Hmm, now I have a dilemma. I mean, it's purple, so that's usually an insta-buy for me. But, I don't really need this and I just spent a fortune on back-to-school supplies. Meh.
I got one of these in my f-u-kangaroo. They seem useful and I really wanted to like it. A few points:
the charger is .25A (250 mA). This makes recharging the device painstakingly longer than it should.
The charger takes FOREVER to charge your phone/tablet/device. My phone charger takes about 45 minutes for a full charge. This was on my phone for 2 hours and only brought it up to 35%. However, it only depleted 8% of the charger's battery, so you would get multiple charges (3-4 depending on the device).
It's purple. Why in the hell is it purple? Of all the color choices!? EDIT: I see there are other color choices. This is no longer a con (unless you actually order purple).
The lights are really pointless. I can understand why they might be useful, but why would they need to blink? I can't figure that one out.
For $14, you can't beat it. I'd use it in a pinch, which I suppose is what they're for.
I lived off of one of these things for a weekend in Indianapolis at the Indy PopCon. My phone never hit a wall charger. I started with a full powernow when I stepped off the plane and recharged my phone twice a day. At the end the powernow was down around 12% and I survived. YMMV, but I really thought it was useful. Charge your phone on the right output unless you want to cook eggs on the back of that iPhone glass.
I had an overpriced Zagg Sparq with the flip out wall plug feature, which was so handy until the plugs decided to remain in the outlet after removing the brick from the wall.
$14 seems like a worthwhile replacement. In for 2.
We have the instacharge (same specs, not as purple) and when we were at a hospital for long times we were a hit, we would share our power. I am in for 1 more, for when all 4 of us needed it. Small enough to charge your phone in your pocket, but bulky.
Two. Black and Silver. I considered Purple, but it would clash with all my pink electronics. (SUCH a shame this didn't come in pink or hunter green.) It sure would be nice if this arrived by next Tuesday...
Love portable chargers. Have two of them that are similar (10000 and 12000 mAh). These were perfect for Comic Con. To recharge, I stuck it into the auxiliary port of my JBL Speaker Dock I bought here. Yeah, I know... The speaker dock was useful!
If you buy two, can you use one to charge the other one? Wait, why stop there? If you buy three, can you use one to charge the other one to charge the other one?
As the surveys I take for a lousy three bucks each ask on a scale of one to five:
I want this product - completely agree I need this product - completely agree
In for purple since I got a pink case for my fukubukuro iPad mini and pink and purple look so good together.
Now how about some sort of automatic dispenser to put on a cat's back so when she farts it will neutralize the odor (oh, Lorelei, that was a nasty one....)
Convenient. My old 3500mah miio just kicked the bucket. Great for tossing in my work bag and not having a dead phone after drunkenly stumbling out after happy hour.
Got one in my First Box and I agree with the mention that it takes forever to charge a phone (a Nexus 5 in my case). Maybe @marklog spilled something on it? I actually went back to using the charger I got in another Kickstarter campaign, even though that's the size of, like, a car battery. Anyway, I will say the purple could be worse. Can't bitch for free-ish, right?
The flashlight is so you can take it on an airplane. The TSA rules limit how big a battery you can carry with you. The limit for a battery in a device is much larger. Some batteries look like sticks of explosives in an xray. This way you can turn it on and show that the cylinders inside are really just batteries. Make sure you charge it before your flight.
Bought 2. Purposely purple. Cuz we actually like purple. Just wish it would be able to arrive by Thursday since we leave for vacation on Friday morning and it would really be nice to have for our trip.
Well I went to buy it at 11:09pm central savings time and it said I was too late. What the heck time are you operating on? We don't want to sell you one time? Seriously. The offer is still up and you won't sell me one? F'meh to you.
Really sorry you couldn't get in on these @Kidsandliz, but everything has to swap over promptly at midnight so we can begin to disappoint on schedule. Maybe these will be up for sale again, but part of the reason we can offer the prices we do is because of the temporary nature of our deals. As far as a phone number goes, we don't have one and you really don't want to talk to us anyway. Might be worth giving our FAQ a look.
