My I pad takes hours to charge

Start with the simple things:

- Cable: original or copy? Showing any damage? Frayed? Etc. Try a different known good and original cable to compare.

- Wall charger: original? 10-12W or 5W? 5W will charge very slowly. Bad quality chargers will kill your iPad. Don't use them. When in doubt, charge from a USB port on a computer.

- Less important/likely: wall adapter, if you use one, try a different one.

If the above are checked, and your iPad has never been serviced before:

- Turn off your iPad, clean the charging port with a soft brush dipped in 99% isopropyl alcohol. Dry and test. Any improvement?

- You iPad charges slowly, but how fast does it discharge? If it discharges very slowly or at least normally, don't mess with it in my opinion. I've encountered a couple of cases where the iPad charges slowly but otherwise works properly.

In other rare cases, the lightning/charging port needed reseating or replacing.

- If it discharges very very quickly, then I would venture a case of USB/charging IC (aka U2 IC in iPhone 5) going bad.

Typically, it starts by charging very slowly and discharging very quickly. Later on, iPad will run on a full battery, but isn't capable of recharging and restarting the from an empty battery.

If your iPad has been serviced before, someone could have damaged something in the process.

If it has been damaged by a very hard drop, or liquid spill, something may be shorting inside and needs to be serviced professionally in my opinion. This depends on the history of the iPad, which you did not provide.