Solar USB Power Bank Tests / Review
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
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In this video I review 9 solar powered USB power banks and 7 "wildcards"; a hybrid solution using a normal USB power bank and an external portable / folding solar panel.
Link to spreadsheet on Forum:
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Devices reviewed:
astore.amazon.c...
Universal Solar Power Bank (10 000 mAh)
Nexcon (Solar) (5000 mAh)
Levin Solpad Solar Charger (3000 mAh)
EasyAcc Solar Power Bank (15 000 mAh / 55.5 Wh)
Zebora Two Solar Panels 10 000mAh
PowerAdd Apollo 3 (8000 mAh / 29.6 Wh)
Smart Tech Apollon S6000 (6000 mAh)
Opteka BP-SC8000 (6000 mAh)
ZeroLemon SolarJuice SJ-600 (6000 mAh / 22.2 Wh)
Voltaic (4000 mAh / 15 Wh) + Solar Panel Case
Hybrid configurations:
USB Power banks:
astore.amazon.c...
Portable / folding solar panels:
astore.amazon.c...
Poweradd™ Mini Portable (5000mAh) + ReVIVE Series Solar
EasyAcc (15 600 mAh / 57.7 Wh) + AP Solar Foldable Charger 7W
Intocircuit® 2nd Gen Power Castle (13 000mAh / 48.1 Wh) + Voltaic 2.0 Watt Solar Panel
Goal Zero YETI150 (14 000 mAh / 150 Wh) + SunKingdom 39 Watt
Smart Tech Apollon V8000 (8000 mAh) + Apollon P5
EasyAcc (10 000 mAh / 37 Wh) + SUNKINGDOM™ 5W 5V
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By far the best effort ive seen to make a good reliable youtube device review. whoever gave u a thumbs down has no ideia how much work and dedication u put into this. Brilliant work, keep it up, you really deserve way more likes and views
+Tiago Martinho
I very strongly agree! Superb vid. Thanks.
Tiago Martinho preach 🙌 so true. And I've witnessed a lot of people that don't have the capability (intelligence) to understand this. Or refuse to.. Due to their trolling nature. Keep it up buddy 👍
Yep, best review i've seen in my life. Excellent job!!!
It’s down to you to shop about Godfrey you fucktard.
Yeh I just buy all that shit and put it in the background ...I have no fucken idea what it does but it looks the shit !
*Absolutely perfect for what we use . **Generater.Systems** for Our 500wt power station! Love it!!!!*
This panel can put out close to 100 watts ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxOqI2yqX0XVrhR2BMJciTWrHJpG8FhJyg when positioned in the appropriate southernly direction, tilted to the optimal angle for your latitude/date, and connected to a higher capacity device than a 500. The built in kickstand angle is a fixed at 50 degrees. Up to 20% more power can be output by selecting the actual date and latitude optimal angle.The 500 will only input 3.5A maximum at 18 volts for 63 watts. Some of the excess power from the panel can be fed into a USB battery bank, charged directly from the panel while also charging a 500. This will allow you to harvest as much as 63 + 15 = 78 watts.If this panel is used to charge a larger device, such as the power station, then its full output potential can be realized.
The most deserved ''thumbs up'' ever!
Agreed, 5 years later this is still relevant
agreed, oh i just saw the age,
so things "should" be better
(in terms of technical)
What an amazing review, genuinely tested every device and multiple devices, and scored them on a detailed spreadsheet plus recommendations...excellent work your ability to research and communicate your findings are far above most reviews is ever seen on UA-cam
brilliantly comprehensive review !!!.. i have half a mind to slap the fools who thumbs downed you !!!
Highly indepth review. But you forgot to mention what battery type the powerbanks use (LiPo/NiMH...). Another important thing is longevity, but that would be very expensive to check. You'd have to put them in a thermo-box with 60-70 degrees celcius to speed up the aging process, and you'd probably need to test about 20 units of each model because there's a lot more variation between different units of the same model in longevity than in performance.
Thank you for taking the time & effort to make this. You saved me a lot of headache!👍👍
Why do more people not do reviews like this :P
I think i will go for the Opteka, sure crappy build quality but thats nothing that cannot be fixed with hot glue !