@Jon T I already read your Q&A. I started the transaction prior to midnight. I clicked and got the buy it form up, filled it out and bam gone. You have a problem with your system though that it can't send emails to me. They aren't in spam.
@kidsandlizhalp@meh.com is the correct email, @hollboll has been responding and we just did a quick test to make sure we were able to send and receive emails (we were). You can try using the form at https://meh.com/support as well. As much as we like to help when we can, there's not much we can do for you this time around. The deals end at midnight for everyone no matter where they are in the purchasing process.
@John T @hollboil perhaps the problem is with yahoo and you guys. I just got an email at the other email address I put in my profile from Holly so it at least works outgoing to outlook. Nothing in spam, still. Be interesting to see if something shows up. Also probably this entire exchange should be deleted since it is off topic for the forums but I was using this as a chat out of desperation.
@jzmacdaddy meh.com/faq Q: Ok, fine, it's slow. But when will it be shipped? And how can I track it?
A: We wait until the day after the event ends to print the shipping labels, and sometimes if it's busy it can be two or three days (not counting weekends, because we don't ship on weekends). Once it ships, we'll throw a tracking number on your orders page at https://meh.com/orders (Enough people have asked for a tracking email that we'll probably do that, but we're not there yet.)
@username You can always see how much it cost on the meh.com/orders page. If it isn't there, you've learned a lesson on what preserving this valuable information might cost you.
@username There, guerrilla price history! Now, I just have to reply to every @mediocrebot price post from now until forever, and we'll have a real system on our hands.
Mine arrived at 55% and I was also amazed at how long it took to get to a full charge. However, I tested it out on my Samsung SIII, which was down to 38%, and the PowerNow only went down to 95% to charge the phone to 100% using the 1A port (in case it matters). I had the phone powered-off, but when I turned it on the PowerNow started to drain faster. I do find that the micro-USB adapter is very loose-fitting, so I am going to use the cord from my old SII and see how that goes.
I was excited for mine to come in today but it was incomplete. Did not come with the mini-USB adapter or the carry pouch. As my first purchase using this site it is safe for me to say I will NOT be purchasing anything else from this website in the future. Meh needs to get it together.
57% to 61% in about 150 minutes, on a 5V 1A monoprice charger. 60% to 75% in about 120 minutes on a 5.3V 2A HP TouchPad charger. This is two separate PowerNows, just thought the difference was amazing. Not a very scientific test, and 5.3VDC might not be very good for the PowerNow... but neither is even warm to the touch.
@opello I bought 3. One read as zero, the other 2 were at 50%. All three charged up at about 10% per hour, or one amp hour per hour.
If they were 100% efficient and they used the full 1 amp available from the charger at 5 volts, then they could charge about 20% faster. The charging voltage for lithium ion starts at 3.something and ends at 4.3 volts.
Of course the percentage full display is probably not all that accurate.
Is anyone else having issues with these? First, it took several tries to get the battery to start charging my Kindle Fire tablet.
Now, it is charging, the but freshly charged-to-100% battery pack is rapidly declining in charge. In less than 3 minutes it is down to 88% while my Kindle has not increased at all.
Meh staff, will it be possible to return these if they are indeed defective? edit: Also worth mentioning my package (not shipping envelope, but battery box) was fairly damaged when it arrive with the contents hanging out of the box.
@meh I had that "rapidly decreasing percent" happen once. After letting it go ~15% I performed a plug/unplug/plug cycle of the USB cable plugged into the power now. While the device always indicated "charging" the battery percent had actually dropped while the "rapidly decreasing percent" was happening. I've also had several occurrences of the device indicating charging but the power now percent not flashing. In those situations the device percent kept falling, so it wasn't actually charging. But plug/unplug/plug made the PowerNow start flashing and the device start actually charging (increasing battery percentage).
@opello Thanks, it seems to happen with any device. The devices did start charging a little. About 1% for every 5% the battery lost on average it seems. Seems like it might have a dead cell. Either way, I'm not excited about having to cycle the cable several times to get it to charge anything.
