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Published July 7, 2026. Updated September 2, 2026.
Before you read a word about what to buy, flip over the power bank you already own and read the small print. If the model number is A1263, A1257, A1642, A1647, A1652, A1681, or A1689, it has been recalled for a battery that can overheat and catch fire, and the right move is to stop charging it today — not to keep it going because it still holds a charge. For a new purchase, the current model that best fills the recalled PowerCore 10000’s old job is the Anker Nano Power Bank (30W, Built-In USB-C Cable), model A1259 — a 10,000mAh pocket bank that is not on any recall list we could find as of September 2, 2026.
This site’s earlier review of Anker’s pocket chargers told you these things age gracefully and reward keeping. For most of the lineup that is still true. For seven specific models it is now dangerously wrong, and this page exists to make sure you know which side of that line your unit sits on.
The sixty-second check: find your model number
Every Anker power bank carries its model number in printed text on the case — per the CPSC recall notices, it is on the label on the bottom of a PowerCore 10000, and on the back or side of the newer models, next to the serial number marked “SN.” The brand name on the front tells you nothing; two banks that both say “Anker” in the same engraved logo can be on opposite sides of a recall. The model number is the whole story.
Read it, then check it against this list. These are, to the best of our research on September 2, 2026, all seven Anker power bank models under recall in the United States:
| Model number | Sold as | Recall action | What Anker offers |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1263 | Anker PowerCore 10000 | CPSC recall no. 25-338, June 12, 2025 — about 1,158,000 units sold June 2016 through December 2022 | Free replacement after serial verification and a photo of the unit |
| A1642 | Anker 334 MagGo Battery (PowerCore 10K) | CPSC recall no. 25-011, October 17, 2024, expanded by Anker’s 2025 recall of the same model | Replacement via Anker’s serial-number check |
| A1647 | Anker Power Bank (20,000mAh, 22.5W, Built-In USB-C Cable) | October 2024 CPSC action, then Anker’s June 2025 global recall, then CPSC recall of September 18, 2025 | Full refund or gift card |
| A1652 | Anker MagGo Power Bank (10,000mAh, 7.5W, Stand) | Same three actions as the A1647 | Full refund or gift card |
| A1257 | Anker Power Bank (10K, 22.5W) | Anker’s June 2025 global recall; CPSC recall of September 18, 2025 | Full refund or gift card |
| A1681 | Anker Zolo Power Bank (20K, 30W, Built-In USB-C and Lightning Cable) | Anker’s June 2025 global recall; CPSC recall of September 18, 2025 | Full refund or gift card |
| A1689 | Anker Zolo Power Bank (20K, 30W, Built-In USB-C Cable) | Anker’s June 2025 global recall; CPSC recall of September 18, 2025 | Full refund or gift card |
The scale of these is not small-print stuff. The CPSC’s June 2025 notice for the A1263 covers about 1,158,000 units and cites 19 reports of fires and explosions, including two minor burn injuries and eleven reports of property damage. The September 18, 2025 notice covering the other five models adds roughly 481,000 units sold from August 2023 through June 2025, with 33 reports of fire and explosion incidents, four minor burn injuries, and one substantial property-damage claim.
If your model number is on that list
Stop using it now, even if it has behaved perfectly for years. A recalled battery that still works is not a keeper; it is a unit whose failure mode is fire rather than a dead indicator light. Then file the claim — Anker’s product-recalls page links each recall’s registration form, which checks your serial number (the affected units carry a 16-digit serial; Anker’s recall page says a serial that is not 16 digits means your unit is not affected) and walks you through the photo evidence it wants: the model number, the serial number, and for the refund recalls the word “recalled” written on the case in permanent marker.
Two keeper’s notes on the process. First, do not throw the old unit in household trash — lithium-ion cells do not belong there, and Anker’s recall instructions direct recalled units to facilities that accept lithium batteries. Second, do not plan to fly with it in the meantime: the FAA’s hazardous-materials rules for passengers state that damaged or recalled batteries may not be carried on an aircraft at all unless they have been made safe. The recall does not just end the unit’s life in your bag; it ends its life in your carry-on immediately.
The harder question: does the brand still deserve the benefit of the doubt?
An honest review has to sit with this rather than rush past it. Anker built a decade of reputation on being the safe choice in a category full of anonymous batteries — and then recalled seven power bank models across 2024 and 2025, spanning both its budget Zolo line and its premium MagGo line, with sale dates reaching from 2016 to mid-2025. That is not one bad production run. It is a cluster, and it is fair to let it move your trust.
