The JBL Charge 5 has an LED indicator in its front lower area. This displays battery status. 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 LED Indicator: How to Read It
1. The LED Indicator is All Dark
When you power down the Charge 5 with no charger present, no LED indicator lamps light up. This bar is also dark when a charger IS working but the battery is already full.
2. JBL Charge 5 LED Indicator Shows Battery Recharging Progress
There are five tiny lamps inside the speaker, that illuminate the LED Indicator 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 solid, 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 happening. Instead, the battery is very low and that you should recharge it immediately.
It only flashes red like this when the battery is nearly dead and AC power is not present. But when you connect a charger, this red flashing light changes to blinking white. Remember though, that this light is never red while charging.
3. When the Whole LED Indicator Lights Solid, Charging is Complete
As speaker charging continues, more of the LEDs on the LED Indicator light up 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. The JBL Charge 5 LED Indicator is Also a Battery Charge Remaining Meter
When unplugged from the charger, what was the battery LED 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 LED Indicator aglow. This means that the battery is between eighty and one hundred percent full.