power banks(solar or not) recomendations

[Paulm]

I'd go with the Anker gear too, coughed up for a couple of them after wasting too much time and money on generic ebay stuff that never delivered the promised performance and faded away to being useless very quickly ! The Anker ones just work, no hassle.

Worth mentioning though that headline capacity numbers aren't what's available to use in real life, a lot of the stated capacity is lost in use due to circuit inefficiencies, heat produced etc. A good rule of thumb is to expect around two thirds to 70% of the headline capacity figure as actual usable capacity, for example a 10,000Mah charger would likely provide only around 7,000Mah of actual real world capacity.

I found this out the hard way by buying a power bank that I thought should have been able to recharge my phone battery six times, given the phone battery capacity compared to the power bank capacity, but was disappointed to find it was only good for four times, so I queried it with Anker and was told the above, which is true of all makes of power banks not just theirs, but none of them seem to make it clear anywhere as far as I could see !

Not a problem once you know of course, you just need to factor it into deciding what size power bank you want......

 

[Nice65]

Morning Paul

It’s like torch manufacturers stated lumen outputs, often measured at the led itself, or sometimes just plain wrong, but almost always overstated. A guy on the torch forum does all the maths from output of battery though the driver, draw from the led etc, then comes up with the real output which is usually, again, about a third less of that stated.

 

[Mesquite]

A guy on the torch forum...

Torch forum, there's a forum for torches???

 

[Nice65]

Totch forum, there's a forum for torches???

If you get excited by torches, lumens etc, and easily succumb to pushing the button on gear you feel you’ve mentally justified, then these forums may not be the best place for your wallet or relationship.

I can only apologise.

http://budgetlightforum.com/

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/content.php

My latest “fall”. I couldn’t resist, it’s too cute.

 

[Broch]

You need help!

 

[Nice65]

You need help!

I know. Knives has been the wallet killer over the years, but torches come in second, then camping stuff.

It’s knowing when to stop and be sensible.

 

[Terry.m.]

I have so many it’s a joke, without doubt the Best at this mom in time is Anker.
Power monkey is a brute however
Heavy.!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Andy]

I'm also a fan of Anker kit. I picked up a pack on prime day. I've also got a luminaid camping lantern that has a solar panel and has USB charging capabilities (both to charge it and from it). I got mine from shelter box. Only niggle so far is the micro USB port doesn't seem to hold the charging cable in place very well.