Hi all, I'm looking over buying a new portable battery to charge stuff with. I'm looking for a decent make that has the highest possible energy density whilst also still being portable. I currently have a slim Ravpower thing that supplies 20000 mAh (and has a surprisingly handy LED light too) but I think it's starting to lose lifespan. I'm currently considering a Charmast 26800 mAh thing but it doesn't have an LED. Anyone have any thoughts?
Anker make really good quality kit, and have a shedload of different powerbank models out there of vary sizes.
Anker for me too, been buying there usb uables too and haven't had one fail yet, had numerous other cheapy ones did though. My lads Anker power bank was brilliant until he lost it, had an led torch too.
I've recently purchased a Zendure A8-QC 26800mah quick charge unit for £80. It has 1x QualComm QC3.0 port and 3x 'Zen+' USB ports which automatically adjust power output up to 3.1A, depending on the device attached. It also has a handy-dandy 3 digit battery level percentage digital screen. No more guessing!! It was a bit pricey, but it's a brilliant piece of kit and comes with a soft carry case. They also sell a matching 45W fast charger wall plug for it, which comes with UK, US and European wall pin configurations and is equipped with 1x USB3 Type C and 3x USB plugs - but that's an additional £40 - so £120 all in. Having purchased them both for travelling around France & Belgium last week, I'm pretty happy with the purchase and the value for money, given it's endurance and quality - perfectly acceptable to me. Of note, the cells are of such a quality that they guarantee that it will retain 95% of it's charge after 6 months without use. I don't think a lot of other powerbanks offer that promise. During my first trip out with it, it lasted 4 days charging a 3300mah Galaxy Note 8 and a 2500mah vape before I felt the need to recharge it and even then, it still had between 10-15% left. Expensive but worth it, IMO.
I have an Anker PowerCore 20100, and several Anker chargers floating around, with more than a few Anker cables. They're, so far, really well built and I don't find myself wanting to buy another brand.
The replies so far have given me a lot to think about. I know most people are swearing on Anker, but this Ravpower thing has me interested: Ravpower Exclusives 25000mAh Solar Power Bank It's perhaps a little bulkier than I would like, but it's weather resistant and has solar charging. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with solar charging on these things and if it's more of a gimmick than a useful feature - after all, there's no point in having it if it takes a day to charge 1%! Anyways, keep 'em coming.
Gimmick: it'll take an easy week of good summer sun, including you moving it around to keep it in full sunlight, to charge.
I have an off-grid camping solar battery and charger which is 10000mah and charges easily in a morning with decent sunlight, but the battery/control unit is heavy, fairly bulky (think 3x dvd cases stacked) and the solar panel is slightly larger than an A3 sheet of paper, so not exactly portable! I can confirm that it does charge well, quickly and doesn't take a week. It's called the Hubi 10k, has 2x USB ports, 2x LED pendant lights and a 12v lighter socket and is £199 or thereabouts.
Yes, because the solar panel is 300mmx420mm, 0.13m², with a 10Ah battery - the one Pete's looking at is 89mmx180mm, 0.02m², with a 25Ah battery. There's absolutely zero way that thing is charging a 25Ah battery in a day. At that size it'll be a 5W panel at best, in full sunlight at that - which means six hours maximum charging time in summer, an hour or so in winter. The specs page says that it's a 92.5Wh battery (though at 5V if it's really 25Ah it should be 125Wh, so that's odd) and if I'm right about it being a 5W peak charge from the solar panel that gives us (92.5/5) 18.5 hours to charge, meaning (18.5/6) three days in summer or (18.5/1) 18.5 days in winter - and those figures are assuming you keep checking on it every half hour to adjust the angle and position to keep it in full sunlight, too. Gimmick. There's no substitute for size when it comes to solar panels, and all those battery packs with the ickle panel on top simply don't have the size to be anything more than a gimmick - especially in the UK. EDIT: Oh, wow, I was being way too generous. There's a comment from RavPower itself on this review, which states: That's a 1.5W panel, not 5W. 85 hours of direct, continuous sunlight. That's two weeks in summer, or nearly three months in winter. GIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK.
I don't disagree with any of that. I too was pointing out that if you want effective solar rechargeable power, the portability goes down - and the Hubi kit I purchased was the smallest available at the time that I was prepared to purchase without compromising utility and solar charge input. Your reply seems to indicate that you took that a bit personally. Chill your beans G.
Oh, not at all - sorry it came across that way! I was just crunching the numbers to avoid doing Actual Work, as per usual. That's how I have fun!
Whelp, after looking around, went for this: 4 panel 25000mah by Pete J posted 16 Oct 2018 at 01:29 I'll be testing it to make sure that: 1) The capacity is actually 25000 mAh (sick of these cheap knockoffs lying about capacity) 2) The solar panels can supply 5 W as claimed Failing either of these will result in the unit being sent back.
Update: So, this thing is the real deal! The solar panel takes a long time to charge as expected, say a quarter of the capacity in about 6-8 hours of good sunlight, but is better than nothing. Left it out while it was raining and it's still working too .
I know this a dig up but is this holding up ok after all this time? Looking for a panel for a bit of OTG phone charging when i'm not in easy range of a plug Guess you have to leave it constantly charging on a dashboard or whatever to get any use though eh?
It's holding up extremely well! The unit can still charge normally - the solar panel is just a bonus that might get you out of a tough spot if your in trouble somewhere...that has good sunlight . If you were on a sunny camping holiday, it'd be worth hanging on the back of your rucksack for the day as that'll be enough to charge your phone from dead to 100%. Also, it charges connected devices really fast. So yeah, good purchase!
Thanks @Pete J , much appreciated. Not sure I really need one but i may just pick one up now, got a couple of trips coming up where it may just come in handy. Ta
