Laptop docking stations and pass through power

No expert, but my gut feeling is the laptop will just charge slower. If it's plugged in for hours at a time then that's probably pretty irrelevant.

You'll need to check the power draw of the laptop & ensure it puts enough through - the docks we have at work with pass through at 150W, & charge most people's laptops.

You'll also want to check the bandwidth of your USB-C port to ensure it can output on the size screens at the resolution you want.

If it's for a Mac it'll need to be display link compatible else you'll only get one screen

My dell laptop has a 130w power supply and never had issues running with a 65w docking station, one usb-c cable, 2 screens etc. etc.

RM.

I've found that pass through power is nothing of the sort. The dock will hive off some of it to run itself and whatever is plugged in.  What's more important is will the dock allow communication back to the PSU, which dell seem to rely on to sort out charge speed and, more importantly, processor performance. HP seem to forbid this and my XPS complains about being plugged into a slow charger as a result. My wife's HP laptops will happily accept whatever they are connected to though. We went through about 3 different docks until I found some dell wd19s going cheap that my xps got on with.

I've heard a couple of people who get a slower discharge while using cheaper docs, as in, it keeps the laptop going, but start doing teams calls and you are charging at a rate lower than consumption!

This works well for me for both Mac and Windows (Dell Latitude, various models). Mac gets its power, data and video via USB-C, PC via separate power cable coming from the dock (data /video via USB-C with a built in USB-A adapter fastened to the C cable). YMMV.

Both will handle 2 x monitor + laptop screen (3 screens) all showing different content, no mirroring.

https://uk.targus.com/collections/docking-stations/products/universal-usb-c-dv4k-dp-docking-station-with-65w-power-delivery-dock315euz

Looking to get one to run multiple monitors etc, supply power

The dell power pack says it’s 130w out, but most docking stations pass through power seems to be a lot lower than that, average around 90w but that’s going directly to the usb/thunderbolt.

What are you actually trying to do that the power to individual ports matters? Are you actually powering the monitor via Thunderbolt (I didn't think those sort of monitors were readily available)? Or gaming and need a certain minimum power to drive the GPU? If it's just about making sure the laptop itself gets a decent amount of power for charging whilst docked then the Dell WDS22TB4 provides 130w for certain Dell laptops (provided it's using a 180w power brick), with a 130w brick it will supply 90w to the laptop

I use a WDS22TB4 at home with dual monitors (but only 1 x 4k and 1 x HD so not exactly pushing the envelope), works great though

I was losing my mind at why my Lenovo device would charge and connect to monitors, mouses, keyboards, etc in the office, but at home would only connect to peripherals and not charge.

I tried swapping out the power cable I was using at home, the docking station at home and losing my mind...turned out, at home I had the 90w charger and not the 135w charger so power wasn't also passed through. Once I got the right charger, power was passed through.

So, if someone says get a higher powered one, do it is my learning now.

Thanks all. Knew this was the place to come - Google searches were a complete wormhole.

FuzzyWuzzy - It's for a pretty hefty graphics card which is why it needs a decent amount of power to the GPU (as much as I understand it)

Guess it's a bit trial and error as to how much through power is enough to satisfy performance and charging.

I'm just a little dubious about putting a full 130w into USB not knowing how the 130w that goes into the specifc power port is distributed, so tempted to try a lower power through docking station first - or is that just unecessarily cautious?

afaik docking stations don't "pass through" power as such. They're powered devices, which in turn provide power to your laptop.

So, what rate it will provide power depends on what charging profiles it supports, and the amount of input power available to it.

My hp zbook needs more than can be supplied by typical usb-c (85W). I have the zbook docking station at home but it uses a dual cable with usbc and a power plug. Annoying. But it’s a fast portable workstation, not a MacBook Air. It means I have to take a half kilo brick everywhere too, despite charging stations with monitors at work. so check the power requirements at resting for your laptop. 💻 over a 100W and I’d be wary. Mine runs out of juice with a 85W usbc connection just idling!

If it helps (as the company I work for wouldn't fund one for WFH use) I bought my Dell dock from here: https://siliconconnect.co.uk/product/dell-wd22tb4-docking-station-type-c-with-180w-ac-210-bdtd/ (at the time at least they were significantly cheaper than Dell, they shipped it quickly to and I've since bought a couple of other things from them drama-free).

I'd recommend just getting a used one off eBay to match your laptop manufacturer, the going rate is about £30 for ThinkPad and dell. I've never had problems charging with either on the correct pairing, however ThinkPad cannot use dell docks ime.

based on the advice I think I'm now sorted on this so thanks for all the input!

If it's a work laptop with nailed down admin, it's worth checking what will and won't work.
I had a client provided MS Surface Pro with USB C ports that I assumed I could use a generic USB C Hub with dual HDMI on. Whilst it would charge, I couldn't get the external support to work as it needed a driver install which wasn't possible. So whilst if I'd had admin rights it would have worked it didn't. So I just bought a second hand dock from eBay which worked out of the box.

For my Macbooks (Air and Pro), I use Anker pass through USB C hubs with HDMI, which work great.

But as @Aidy says, you need a suitably sized charger and cable for pass through to work.