+Andrew Joy do you know what its called? cant find it
Opteka BP-SC8000
Got one off Amazon for £49.00 didn’t know Amazon selling crap how are the getting off with it NOT CHARGING BYE SUN 4 panels I don’t like getting ripped off by anyone specially spending £49 on crap Thank you your help 👍❤️
I've just begun looking at power banks and solar panels this was a great video.
So out of all of these, what is the most durable/compact, largest battery/best panel for the money?
Yes , why cant they answer this question? Oh hell no, they dont do that, they have to show us how the put these products thru the paces and then come to no discernible conclusion.
Does the #;;#$@ product work or not ? Thats all we want to know.
My favorite so far is the Hiluckey. It is waterproof and can hang on the back of my backpack with 4 solar chargers. It can be charged but also just by solar it can fully charge 2 devices in a few hours. It folds up like a leather like wallet. I also keep a Sozo charger which has 4 chargers and a fast charge by laying device on it. I am very content with these and they have worked great.
Nice review and analysis, as engineer and scientist, I approve this :)
You made a hell of a job !!!! Never seen before!!! SO MUCH EFFORT !
You are amazing! But you have to do an updated power bank review they have so many new ones. One I have been looking at is the easy acc 20,000 mah rugged.
Sir, this is the best test of anything i have ever said, true, this is a small batch but still very very informative! Greetings from Sweden
like how comprehensive this is but 45min video is way too long. And why not summarise the results on a graph.
I'm curious about which batteries would manage to charge themselves over long periods of non-ideal lighting conditions, which would at least not lose charge, and which would actively discharge themselves...
In a lot of thru-hiking situations, I want to be on the move whenever there is daylight and won't want to do much aiming other choosing a somewhat optimal place to attach the panel to a backpack. And lighting conditions would often involve dappled or no direct sunlight in forested situations.
I wouldn't require a fully-charged phone very often and would keep it off most of the time, but I would want to be sure that in an emergency I could plug it into a battery and be certain the battery had a decent charge and was able to revive my phone in a few minutes...
I really wanted to see your ideal panel and bank combination video, did you never get around to making it?
Hi my name is Carlos I am from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Great test you did. I have a solar universal. It has 20.000mah. For me it is very usual because I use it in travels in Brazil. It recharges my celular three times. For me it is very good. Thank you a lot.
this will get me started on POKEMON go!! ;)
My recommendation: if you are camping TURN OFF YOUR PHONE!
nope
+Mark Beeunas thanks genius, and what if i want to use my gps on the phone or to track my trip on a wild camping bike tour, huh?
Really? . . . You just keep thinkin', Butch. That's what you're good at.
Where would Lewis and Clark be if their GPS didn't work?
Mark Beeunas I
I can't watch for an hour for a simple question like this
if you did you would have....
Damn, now that was a review done by a professional! Keep them coming!
most amazon review are bogus
Would be great if you could do this again with what's available now, 5 years later :)
excellent video!! thank you btw - how about an updated version of the current offerings?
Hi, I also did a video but the opposite of yours. A DIY build of a solar power on my channel @ NERDVille but the solar only drew 60mAh in 'direct' sunlight. So a bank that was 10'000mAh would have taken 7 FULL days of direct sunlight to charge.
Great video! I know this was a ton of work, I really appreciate it! You make very good videos.
just realized the Opteca looks a lot like one of the new Goal Zero devices
you made me laugh I know that companies put false reviews just never heard anyone else say it lol you can tell by the writing
Thank you for your great review and also about not putting it in the car window
Amazed at the work you put into this! Making a spreadsheet and all. Thank You for the great effort, sir!
Thank you for your video! Couldn't have caught at a more perfect time as I'm looking to weed out some bogus portable gimmicks for my backpacking adventures. Appreciate your expertise and Thank You!!
Nice video, you spent a lot of time and effort in comparison between these product's. So here's mine, while i'm interested in these product's, i'm not 42 minutes interested. If you could cut them down to say 10 - 20 minutes that would be great.
That's what the spreadsheet is for; you can compare all the data he talks about over the course of the video in seconds and cross reference it.
Lol how hard is it to skip ahead? Ever heard of skimming, google it.
skip forward numbnuts
Most window glass will have some sort of UV protection that will reduce charging power.
This is 6 years ago... what is the best solar specs?
