Originally Posted by
StuckInYYZ
At the time, I don't think anyone had that high a capacity yet (or if they did, it wasn't common). The model I had at the time was 4000 or 5000mah... never opened them to look inside, but I would assume maybe three to four cells. These weren't out of China. Brand was "Genius".... was a squarish type with a USB-A to micro as well as two USB-A ports. I remember still seeing them at those warehouse sales here pre-covid, but not since. I think I still have one power bank from that era but I don't use them too much now as I'm not travelling as often and my car has USB ports (and AC plugs) so it's not as much of an issue (unless I need to enable the hotspot on my phone away from any power).
So I was reading up on this, and apparently the ‘CCC’ certification program (and mark) used for power banks was only introduced in August 2023:
https://www.tuvsud.com/en/knowledge-...-ion-batteries
So all power banks sold before August 2023 have effectively now been banned from domestic flights within China.
(The announcement also says they were going to ban sale of any power banks without the ‘CCC’ marking from August 2024, so new power banks sold in China should be fine?)
In your case, I think it was indeed the Wh marking which they were looking for — they were very strict about this requirement.
If a power bank did not have the Wh listed, i.e. if it just had the mAh and V marking, just the mAh marking, or neither, that power bank would be confiscated by security.
It didn’t matter if the battery itself was too small (whether physically or based on the mAh value): if the marking wasn’t there (or worn off so as to be illegible), it didn’t fly.
For example, this one, despite it stating the tiny ‘mAh’ value, would be banned due to no Wh value:
Originally Posted by
docbert
The 'fun' part here in the context of the China ban is that, as if often the case, not all of these Anker charges are affected - only certain serial number ranges are.
If China actually attempts to enforce this rule around recalled devices (and I wouldn't put it past them to try - their enforcement around power banks in the past has been fairly strict) then they are either going to have to ban all of these models, or do a serial number check at check-in to make sure your individual device isn't affect. Neither of which seem all that viable...
Ouch, I did not see that only specific serial number ranges of each model are banned…
As the CCC certification program for power banks is only 2 years old, any power bank from prior to that is effectively banned, so most non-recalled power banks are also anyway now not allowed, but it will indeed be interesting to see what types of checks they do for future recalls where the power banks all have the ‘CCC’ mark.
I’m guessing that the approach they’d take is to just ban the product / model number as a whole, regardless of whether the specific instance was covered by the recall or not.