@meh check which outlet on the battery you're using. 2.1A will fly through battery with no clear assist to the device while 1A seems to be the one desired for normal use
@brandon I tried both ports, but even so, using the other port sounds like a lot of excuses, lol. I don't want a defective 2.1A port - that's kind of why I bought this pack. Have to be honest I am a little disappointed I was told to contact the manufacturer. I get it, but when a device arrives defective I would have liked to have it taken care of by the seller. The CS rep did say to let them know what the manuf. says so we'll see.
@meh I was only pointing it out based upon usages. I don't understand the difference but do see one charging my iPhone properly and effectively while the other seemed intended for something else
@brandon Oh ya, I hear ya. The 2.1A port is more geared for tablets and bigger devices. Might run your iphone/ipod a little hot. But for me, I have a large capacity high res mp3 player and tablet I want to charge, and to be useful I really need the 2.1A charger for those. But either way, I get similar results with either port unfortunately.
@meh Ahhhh this makes me feel so much better about being in the middle of buying this deal when the witching hour hit and my order blew up… (sorry you got burned) - and how did you managed to get meh as your handle? I would have thought the lab flask people would have snagged that one LOL
@Kidsandliz Hehe, I've been meh for years and registered with it the very first day Mediocre opened up for lab rat registrations last year, before any one knew this was going to end up "meh.com" :)
Got two. One came 51% other came 2%. 51% charged to 100% in ~5 hrs, while 2% took ~14 hrs (both with included 5v, 1000ma chargers). Planning to try with a beefier charger, but can only find 1000ma and smaller ones atm (the charge controller may limit charge current anyway, so a beefier charger may not charge faster).
Tried charging both of my cell phones (HTC Amaze and HTC One) with all of the ports on both battery packs and have to say that it was not a good experience.
First, the included cables appear to not work at all.
Both phones completely ignore the 1A port (both phones charge fine from a 1A wall brick).
The HTC One charges very slowly from either of the 2.1A ports. The Amaze ignores one of the 2.1A ports and on the other, it started at 7% and after 30 minutes was at 2% (the phone... the battery pack remained at 100% throughout). After another 5 minutes or so, the phone shut itself off.
I'll do more tests tomorrow with an ammeter and voltmeter and purely resistive loads, but I'm thinking that these are either funky and rather meh flashlights, or else they are four packs of 2500mAh 18650 Li-Ion cells in (very) hard to open opaque blister packages.
I do like the drawstring bags tho... definitely the best part of the deal.
@baqui63 i have the same thing on the first of my battery packs. my iphone 4s won't charge off the 1A port (actually discharges faster), but does work on the 2.1A. I need to get the other pack out and see if I get the same issue
@all... I have learned some more after playing with one of my battery packs. I've not tried the other yet. First, it is a bit finiky about the cable used. Second, it only starts charging reliably if I turn on the charger BEFORE connecting the phone. Will experiment more tonight and tomorrow.
@brdubb I had that happen a couple of times (phone not charging, but actually discharging faster). It seems to happen when the charger doesn't start charging, i.e. when I connect the phone before turning on the charger. But I'm not certain of any of this yet. Too many variables thus far.
@baqui63 even if turning the charger on first it still wont' charge my 4s. I have a battery pack for my 4s, so going to try charging that to see if it works. (aka see if it's just the iphone/cable or the port itself)
@baqui63 i tried using the external battery back that goes with my 4s case and it charged on the 1A port, so it looks like the iPhone doesn't like it for some reason. (or it didn't like my quality Apple cable) guess I will try the cable that's in my car this afternoon.
Mine arrived and the display says "70U". It's also either fully charged (which means the LEDs are damaged) or it's not charging. Already pinged meh about it, so I'm contacting the manufacturer now...
Mine was at 13% when it arrived, took some trial and error to figure out why it wouldn't charge, finally figured out the cable is bad. I have others so not the end of the world. Took about 6 hours to get it to 100%. Plan on trying it out this week.
