Heavily overrated Li-ion portable chargers

[MR GUS]

Such is the standard of deceit via sellers on big river, that I was reeled in (whilst remaining dubious) the other day as to a claimed 25,800 mAh charger with the regular 1.2 / 2.1 ..which is clearly not (& other sellers have rated the same kit in its brand-less generic packaging at often higher ratings).

These aren't even 18650 batteries (I bought it in the hope of stripping out some half decent batteries for the "lightning deal price" which then had a further £5.00 off coupon (taking it down to £9.94 delivered) ..or a standard £19.99 on a standard listing.

Having charged it up it only took a smidgen over 12000 mAh in (light showing a 25% charge when received).
Started to run a kindle on it to drain it off a few times & re-load to see what the incremental differences were from hibernation.


It was like a pin hole in a paddling pool wall, ..a tiny 0.23A output on the higher rated "fast socket" ...16 hours later it had only put 30% ish whilst sleeping & dormant, because it couldn't keep up with a modern kindle in use for browsing.

Suffice to say I rang it in to big river who don't want it back Li-ion through the post / dpd costs wiping out the value & giving a bad name.

Therefore if you wish to buy some poly li-ion brick packs & bodgineer you might be able to get some batts out of circulation whilst using them for low power sensor projects or similar.

This one I will run down & refill a handful of times to see if there is any change, ..but I doubt it

Anyone else had reason to mutilate portable power-banks, if so what did you do to re-purpose them?

[kdmnx]

Agreed.

I only buy branded battery packs and these days they ar pretty reasonably priced so there is no need to go for the "optimistically labeled" non-name cheapo ones. I like Anker branded ones myself.

I've been looking at the bigger battery packs that can power my cool box for a weekend while camping and am struggling with mega-expensive vs liars. I currently use one I made myself out of a toolbox some electronics and a 110Ah lead-acid battery. To say it is a bit on the heay side is an understatement!

[Mostie]

got a duracell powerbank 10500mAh, seems to know when device is charged and turns off.

[oliver90owner]

Agreed.

I only buy branded battery packs and these days they ar pretty reasonably priced so there is no need to go for the "optimistically labeled" non-name cheapo ones. I like Anker branded ones myself.

I've been looking at the bigger battery packs that can power my cool box for a weekend while camping and am struggling with mega-expensive vs liars. I currently use one I made myself out of a toolbox some electronics and a 110Ah lead-acid battery. To say it is a bit on the heay side is an understatement!

Better plan might be to take bottles of frozen water with you.  Probably lighter than the battery!  If the cool box uses a TEG for heat transfer, they are not too efficient!

[MR GUS]

Agreed.

I've been looking at the bigger battery packs that can power my cool box for a weekend while camping and am struggling with mega-expensive vs liars. I currently use one I made myself out of a toolbox some electronics and a 110Ah lead-acid battery. To say it is a bit on the heavy side is an understatement!

Have a look around Ali express for paperback casings (about £4.00) to make use of spare 18650 batts you may have, then of course they also have "fill em yourself" made to any size (pricey though).

However it you buy the shonky ones advertised then when you complain  next day, you won't need to send them back & you receive a refund, so you might want to cobble something out of a handful of generic polymer slabs you *cough* bought measured & were found wanting ( usb ammeter for £3.00) ..Amazon are fine delivering li-ion via their couriers not so easy sending them back via royal mail in a legitimate manner, thus the write off (for take them but cost is in excess of the value of the goods bought singularly ..which you then review as  the pieces of crud they are.
(Get a few people in yr family doing that & you soon have a nice slab to tinker with)

[RIT]

Any device that is sold as mAh rather than Wh should just be ignored as it does not express the capacity of the battery unless a voltage is also shown as different types of battery operate at different voltages. mAh gets quoted by vendors who want to sell the largest number, not the most useful number.

The real issue is that most portable battery devices are designed so that they can be carried on planes, which limits their capacity to the international limits. I swear by-products produced by a company called RAVPower, but you would not want to dismantle them as their purchase cost is way too high.

[MR GUS]

Yep, I get you, it's merely how everything tends to be stated elsewhere so you can easily slip into it (& I do, lots)

My singular purchase of a rav unit was not the best,  with it having the weakest casing I've ever come across, ..slow energy delivery, ..however I may have been unlucky & perhaps ought get it replaced, ..waited for 4-6 fills for it to stretch a bit after hibernation but it struggled like the one I'm still checking out now.

[RIT]

My singular purchase of a rav unit was not the best,  with it having the weakest casing I've ever come across, ..slow energy delivery, ..however I may have been unlucky & perhaps ought get it replaced, ..waited for 4-6 fills for it to stretch a bit after hibernation but it struggled like the one I'm still checking out now.

I've not had any issues with the casing of the units I have purchased, but their energy delivery seems to follow the specs they state, so when they say a USB charging port they mean 5V at 1A and not much more. A 2.5A port will do just that and not more and this seems to be true up their range. Later this year I am likely to purchase one of their PD devices that is quoted at a 30W charge rate so around 20V at 1.5A.