I don't have time to watch this, can anyone tell me which one is the best? I really need a solar charger. I'd really appreciate an answer
@Wandering Waldinsian 2 minutes? Lmao bro this a 42 minute video. I ended up just getting a portable charger lol. Still have it actually
Excellent review here. I live in (England) UK and we only see the sun on the odd occasion. Solar panels do exist here on houses, but I wouldn't like to rely on solar for my powerbank. No way! My solution would be to go for a bigger powerbank, or even take several fully charged banks.
Would you recommend they be used by the army? I'm not in the army, although I'm sure they would want to know if they read the comments. I know the British army were planning on using a special Android (the OS) derivative. So I wouldn't be surprised if they ditched the old radio comms.
Great Review there buddy, You differently know your shit...
Btw., where's the spreadsheet? The link just goes to a forum post with a backlink to the video and links to the amazon store.
Many thanks for this solid test of the USB power banks. This is undoubtedly one of the most reliable reviews I've seen so far. Regards.
That video was really helpful by putting all those devices head to head. At least now we know some lab test specifications , not what the companies are advertising and are not always true. Thanks for sharing with us !
I found first time charging these fully best using home plug then use solar to top up
Excellent information! All of your videos are extremely helpful and wonderfully detailed! I am very much looking forward to your review of which solar panels work best with which power banks, as that will probably be what I choose to do for my through hike trips. Thank you very much for all of the time and effort you put into these videos! :D
I'm only 2.53 in, this what I call a proper review
3 years later, thanks. Your spreadsheet was quite informative. The small units take from 2 to 20 days to charge to full. The number of days to a full charge and the number of iPhone charges seem to have nothing to do with the stated wattage of the panels.
As a database designer I should point out that there are no photos or videos attached to each ‘record’; however, I do use spreadsheets.
Next test would be to test how and where smartphones can connect to their telco. There are limits to the number of cell towers and their coverage.
Can you try the ALLPOWERS 10,000 mah?
www.amazon.com/ALLPOWERS-10000mAh-Battery-Charger-Technology/dp/B00KSTC3WG/ref=sr_1_1?&s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1435316540&sr=1-1&keywords=allpowers+solar+charger&th=0
i think its a pretty good solar power bank.
10,000 mah is a lot and you can still charge it with a regular cable so it kinda beats all regular power banks. So basically you can charge it fully at home, then use the sun to top it off.
Charges faster than most solar chargers and when it was hot outside, it was still charging even in the shade.
Though a problem i have with my unit and prolly my unit only is that the female usb ports seems to be pretty tight so i have to be careful when plugging in/out my devices.
Was excited about watching this but the. Saw it is 6 years old so that pretty much negates it all. What device would recommend in 2021. Appreciate your advise. Thanks for the video!
BATTERIES CHARGE FASTER THE COOLER U GET THEM. i USED ICE PACK On my android and it made it super fast charge .Electric flows better through the battery . I dont know the science but I know it works cause I use to play music off android phones at work batteries would get extremly hot so i got a ziploc and put ice in it .you can use a towel to eliminate the absorb moisture
Appreciate your video I just purchased one of the power banks off of Amazon that has a automatic turn on which I think is the reason why I can’t get it to charge in sunlight only… The device charge is excellent when I plug it into the wall but that is not why I purchased it… anyway thanks for the video it was quite informative and I’m still shopping but I’d rather get something that I have a little more control of the on off switch
You deserve a medal
Wow.... the review to end all reviews... now my head hurts....😳
Im sorry but your overcomplicated stats are annoying. All we care is to know how many amps are accumulated per 6-12 or whatever hour window. Wtf is 0.44 iphone charge? Which iPhone? What was it's battery condition, who needs that nonsense? Give us amps per hour. It is not up to you to decide what I'm willing to pay for the unit. All I care as a solar panel user is a the performance. And maybe a lil bit about build quality too but not too much.
I understand that it is more efficient to charge a battery charger with a solar charger than to charge a Handheld Transmitter device directly off a solar charger, therefore I'm intended to put together a "go bag" for my portable HAM set and would like to use a RAV 15w and wanted to know what battery pack you would recommend? KC1HLD
Have you tested the Patriot power cell and , if so, are the results available? Company states product has 10,000 mAH, lithium ion battery and is 1.5 watts solar cell. thanks in advance. I have a iphone 6s.
Just remember when you say 4 watts your saying the same power as a night light. When you say 30 watts your talking about just saying something in the neighbor hood of the light in your hallway. And with solar panels, you never get 100% of the power 24/7 that it's ratted for. So more is better.