Here is the context we weigh against it. The incident numbers in the CPSC notices — 19 reports across roughly 1.16 million A1263 units, 33 across the 481,000-unit September recall — describe a failure rate measured in the hundredths of a percent, disclosed and remedied rather than buried. The remedies themselves grew more generous over the sequence: the A1263 recall offers a replacement, while the September 2025 recall offers a full cash refund. And the recalls were run through the CPSC with public notices, serial-number lookups, and documented claim forms — the machinery you want to exist, operated the way you want it operated. Compare that with the no-name alternative, where there is no recall page because there is no company that would answer for the cell inside.
What the cluster does change, in our view, is the posture of ownership. The original review treated an Anker bank as a buy-and-forget object. The revised advice: register the product when you buy it, keep the box label or a photo of the model and serial number, and glance at Anker’s recall page — or the CPSC’s recall database at cpsc.gov — once or twice a year. Batteries are the one gadget category where the manufacturer may someday need to reach you, and these two years proved it.
What Anker sells today that cleared our recall check
We checked each model below two ways on September 2, 2026: its model number against the seven recalled numbers in the CPSC notices, and against the recalls listed on Anker’s own product-recalls page. None appears on either. Each is listed in stock on Anker’s site as of the same date; specs are from Anker’s spec sheets.
| Model | Sold as | Rated capacity | Max output | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1259 | Anker Nano Power Bank (30W, Built-In USB-C Cable) | 10,000mAh | 30W single port | 7.58 oz (215 g) |
| A1654 | Anker MagGo Power Bank (10K) | 10,000mAh (38.5Wh) | 15W wireless (Qi2) | 8.82 oz (250 g) |
| A1695 | Anker Laptop Power Bank (25K, 165W, Built-In and Retractable Cables) | 25,000mAh | 165W total, 100W per USB-C port | 21.0 oz (595 g) |
Anker Nano Power Bank (30W, Built-In USB-C Cable), model A1259 — the everyday carry
This is the natural successor to the job the PowerCore 10000 used to do: the 10,000mAh brick that lives in a bag and ends dead-phone anxiety. The spec sheet reads like a decade of owner complaints answered — a USB-C cable built into the body so there is nothing to forget, 30W from a single port so a modern phone fast-charges instead of trickling, and the same 30W going back in, so the bank itself refills in hours rather than overnight. At 7.58 ounces it weighs about what the recalled PowerCore did, in a slightly shorter body. Owners of the built-in-cable designs consistently report the cable is the feature they did not know they wanted; the honest corollary, which owners also report across this whole product genre, is that an integrated cable is one more part that has to survive years of flexing, so treat it gently at the connector.
Anker MagGo Power Bank (10K), model A1654 — for the cable-averse iPhone owner
The magnetic option: 10,000mAh, Qi2-certified 15W wireless charging, a fold-out stand, and a small display that shows an exact percentage instead of four blinking dots. It snaps to a MagSafe-compatible iPhone and charges while you use the phone propped on its stand — the airport-gate posture, essentially. Note the family resemblance warning: the recalled A1652 was also sold as a MagGo 10K with a stand. The model number, not the product name, is what distinguishes them, which is exactly why we keep repeating that the check is the printed number on the case. Wireless convenience costs weight and efficiency — at 8.82 ounces it is heavier than the A1259 despite the same rated capacity, and wireless transfer wastes more energy than a cable, a tradeoff owners report as worth it precisely when fumbling for a cable is the thing they are paying to eliminate.
Anker Laptop Power Bank (25K, 165W), model A1695 — the one-bag traveler’s outlet
For the person who carries a USB-C laptop, this is the category’s ceiling before you leave carry-on territory: 25,000mAh, 165W total output, 100W from a single USB-C port — genuine laptop-charging wattage — with one built-in retractable USB-C cable and a second built-in cable, so the bank works with empty pockets. Anker labels it flight-approved, and at 21 ounces it is a deliberate purchase, not an impulse one: you are carrying a can of soup’s worth of battery. Buy it for what it does that the pocket banks cannot; skip it if your heaviest device is a phone.
The arithmetic on the label, decoded
The number on the case never matches what reaches your phone, and Anker itself explains why: its support documentation puts the conversion through the bank’s circuitry at about 82 percent efficiency, and the receiving device’s own conversion at about 82 percent again, for roughly 67 percent overall. Run that on the A1259: 10,000mAh × 0.67 ≈ 6,700mAh actually delivered, which against the 3,200mAh phone battery Anker uses in its own worked example comes to about 2.1 full charges. The A1695’s 25,000mAh becomes roughly 16,750mAh by the same math — call it five charges of that reference phone, or one laptop rescue plus change. If your phone’s battery is bigger than 3,200mAh, and most current large phones are, expect less. That is physics and disclosed engineering, not fraud — but it is why first-time buyers who expected “10,000mAh” to mean three full charges leave disappointed reviews.
