The JBL Clip 3 charging light is a single LED on its top panel. Find it under the carabiner clip. This LED displays battery status, whether it’s draining or charging, or whether it’s critically low. But it does not tell you the charging progress. Nor does it show how much “juice” remains in the battery. However it does change color when the battery gets too low. So in this piece, we describe in detail how to read the JBL Clip 3 Charging Light.
JBL Clip 3 Charging Light: How to Read It
1. The Charging Light Lamp is OFF
When you power down the Clip 3 without a charger, this lamp is dark. The lamp is also dark when the charger IS present, but charging is complete.
2. JBL Clip 3 Charging Light Shows Recharging Progress
The status lamp lights up red (no flashing) while the speaker charges, as shown in the next picture. On this speaker, the glowing light is the only visual indication that charging is going on. But it does not display how far along the charging is.
Note that this lamp blinks red when the battery is critically low. So you should recharge the speaker immediately. When you apply adequate USB power, this red flashing light turns to a solid red. Also note that this light never flashes red while charging is happening.
3. When the Light Goes Out While Charging, Then Charging is Complete
As speaker charging continues, the light keeps glowing red. Charging is complete when the lamp goes dark or turns white. It turns off when the speaker is not ON, and turns white when it is ON.
This next picture shows the speaker during charge cycle. Note the red light.
The battery recharge cycle finishes when the status lamp turns off. Even with the AC charger still present, the lamp is dark when battery is full and the speaker is OFF.
4. This Charging Light Is Not Much of a Charge Remaining Meter
When unplugged from the charger, what was the Charging Light becomes the battery charge left indicator. Well sort of. If it glows white, then the battery has some amount of play time left, although you cannot tell how much.
The next picture shows a JBL Clip 3, powered ON, with the battery status lamp glowing solid white. Note though that this light blinks white when the speaker has no active sessions.
But this light only alerts us when the battery gets critically low. Then, it starts flashing red.