EC Technology Portable Charger Power Bank 22400mAh Ultra High Capacity External Battery pack 3 USB Output Port phone charger for iPhone, iPad, Samsung, Nexus & More, Black& Red

Why we love it?

LED Lights: The Built-in LED flashlight is very practical in your daily life. Four LED indicator lights show you the power level and charging status. Extra Powerful Capacity: EC Technology 22400mAh protable charge with super high capacity enable charge iPhone X / 7 / 8 plus around 5 times, iPhone 8 around 7 times, iPhone 6S around 8 times and Samsung Galaxy S8 almost 4 times. This portable charger combine to deliver the fastest possible charge (does not support Qualcomm Quick Charge). Recharges itself for about 11 hrs with a 2 amp charger.

Some comments about this we saw on the web:

* /u/chronicENTity on /r/BurningMan Well, to get the typical response out of the way, “Put your damn phone away and enjoy what’s around you!”

As a more useful answer, both of those options are pretty damn expensive for very little usefulness. Their main use is as a battery with USB outputs, that happens to recharge (very slowly) via solar. Because they’re both batteries, you need to know their capacities, which are 2300mAh and 2200mAh respectively. That’s about the same size as a typical cell phone battery nowadays, so you can likely expect to fully charge only one completely dead phone per “full charge” off the solar battery. Each of these devices will likely take a full day (or even two!) to recharge, so I wouldn’t expect to be able to charge everybody’s phone in camp everyday.

For less than $35, you could just get a USB battery that holds 10x the amount of charge as your solar options and you can charge it via a generator (find friends and leave it there?) in a few hours.

Granted, if you don’t want to go that route and really need solar, I’d recommend getting a “full sized” kit from a reputable brand. I personally love Renogy products, as they’re made in the US and are typically very competitive on pricing. Something like this kit would get you 7 times the amount of solar power than your REI one and you can connect it directly to your car battery. From there, you can just use the USB port on the charge controller or run a cheap $15 inverter in your cigarette lighter port (or from the battery itself) and you’ve got yourself an easy way to charge your devices as well as the ability to build onto your existing setup in the future (just add more panels!). Hope that helps.

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