Power Storage

Reviewed by Hikermor

The power bank, 5000 mAh capacity, can recharge a cell phone or power an included set of components useful for lighting or emergency signaling especially. It is compact and portable, although not ultralight.

My initial impression is quite favorable. The basic power bank seems to be a 26850 lithium-ion battery with an integral small flashlight, potentially quite useful if you ever need to assemble the other components in the dark. Four blue LEDs indicate the charge status. Other components are: a siren, fire starter, flashlight, lantern/SOS flasher, and red laser. These all plug into a USB outlet on the power bank which is adjacent to a mini-USB receptacle on the port which recharges the power bank.

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Reviewed by Lane Fournerat

This is the most durable power bank that I have found. It's dustproof, waterproof, and shockproof. It also has a built-in flashlight and SOS signal.

I have been looking for a portable battery bank for a long time. My phone and cameras are always running low when I am out traveling or hiking with my family. I was about to get a cheap power bank, but then EasyAAC approached me about making a video of their battery bank for my YouTube channel.  In the video below I unbox the power bank and check out all of its features. I expected for a power bank to just charge some batteries, but this does so much more, and it holds a ton of power, 20,000 mAh to be exact.  My favorite thing about this power bank is how rugged it is.

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Featured review by Bentbrook

A kettle with a built-in thermoelectric generator that can charge USB-powered devices off-grid. Heat water, get a charge. A superb option for emergency use during power outages and something to consider for multi-day basecamp expeditions, but likely too much weight to justify its presence on most backpacking trips.

BioLite KettleCharge The BioLite KettleCharge is a flat, stainless steel kettle with an opening for filling or pouring from the kettle, and a plastic handle that rises about the top of the kettle with an embedded LED panel and an on/off button. It is a thermoelectric device that produces electricity to charge devices while it heats water. It is a device that—according to the BioLite web site—“provides off-grid power in a matter of minutes using nothing but heat and water.” “Perfect for camping or power outages,” BioLite writes, “the KettleCharge will keep you charged day or night with BioLite's core thermoelectric technology.”  A simple control panel guides one’s use of the device.

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Featured review by Devian

On a week-long, dark backpacking trip, I kept my phone/camera and GoPro fully charged. I can only imagine if I have SUN. Very affordable and would highly recommend.

As weight conscience as I was, I never regretted bringing this on my trek. I looked and research other, more popular, chargers, but they offered less, lower watts, and cost more. This solar charger is a 10 watt, three-panel charger that includes two external batteries (USB and Micro connections) cables and even a special iPad/iPhone port. The day I got it in the mail, I grabbed the 1-page instructions (thank goodness, 1 page), a dead GoPro, and put it outside my office door on a sunny day. I had a quick question about the LED's on the spare batteries, and Support responded within 24 hours or much less. It charged the GoPro in about 3 hours.

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Reviewed by Vladimir Gorbunov

Very capable (but large and heavy) power bank with two-way QuickCharge support and dual USB output. Nice and simple design, but no case or pouch for carrying. Mostly useful for owners of power-greedy equipment, such as action cameras.

Background In my outdoor trips I prefer avoiding the situations when I need a power socket for charging my electronic devices. There are many of them: smartphone, a couple of headlamps, health tracker, GPS navigator, DSLR camera, and every year this number grows. At some point it became impossible to store all the required energy in built-in and replaceable batteries, so I started carrying the power banks with removable 18650 Li-Ion batteries (I have a good stock of such batteries for powering the Chinese flashlights).

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Reviewed by Ben Rivers

This slim and sleek external battery is excellent for charging your phone (or other electronic device) on overnight trips in the great outdoors. A lot of people use their phone as their camera or for GPS, and this external battery allows you to charge your device without having electricity. It's also fairly inexpensive!

This external battery/portable charging device works excellent to charge your mobile electronics on overnight trips. Depending on how much you use your phone and what you use it for, you could possibly get two nights out of it. I own an iPhone 5s and this external battery will charge my phone 1.5 times from 0% battery life. I have used this charger so many times and it has consistently charged my phone the same every time.  This Anker charger will charge your device at about the same speed a wall charger will (at least for the iPhone).

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