Skullcandy wireless earbuds are quite easy to use, but if you’ve never had a pair of wireless earbuds before you may not know how to charge them, and even as great as the company is, Skullcandy’s own documentation can sometimes be a bit lacking.
Luckily charging Skullcandy earbuds is as easy as anything, especially if you have a clear and simple guide, so that’s just what I’m going to offer here – basic and easy to follow instructions on how to charge Skullcandy headphones.
How to Charge Skullcandy Wireless Earbuds
There are 2 ways how to charge Skullcandy earbuds:
- With the Included Cable – this is the main and standard way to charge Skullcandy earbuds, and is very quick and easy.
- Wirelessly – this is a way to charge Skullcandy earbuds without even connecting them to anything, but keep in mind that you would need to have/purchase a separate wireless charger (not included with your Skullcandy earbuds), and wireless charging is much slower. Also, not all Skullcandy earbuds can be charged wirelessly.
When you charge your earbuds, you are actually charging 3 different batteries at the same time – each earbud has a battery, and the hard case has its own battery.
This is in fact one of the nicest things about Skullcandy earbuds – or any true wireless earbuds, for that matter – that the carrying/charging case provides a kind of backup power bank, so when you are out and about, and your earbuds are low on battery, you can simply put them in the case to charge them back up.
Even though there are 3 batteries, you will charge them all at the same time, with one simple process. Once this is done, your earbuds will be fully charged, and should last anywhere from 6-8 hours.
And again, you will be charging the battery inside the case as well, so after this 6-8 hours of battery life runs out you can simply insert your Skullcandy earbuds back into the case, and get 2-3 more charges – so after the initial charge, you effectively have from 20-30 hours of battery life, and even more with some Skullcandy earbud models!
So let’s explain in exact detail how to charge your Skullcandy ‘buds – I’m going to include the 2 basic methods below – charging with the included charging cable, and charging wirelessly – and then I will explain how to use the carrying / charging case to recharge your earbuds.
Method One – Charging Skullcandy Wireless Earbuds With the Included Cable
- Place both earbuds inside the Skullcandy headphone carrying/charging case – they can only go in one way, and when they are in you will see a solid red LED light on each of them.
- Plug the included charging cable into the Skullcandy headphone carrying/charging case.
- Your Skullcandy earbuds will have come with a charging cable, which has a larger (Standard USB) plug on one side, and a smaller (Micro-USB) plug on the other. The smaller Micro USB plug goes into the outlet on the back of the headphone carrying/charging case – it doesn’t need to be turned a certain way, and should slide in easily.
- Now plug the other end of the cable into a wall charger, car charger,computer USB port, USB port on a power strip, power bank (like the excellent Skullcandy Stash Fuel) or any other powered USB charging port.
- Note that your Skullcandy headphones don’t come with a USB wall charger, but the one you use with your phone will work fine, or again any of the other charging outlets listed above.
- The normal USB plug needs to be turned a certain way to go in, so you may need to turn it 180 degrees. It will go in easily when turned the right way, so never try to force it into the charger.
- When you have plugged in both cables, an LED light on the Skullcandy charging case will show red, and when the case and earbuds are fully charged that LED light will change to green – usually in just a couple of hours, though this varies slightly depending on model.
And, believe it or not, that’s it!
Here are a couple of important things to remember, though:
- Never try to plug the charging cable directly into a wall socket, which is very dangerous and will damage the cord and possibly even your headphones. When you hear “plug the charging cable into the wall” this means plug the cable into a USB wall charger, which charger itself is plugged into a wall socket.
- I’ve said above that you can use a USB socket on your PC or laptop, but keep in mind that charging this way will normally take much longer than with a power strip or wall charger.
- A power bank is really handy to have, but it also can take a bit longer to charge from.
Method Two – Charging Skullcandy Wireless Earbuds Wirelessly
This is a great idea and a slick invention, which allows you to simply set your Skullcandy carrying / charging case on top of a mysterious space-agey charging platform, and it will charge everything fully – no wires or connections!
The first thing to mention about charging wirelessly is that you need to have a wireless charger. No Skullcandy headphones or earbuds come with a wireless charging pad, so you would need to purchase one separately. A wireless charger will work not only with your Skullcandy ‘buds, but also with any other device, from Skullcandy or other companies, as long as that device supports wireless charging.
The Skullcandy Fuelbase Max Wireless Charge Pad is a good choice, but I really like the less expensive JennyM Fast Wireless Charger.
You should also remember that this is a slower way to charge your Skullcandy wireless earbuds, and it does not work with most of their current or older models. At the time of this writing, the only Skullcandy earbuds that work with a wireless charger are:
- Skullcandy Grind Fuel
- Skullcandy Indy Fuel
- Skullcandy Indy ANC
- Skullcandy Indy ANC Fuel
- Skullcandy Push Ultra
- Skullcandy Sesh
The procedure is ridiculously simple:
- Place both earbuds inside the Skullcandy headphone carrying/charging case – they can only go in one way, and when they are in you will see a solid red LED light on each of them.
- Plug the wireless charger into a wall socket.
- Place the earbud case on the center of the charging platform.
- An LED light on the Skullcandy charging case will show red, and when the case and earbuds are fully charged that LED light will change to green.
How to Charge Skullcandy Earbuds Using the Charging Case
Once the battery in your Skullcandy earbuds is spent, you can simply put them back into the carrying / charging case, and get 2 or 3 more full charges.
This is the easiest method of them all, but remember that you have to have the case fully charged first, using either of the two processes outlined above.
- Place your Skullcandy wireless earbuds in the carrying / charging case.
- You will see the LED glow solid red, meaning they are charging.
- When the LED stops glowing, the ‘buds are fully charged, and can be used for another several hours.
- Charging in this way normally takes no more than an hour, but with some of the ANC (active noise cancelling) models it can take up to 2 hours or more.