The JBL Charge 5 has a a charging light, in its front lower area. This is normal, and it displays battery status as it charges. Whether it’s draining or charging. So it displays charging progress. Or it shows how full the battery is at a given time while charging. It also tells you how much “juice” the battery has left as the battery discharges.
JBL Charge 5 Charging Light: How to Read It
1. The Charging Light is Entirely Dark
When you power down the Charge 5 with no charger connected, no lamps light up, as we see next. This bar is also dark when a charger IS working but the battery is already full. The charging light is on the lower front of the speaker.
2. JBL Charge 5 Charging Light: Shows Battery Recharging Progress
There are five tiny LED lamps inside the speaker, that illuminate the charging light bar in various degrees. These light in succession as the speaker charging fills the battery. The Charge 5 is charging when you see part of the bar blinking white. When the battery is nearly dead, the bottom edge of the bar blinks white while charging. Then as charging continues, more of the bar lights up, and the flashing end of the bar moves upward.
Note though, that you may see the bottom most part of the indicator blink red. This does not mean that charging is proceeding. Instead, it means that the speaker battery is critically low and that you should recharge the speaker immediately.
It only flashes red like this when the battery is nearly dead and AC power is not present. But when you do that, this red flashing light changes to blinking white. Remember though, that this light never flashes red while charging.
3. When All Lamps Light Up Solid, Charging is Complete
As charging continues, more of the LEDs on the charging light bar glow solid. That is, the flashing LED moves further up, until reaching the topmost area of the bar.
Battery charging is complete when all but the very last little segment of the indicator lights solid. That last part continues to blink for several minutes. Again, you know that charging is occurring if one of the battery charge level lamps is flashing white.
Note that during the charge cycle, part of the indicator is dark (top most portion). This lets you know about how much more the battery must charge before reaching fullness.
The battery recharge cycle finishes when the entire battery status gauge goes dark, as we see above. Thus, the battery is no longer charging when all lamps are OFF. Even with the AC charger still connected, no part of the indicator glows when the battery is full.
4. This Lamp is Also a Battery Charge Remaining Meter
When unplugged from the charger, what was the battery charging indicator becomes the battery charge left indicator. The more lights lit, the fuller the battery. The fewer glowing lamps, the less speaker run time left. These lamps show battery status briefly just after you power up the Charge 5. They also show this whenever you tap the volume buttons. To save power, these lamps go dark after some seconds. So to see the charge remaining indication again, just punch the volume UP or DOWN button.
The last picture shows the speaker powered ON, with the entire charging light aglow. This means that the battery is between eighty and one hundred percent full.