Weight tells a story the capacity number hides. The A1259 packs its 10,000mAh into 7.58 ounces; the A1654 needs 8.82 ounces for the same rated capacity, because magnets, a charging coil, a stand, and a display all weigh something; the A1695 carries 2.5 times the capacity at 2.8 times the weight. None of these ratios is a defect — they are the price tags, in ounces, of wireless convenience and laptop wattage, and knowing them is how you buy the right one instead of the biggest one.
Owning one for years, revised
The long-haul picture from owner reports has not changed: what owners report across multi-year threads is gradual capacity fade rather than sudden death, with banks surviving years of backpack abuse and glove-compartment temperature swings while slowly delivering fewer charges per fill. A power bank is a consumable with a long fuse — plan on replacing one after some years of heavy use, and treat a bank that gets unusually hot, swells, or smells like solvent as an immediate retirement, not a quirk. Anker’s product pages advertise a hassle-free warranty and lifetime customer support; as the recalls themselves demonstrated, keeping your proof of purchase and serial number is what turns those promises into outcomes.
Travel rules are worth stating precisely, because power banks live in luggage. Per the FAA’s PackSafe rules for lithium batteries, spare lithium-ion batteries — power banks explicitly included — must travel in carry-on baggage only, never checked; they are limited to 100 watt-hours each, with up to two larger batteries of 101–160Wh allowed only with airline approval; and if your carry-on gets gate-checked, the power bank comes out and stays with you in the cabin. Every model in our table sits under the 100Wh line — the A1654’s label states 38.5Wh outright. Pack accordingly, and check your own airline’s rules, which the FAA notes can be stricter.
If you are building out a carry-on kit around one of these, our guides to carry-on-only travel backpacks, packing cubes that actually save space, and digital luggage scales cover the rest of the bag. More gear for the road lives in our travel gear and luggage section.
Who should skip a power bank entirely
The honest exclusions survive from the original review. If your day runs desk to car charger to home outlet, a power bank will live in a drawer — be honest about that before buying. If you already own a working, non-recalled unit, upgrading for marginal spec gains is rarely worth it in this category; the time to replace is when the model number fails the check above or the battery genuinely fades. And if what you actually need is all-day laptop power for real work, even the A1695 is a bridge, not a solution — it rescues a laptop; it does not run one indefinitely.
Questions owners are asking now
How do I know if my Anker power bank has been recalled?
Find the model number printed on the unit — on the label on the bottom of a PowerCore 10000, or on the back or side of newer models. If it reads A1263, A1257, A1642, A1647, A1652, A1681, or A1689, stop using it and file a claim through Anker’s product-recalls page, which verifies your serial number and issues the remedy.
Can I bring an Anker power bank on a plane?
Yes, in carry-on baggage only — the FAA prohibits spare lithium-ion batteries, including power banks, in checked bags, and limits them to 100 watt-hours each without airline approval. A recalled battery may not be carried on an aircraft at all under FAA rules unless it has been made safe.
Is the Anker PowerCore 10000 still safe to use?
Not if it is model A1263, sold from June 2016 through December 2022 — the CPSC recalled about 1,158,000 of them in June 2025 after 19 reports of fires and explosions. Check the label on the bottom; if it says A1263, stop charging it and register with Anker for a free replacement.
How many phone charges does a 10,000mAh power bank really deliver?
About two for a typical phone. Anker’s own support documentation puts real-world transfer efficiency near 67 percent, so a 10,000mAh bank delivers roughly 6,700mAh — about 2.1 charges of a 3,200mAh phone battery, and fewer for larger phones.
The keeper’s bottom line
The category is as useful as it ever was — a charged phone is a boarding pass, a map, and a lifeline, and a good 10,000mAh bank still buys back that whole layer of low-grade anxiety. What the 2024–2025 recalls changed is the relationship: a power bank is no longer a thing you buy once and stop thinking about. Check the model number on the one you own against the seven recalled numbers above. If it fails, claim your remedy and recycle it properly. If you are buying new, the A1259, A1654, and A1695 all cleared our recall check on September 2, 2026 — and wherever you land, keep the serial number somewhere you can find it, because the whole lesson of the last two years is that someday the manufacturer may need to reach you.