I bought three and had a fast discharge on one the first time I used it. I didnt note which one and now I think all three are working fine. On 1A I got a full iphone charge and the percentage read out was quite high remaining. I used another on 2.1A to charge my tablet while playing civilization and it ran down quickly from a half charge but I think it was normal-quick.
my guess is the percentage read outs may be a bit finicky - possibly a too-good-to-be-true type of precision in a battery pack. Perhaps especially true if the batter is left sitting for a long time like on the initial charge some had. Possibly they are also governing the recharging function?
I just got my package after a weekend away from home. Ordered 1 black... got 1 black and 1 orange. I hope I didn't end up with someone else's charger! Would the meh gods like me to send one back??? What's going on here?
Ok, I've played with one of my two battery packs enough to offer some advice and comments.
Start by throwing away the cables that came with the battery pack. (They are like the shipping tabs in a printer: it won't work right until you get rid of them.)
Mostly ignore the actual number on the gauge, at least until you've used the charger for a while. The important thing is to make sure the low digit is blinking when it is charging; no blink means no charge.
To get charging to start, I've mostly had to turn on the charger, then hook up my phone or tablet. The reverse works sometimes, but not always.
When power is drained from the battery pack at a low rate, the gauge doesn't update right, if at all. Because Li-Ion batteries (the one(s) in your phone or tablet, etc.) draw less and less current as they get closer to full, the gauge may not drop all the way for that charging session until the next time you use the charger to charge something that isn't mostly full. This is why the charger drops quickly for a bit when you first hook up a device.
The battery pack has Li-Ion cells and they will last longer (more charge cycles) if you neither drain them completely nor charge them completely (say keep the pack between 30% and 70%).
However, the gauge will likely be more accurate if you occasionally drain the pack completely (down as low as it will go) followed by charging it completely (at least 10-12 hours). I've not had a chance to do this yet, so I don't know that the gauge can be recalibrated, but most of them can be by doing a complete drain followed by a complete charge. Note this has nothing to do with a memory effect like NiCds. Li-Ion do not have memory, it only MIGHT recalibrate the gauge which MIGHT make it more accurate.
All in all, I'd say these battery packs are worth the $14 they cost (especially given the awesome drawstring bags), but I totally get anyone who thinks they are complete garbage.
@capguncowboy I know I have some chargers around here that can put out more than 1000mA, but I cannot find any to try. The 1000mA ones that came with are able to charge it fast enough for my needs (overnight) so I have little need (other than academic) to find one of the bigger ones.
So... bad news regarding my second battery pack (not the one I've been using above). Took it with me on an overnight trip and used it to recharge my HTC One and the gf's Samsung S3, taking it down to 45%.
Tried to recharge the battery pack using the two-port, 3.1A car adaptor that has charged my phones and other devices for over a year. The battery pack started charging and seemed fine, so left it charging for about 40 minutes while shopping. Came back and discovered that the smoke had gotten out and melted the battery pack a bit above the 1A port, to the right of the button. The battery pack no longer charges, tho I was able to get the 47% or so out of it into my phones and my gf's S3.
@medz so have I (the buck converters in them frequently smoke). But this one has been rock solid and is still rock solid (used it for ~5 hours this afternoon on my phone as GPS and gf's phone). I doubt the problem was due to the car charger.
I used mine once, and now it is not working. Press power button, and nada. Plugged in to the charger, LED's light up and indicate charging, but that is the only function I can get from it. Very, very meh...
So I tore it down and found out what happened... The + side of the battery bank is joined by a piece of foil across the tops of all 4 cells that in turn is soldered straight to the PCB. There is no extra material in this connection, it is nearly rigid, whereas the cells can move ever so slightly. So a shock load from the right direction can snap that foil away from the PCB solder. You will still get lights when plugged in, but no charging will occur or it may charge if contact is maintained, but it will not be reliable. This connection is at the lower right corner of the PCB, just to the right of the power button when the charger is facing you. Tearing down the charger is easy: the silver ends pop off, there are 2 tabs at the bottom which when depressed allow that edge to unhook, and by removing the black covering faceplate over the power button, you can get at the 2 small screws which when removed will allow you to fully open the case. I used a razor blade to pry up the black faceplate, it is held on with adhesive.