Ditto about heat. I once put one of my xiomi 5Ah units in the back pouch of a Eceen 13W (nice panel btw, www.amazon.com/Foldable-Portable-Smartphones-Bluetooth-USB-Charged/dp/B00NTXGLUI) in full sun and with 30 minutes the powerbank went into thermal shutdown. That sucker was hot.
I recently purchased one and it’s getting delivered soon. It has 100,000 mAh and I got it for £12($13 dollars esh) did I make a mistake or does the 100,000 mAh make ub for it
The only thing I don't like about these powerbanks is that they just have the LED's I'm picky and want one with percentage which gives more accuracy to know exactly how much you have left.
Aloth off theese powerbank deffently got poor quality 😅 i guess i looking for something looking like a rugged solar power bank aloth like a cat smartphone. Water resistance, dust , closed Charles port
What about the "Sunjack solar pack"?
Those built-in single solar panel are no good for reliability. I opted for one that has multiple solar for better charge. I have one of those single solar panel built in and they're mediocre. I don't really care much for those with built in led flash light. They're just draining battery and very inefficient. And those built in cable charging are by no means a good feature be ause those charging cord tend to wear out and become useless. You're better off with a detachable cord for easier replacement when they break.
Some of these are built on top of older, non-solar power banks, where they've added the solar panels.
This might explain why some have LEDs flashing while charging. In the original design the LEDs flashed when it was plugged in to a mains charger.
+Gloria Hask Better than what?
Im guessing your accent, im guessing 3 places
New Zealand
Australia
South Africa
Nice vid. Where exactly is the spreadsheet as none shows on the linked page.
So basically they all do work if all you want to do is charge a phone when electricity is gone, correct ? Thats all I really needed to know. So- TMI for me :)
Seems you know your stuff well. I would like a video about best portable solar chargers. Your top 5. That would generate alot of views :)
Great work! You thought things out very intelligently. Thank you.
Incredible review.
Thanks for the useful information ... thumbs up
I could tell by the intro that I came to the right place for a honest well-thought-out review
Go back to a land line telephone like in the olde days. Ipad and Ipod and Idphone are all junque with a mH battery at the ende of 2 years. The worlde of Junque!
Hello, I still can not figure out which is the best solar power bank over 10000 mAh providing the most power from the solar (which means must working), a good quality and the same time nice price.
I'm sorry I can't watch this anymore. This should have been a ten or fifteen minute video
Great...but Who has 45 minutes to watch a review of solar charging banks?🤷🏻♂️
Just because it is pretty or well built does not always translate to great performance or being trustworthy, sometimes, ugly is better. The ugly ones seem to have something to prove so the performane is much better and Much more reliable.
Charged at first, then, stopped. Just learning. Can you use a car charger to charge a SwissTec, if it doesn't seem to charge?
since quality solar cells these days are super cheap and light and flexible, it doesn't make any sense to make these so small. One obvious form factor might be sheets the size of common laptops so they fit in such a case. 4-8 sheets could be very thin and unfold to serious power capacity. Similarly, 9Wh quality laptop cells cost under 2$ a piece so for power independence in the field it makes little sense to have as little as 4Wh storage. You could easily and cheaply get to a capacity that could power a significant light for days or even scale to moderate cooking.
20 high density laptop cells would weigh under 1kg and have 210Wh.
You didn't include one important parameter in the spread sheet - the "powered off current". I had few power banks and they all over discharged the batteries, even the ones with protection circuits, after a few months of not being used, stored in my backpack (in dark conditions). It's ok to be expensive, but if the batteries die because of over-discharge or disbalance, then it's not useful. You would expect to get at least 400 cycles and at least 1 year of "idle time" without damaging it.
I believe your test was better doing it during mid day. When does shtf ever hit in the morning? It’s always around lunch time.
I baught this one at Walmart: www.walmart.com/ip/300000mAh-Dual-USB-Portable-Solar-Battery-Charger-Solar-Power-Bank-High-Capacity-Environmentally-friendly/761857087
I haven't tried it yet, but it charges both with solar power and with a usb cable attachment. It has a light built into it. The button is on the side and the light has different modes. It also has charge light indicator and I put it up to my lamp and I can see only one light on indicator light up, this was with a none-white light. I have yet to test it fully like I said, but it is made by OUTAD which I am not familiar with. I did not like the fact that I had to figure out how to operate it myself because it has absolutely no instructions but for $16 USD what can I expect. My big question here is, it is rated to output 5v/1A but it says 300000 mAh and that is my real concern. How can I test it to make sure it can give me that?
