although as already outlined, iPads can be successfully charged at a slower rate from a 10-12 USB power source.

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Answer 5

Dec 9, 2022 8:30 AM in response to perfectreign

You very welcome. I’m delighted that this information was helpful.

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What is minimum amperage for an iPad charger?

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