Been a while since I bought it and am using for the first time right now. I love this thing. I ordered the blue one and it arrived to me at 54% charged. The numbers aren't hard to read and has a nifty flashlight. I am charging my phone right now and there have been no issues with it. I am curious to see what else I can use the charger for.
My sister liked it so there's a good chance I will order another one for her as a Christmas gift. Thanks, Meh.
I needed a better meme but I've never used the Ain't Nobody so I guess I settled for using it wrong. (we should do a "best meme for the woot event gets a free PowerNow" contest)
Specs
Condition - New
Warranty - 1 Year PowerNow
Ships Via - FedEx SmartPost
What’s in the box!?
Pictures
Group Photo
Purple
Light Blue
Red
Black
Silver
Orange
Price Check
$60 at PortableCharger
$40 at HSN (24 Reviews)
Warranty
90 days
$14 at meh
Bravo to whoever took the time to do that last picture. Bravo.
Crap, I can't believe I'm actually considering being the first one to buy this
I'll probably close my eyes while buying it. Then tell myself it was an accident.
Well I just read the reviews - a handful of phones are incompatible.
Compatibility: iPad, iPod, iPhone 5S, 5C, 5, 4, 3G, Kindle Fire, Samsung Galaxy S2, S3, S4, Sprint Epic 4G Touch, or any other Smartphones
HSN reviewers disagree with compatibility list as some of their phones didn't work with it even though they were on the list
Keyword there is HSN. It was entertaining how stereotypical those reviews were - had to link.
@Snapster Agreed about those HSN reviews. Very amusing. Almost every one of the stereotypes are there.
Picture editing game strong!
Hmm, now I have a dilemma. I mean, it's purple, so that's usually an insta-buy for me. But, I don't really need this and I just spent a fortune on back-to-school supplies. Meh.
It's only $14, plus it's Purple. You know you want it.
It's purple. Nuf said.
I do, I really do. It's taking all my willpower at this point not to buy.
Buy it. The power of purple compels you!
I did it. I purpled. You can too. Go for it.
I got one in my Fukubukuro. My kid took it & seems to like it. :)
Me too! Used it at hospital while waiting for my little meh to be meh'ed
Damn. I got 6 pairs of reading glasses and a Wonder Woman photo album :(
I got one of these in my f-u-kangaroo. They seem useful and I really wanted to like it. A few points:
the charger is .25A (250 mA). This makes recharging the device painstakingly longer than it should.
The charger takes FOREVER to charge your phone/tablet/device. My phone charger takes about 45 minutes for a full charge. This was on my phone for 2 hours and only brought it up to 35%. However, it only depleted 8% of the charger's battery, so you would get multiple charges (3-4 depending on the device).
It's purple. Why in the hell is it purple? Of all the color choices!? EDIT: I see there are other color choices. This is no longer a con (unless you actually order purple).
The lights are really pointless. I can understand why they might be useful, but why would they need to blink? I can't figure that one out.
For $14, you can't beat it. I'd use it in a pinch, which I suppose is what they're for.
Uh, so why's it say output #1 is 1A, and #2 2.1A, and the charger for the battery is 5V/1000mAh?
My charger was only .25 amps. The outputs on the charger say 1A and 2.1A. I haven't attempted to see how many they're putting out though
The charger adapter for the battery pack doesn't really matter, though. I will use one of the others that I have lying around
The light is there so when you throw it in your bag, something will press up against the light, draining the battery.
@capguncowboy no, your charger is 1.0 amp at 5V...the .25 amp is at 115V AC
Creepy youtube video of the product.
Why is there no audio?