Does anyone have any experience with the new RavPower 16W solar charger? This review includes the older 15W one which is really good (apart from the weight for me) and I am wondering how well the new version performs.
After watching the reviews and doing a bit of research the Choetech 19W (15W) charger seems to tick the most boxes for me but I would like to know how the new RavPower compares. I have a feeling they both use similar or even the same panels but because the RavPower is a newer product I thought that maybe they improved something.
Thanks for your input.
A lot of the cheap units have a lot of wasted space on the solar panel surfaces. If you look closely you can see there are large gaps between the solar cells. For those, solar is just a gimmick.
Was waiting for this video (and it popped up on my birthday, so didnt get to see it until a bit later after doing the usual birthday pub crawl etc. Just watched it now, and I commend you on doing such a detailed report on these devices Martin. I dont have one of the battery/panel combo's, but do have an allpowers 12W panel, a Soshine E3 DIY powerbank and I filled the latter with panasonic 18650 3400mAh cells for a total capacity of ~13.5Ah. It does a great job at charging mine and my friends phones when we're out and about, so far its record is 5 iphone + samsung cellphone charges before it needed the sun again :) Both the power bank and folding panel are small enough to fit into a back pack and are of little weight so you don't really notice they're there. The soshine has two ports, as does the solar panel, so in a pinch one could charge up to 4 devices at a time with this combo.
I've had one of the nexcon ones (unbranded version) for a few months now, I did a tear-down of it (not up on my channel yet (insert shameless plug here)) and the markings on the battery indicated 4Ah as opposed to the 5Ah in the specs, also note that the ratings are at battery voltage, ie. 3.6v so the watt hour rating of that pack isn't bad considering the inefficiencies of the dc-dc converter. I will do a discharge test at the battery terminals in the future. (discharger needs new components and rendering machine is having a fit) also have done some other tests on other 18650s and such.
Found the orange one with the compass on it in China. $14. LOL at paying $49 for it.
Great work! Thank you for sharing your analysis.
Best. -kc
Why (WHY) must the manufactures of these portable solar charges absolutely insist on choosing BLACK ( and other dark colors) as a molding color!??? At the very least, one would think they would include a WHITE protective cover to avoid having the unit overheat/fry while sitting in direct Sunlight!?
size difference is why we don't care about buying a bulky panel even if it gets a little bit more juice.
better to just tell us which did best, we can factor in the price glitch ourselves, now i dont know which is simply best at charging from the sun.
How would the solar power banks go on a tank bag on a motorcycle for a days riding for the purpose of charing camera batteries over night? Should get good sunlight during the day on a tank bag...
I bought one that is identical to the Zero Lemon, but it says Tough Tested. It does a good job charging devices, but it is best if charged from a micro usb, then the solar panel will keep it maintained. I used it for my gps on a 10 day motorcycle trip and it was great, but if it goes flat dead; it takes forever to charge with solar power.
Are you able to check two solar battery that I found on kickstarter: (I can't post links for some reason, but here are the names)
SOS 20K - Life Saving Portable Solar Battery
HeLi-On - The World's most compact battery charger
and if you could, can you give them a review?
What did you do to drive the current up to 3.3A? If phones are capable of charging at 3.3A, will it draw 3.3A out of the power bank when it's rated at 2.1A? I'm taking about the Opteka BP-SC8000. Thanks.
WELL DONE!! BTW: I just grabbed that PowerAdd Apollo3 8KmAh for $11.99USD (3/2/2017) For 12 bucks, I'll keep a spare on the Motorcycle! Thanks, A new Subscriber.
Would be nice to have a chart on ranking of how many full iPhone charges per day, and the price. For example, Goal Zero, 14 full iPhone charges per day, $420. The $420 might be the lifesaving investment one would make.
Martin, would you please elaborate on how you connected the SunKingdom 39W panel to Goal Zero's Yeti 150? Also, were you able to install Li-ion batteries into the Yeti (in lieu of the AGM battery) and, if so, what were the results? Many thanks.