To check battery on the JBL Go 3 speaker, the status lamp tells about the whole story. If it’s not blinking red, you still have an hour or so of play time left before absolute deadness ensues. More details follow…
How to Check JBL Go 3 Speaker Battery: How Much Charge is Left
1. First, Turn ON the Speaker
You won’t be able to read battery charge status unless the speaker is ON.
To turn on the speaker, press and release the Power button, circled in the last picture.
The little lamp in that button should then come on, as shown next, and the speaker should make its startup sound. If it does not, then the battery could be completely dead. If this happens, then try recharging the speaker and trying again.
But as long as there’s some juice in the battery, the speaker should power up. When it does, move on to the next step.
2. Look at the Speaker Status Lamp
Now when the Go 3 battery gets very low, the Power lamp starts flashing red. So if you see this, then you can tell that the battery is quite low.
But if the light glows or flashes white, then all you can deduce about battery charge level, is that it has more juice than when it’s critically low. Why? Because this speaker has no battery level gauge that would offer more detailed readings. So there’s really no way to know exactly how full the battery is. All you can tell is that the battery is not very low, or it is. Thus, we’d suggest fully charging the speaker before, or carrying a charger with you, any time you plan to count on it for the longest lasting music play.
How to Check JBL Go 3 Speaker Battery: Playtime Per Charge
When the speaker is new, and using a full power USB-C charger, the Go 3 charge time is about two and a half (2.5) hours to reach a full charge.
And, the fully charged battery should last for around five hours of play time before going dead.
A sign of a bad battery, is that it goes dead too fast, or takes too little or too much time to fully charge. So if you fully charge your speaker, but it only plays for under three hours before dying, its battery may be bad, and thus, unable to hold a full charge anymore.
Moreover, should the battery take longer than three hours to completely recharge, this could also mean a failing battery. This could indicate too that the charger you’re using is defective or simply not strong enough to recharge the speaker in the specified charge time of 2.5 hours.
Also, slow charging can happen because your charge cord is too thin. So for best results, we suggest using a thicker variety of USB-C cable (one that easily carries 2.1 amps).