To make it extra creepy.
tempted, but not sure
$40 at HSN...Everything is 10 times higher on HSN
I lived off of one of these things for a weekend in Indianapolis at the Indy PopCon. My phone never hit a wall charger. I started with a full powernow when I stepped off the plane and recharged my phone twice a day. At the end the powernow was down around 12% and I survived. YMMV, but I really thought it was useful. Charge your phone on the right output unless you want to cook eggs on the back of that iPhone glass.
@somf69 you telling me I overpaid for this lovely gift for my step mother in-law?
if it says "tone" and it's not connected to a speaker dock, then I'd say yes
Purple Wane? Isn't that the name of a Prince song?
Pupple Wane? Yeah. It's on the same album as "Wet's Go Cwazy"
Prince did Purple Rain. Purple Wane was by Pwince.
Purple Wayne is what Little Wayne likes to drink (and kids are emulating :( ) - cough syrup and koolaid.
I'm no longer a meh virgin! Bought
Probably going to be stuck with purple they say...
Silver ordered.
Check and mate.
Unless that was to encourage quicker purchases of unneeded goods...
...
Dammit.
I debated the same. Also ordered silver, but won't be shocked if I get purple.
Unless it's not properly grounded.
😁
I had an overpriced Zagg Sparq with the flip out wall plug feature, which was so handy until the plugs decided to remain in the outlet after removing the brick from the wall.
$14 seems like a worthwhile replacement. In for 2.
There once was a terrific website that started out purple!
We have the instacharge (same specs, not as purple) and when we were at a hospital for long times we were a hit, we would share our power. I am in for 1 more, for when all 4 of us needed it. Small enough to charge your phone in your pocket, but bulky.
More like 2600 mEh
Woohoo, an option to send a confirmation email! In for 1. If this site ever has a meh-off, might get a second one if this one works well.
On the one hand, meh. On the other hand, in for one (black). Because VMP free shipping.
Anyone knows the input? If it is charged only 1A, it will take too much time to full charging.
according to the @capguncowboy, the charger that comes with it is 0.25 amps, but you could use a different cord to charge it faster.
FYI it comes with a 5V 1A charger.
Can't count the number of times I've had to use that excuse on my boss's spouse. No seriously, how do you count 0 times?
In for one Red only because VMP.
I plan to use it when I golf so I don't kill my phone using my GPS. Not that knowing how far from the pin I am improves my game any.
Two. Black and Silver. I considered Purple, but it would clash with all my pink electronics. (SUCH a shame this didn't come in pink or hunter green.) It sure would be nice if this arrived by next Tuesday...
In for one, experienced-airborne-toothpaste reporting for duty.
Love portable chargers. Have two of them that are similar (10000 and 12000 mAh). These were perfect for Comic Con. To recharge, I stuck it into the auxiliary port of my JBL Speaker Dock I bought here. Yeah, I know... The speaker dock was useful!
Okay I just popped my meh cherry with a silver one. I may just give it to the granddaughter to use at Wazzu. :)
Count me Ingress
Black and silver are gone. Purple, blue, red, and orange are left. Unless I bought the last orange one.
If you buy two, can you use one to charge the other one? Wait, why stop there? If you buy three, can you use one to charge the other one to charge the other one?
If you plug 2 into each other they will create a power loop and both will quickly be fully charged due to electron cycling.
That can't be right.
I googled electron cycling and got this
seems right to me. Because of science and stuff @jont
@hollboll that is an accurate schematic for the process.
Got it in my BOC, it takes FOREVER to charge the battery pack (it was charging for hours). Seems nice in a pinch.
My phone is 2200 mAh the battery pack is 10000 mAh, it should take longer to charge the battery pack.
I almost bought the purple one but decided on blue at the last minute. Wondering if it will be dark blue or light blue.
Also, this is my first purchase not only from meh.com but also for my new residence. Looking forward to receiving this.
I found a manual here: http://portablecharger.com/manuals/PowerNOW_10000_UserGuide.pdf
i clicked meh. then bought it.
As the surveys I take for a lousy three bucks each ask on a scale of one to five:
I want this product - completely agree
I need this product - completely agree
In for purple since I got a pink case for my fukubukuro iPad mini and pink and purple look so good together.
Now how about some sort of automatic dispenser to put on a cat's back so when she farts it will neutralize the odor (oh, Lorelei, that was a nasty one....)
Just what I needed lost the power cord on my old portable charger and it was $30 for a new cord. In for the purple one.
Convenient. My old 3500mah miio just kicked the bucket. Great for tossing in my work bag and not having a dead phone after drunkenly stumbling out after happy hour.
I generally agree with the writeup, but let's face it, the only true Gamecubes were the purple ones.
Or, the true Gameboy Advance was purple.
I had one of the clear purple GBA's, and a clear purple N64 controller. Coolest kid, right here.
And now you are working at Mediocre/Meh. What happened?
Academia
Wow. I always wanted one of those clear phones, with the neon circuits and stuff inside.
@harrison: Oh, I get it. You flunked.
@barnabee: worse. I went to grad school
Academia nut?
@harrison GED?
Got one in my First Box and I agree with the mention that it takes forever to charge a phone (a Nexus 5 in my case). Maybe @marklog spilled something on it? I actually went back to using the charger I got in another Kickstarter campaign, even though that's the size of, like, a car battery. Anyway, I will say the purple could be worse. Can't bitch for free-ish, right?
I got one in my fukukaracha as well. It charged my 6200mah battery for my note2 pretty darned quickly.
Is it me or does saying 10k mAh look weird? 10 kilo milli amp-hours. Kilo is 1000 and milli is 1/1000 so they just cancel out each other.
you're right. It should just say 10 Amp Hours. Sorry about that.
It should read ten billion nanoAmp hours.
The flashlight is so you can take it on an airplane. The TSA rules limit how big a battery you can carry with you. The limit for a battery in a device is much larger. Some batteries look like sticks of explosives in an xray. This way you can turn it on and show that the cylinders inside are really just batteries. Make sure you charge it before your flight.
@hamjudo Or the flashlight shows that you can hook up a hearing aid cell battery to an led in the same package your explosives are also in...
Bought one. Fifth purchase so far. meh is like mehth.
Bought 2. Purposely purple. Cuz we actually like purple. Just wish it would be able to arrive by Thursday since we leave for vacation on Friday morning and it would really be nice to have for our trip.
Says Purple and Red available - try to buy the red and pop my cherry - but "Houston - we have a code problem". Either you have it or you don't.
Someone taking off early to miss the tollway traffic today?
Tried to do my part...
So purple is my only option... Meh. Oh, wait... I wanted purple. I must be weird.
I was about to ask what colors were left by the end of the sale. Glad I could do my part to winnow it down to only purple remaining.
Sorry had to Meh this deal. Already got one in my fukubukuro bag. Speaking of which I never did post my bag goods.
Well I went to buy it at 11:09pm central savings time and it said I was too late. What the heck time are you operating on? We don't want to sell you one time? Seriously. The offer is still up and you won't sell me one? F'meh to you.
Midnight Eastern Time.
^ Yup, sorry. We're old and decrepit so the sale changes at Midnight Eastern.
Yeah but @Jon T the offer was still up and I clicked on it, just didn't finish filling it out until after the deadline apparently.
Really sorry you couldn't get in on these @Kidsandliz, but everything has to swap over promptly at midnight so we can begin to disappoint on schedule. Maybe these will be up for sale again, but part of the reason we can offer the prices we do is because of the temporary nature of our deals. As far as a phone number goes, we don't have one and you really don't want to talk to us anyway. Might be worth giving our FAQ a look.
/me is enjoying this.
@Jon T I already read your Q&A. I started the transaction prior to midnight. I clicked and got the buy it form up, filled it out and bam gone. You have a problem with your system though that it can't send emails to me. They aren't in spam.
@hollboil and @Jon T - which email address should I be using members@meh.com or halp@meh.com? I have sent to halp several hours ago did someone get that?
@kidsandliz halp@meh.com is the correct email, @hollboll has been responding and we just did a quick test to make sure we were able to send and receive emails (we were). You can try using the form at https://meh.com/support as well. As much as we like to help when we can, there's not much we can do for you this time around. The deals end at midnight for everyone no matter where they are in the purchasing process.
@John T @hollboil perhaps the problem is with yahoo and you guys. I just got an email at the other email address I put in my profile from Holly so it at least works outgoing to outlook. Nothing in spam, still. Be interesting to see if something shows up. Also probably this entire exchange should be deleted since it is off topic for the forums but I was using this as a chat out of desperation.
PS @John T and @hollboil thanks for your help
This was my first purchase. How long does it take to ship?
@jzmacdaddy Depends where you live. 2 weeks is typical for me, but some lucky people get their stuff in a few days. Check your FedEx tracking page.
@jzmacdaddy
meh.com/faq
Q: Ok, fine, it's slow. But when will it be shipped? And how can I track it?
A: We wait until the day after the event ends to print the shipping labels, and sometimes if it's busy it can be two or three days (not counting weekends, because we don't ship on weekends). Once it ships, we'll throw a tracking number on your orders page at https://meh.com/orders (Enough people have asked for a tracking email that we'll probably do that, but we're not there yet.)
how much were these again? can we have price posts for posterity?
They were $14. I'm not important enough to make that call about price.
@username You can always see how much it cost on the meh.com/orders page. If it isn't there, you've learned a lesson on what preserving this valuable information might cost you.
@username There, guerrilla price history! Now, I just have to reply to every @mediocrebot price post from now until forever, and we'll have a real system on our hands.
I am amazed at how long it too to charge itself! Started with 56 (%?) and didn't get to 100 until some 6-8 hours later.
@tightwad it's a whole lotta battery.
Yeah mine started at 87, and I've had it in the wall for about 10 min's and it still says 87.
@Noon i don't have mine yet...they're supposed to be here monday, but knowing FedEx they won't hand it off to USPS until Tuesday afternoon
Mine arrived at 55% and I was also amazed at how long it took to get to a full charge. However, I tested it out on my Samsung SIII, which was down to 38%, and the PowerNow only went down to 95% to charge the phone to 100% using the 1A port (in case it matters). I had the phone powered-off, but when I turned it on the PowerNow started to drain faster. I do find that the micro-USB adapter is very loose-fitting, so I am going to use the cord from my old SII and see how that goes.
Too bad the "Micro-USB Charging Connector" broke when I went to unplug the unit just after the first time I plugged the thing into the wall
I was excited for mine to come in today but it was incomplete. Did not come with the mini-USB adapter or the carry pouch. As my first purchase using this site it is safe for me to say I will NOT be purchasing anything else from this website in the future. Meh needs to get it together.
Yeah meh get it together.
@Happle did you email halp@meh.com?
@Happle Sorry to hear that, as @Ignorant mentioned go ahead and contact us at halp@meh.com or through meh.com/support and we'll take care of you.
Wait. It was supposed to come with a carrying pouch!? Mine didn't. MY LIFE IS OVER!
oh wait yeah it did nevermind nothing to see here move along
57% to 61% in about 150 minutes, on a 5V 1A monoprice charger. 60% to 75% in about 120 minutes on a 5.3V 2A HP TouchPad charger. This is two separate PowerNows, just thought the difference was amazing. Not a very scientific test, and 5.3VDC might not be very good for the PowerNow... but neither is even warm to the touch.
@opello I bought 3. One read as zero, the other 2 were at 50%. All three charged up at about 10% per hour, or one amp hour per hour.
If they were 100% efficient and they used the full 1 amp available from the charger at 5 volts, then they could charge about 20% faster. The charging voltage for lithium ion starts at 3.something and ends at 4.3 volts.
Of course the percentage full display is probably not all that accurate.
Is anyone else having issues with these? First, it took several tries to get the battery to start charging my Kindle Fire tablet.
Now, it is charging, the but freshly charged-to-100% battery pack is rapidly declining in charge. In less than 3 minutes it is down to 88% while my Kindle has not increased at all.
Meh staff, will it be possible to return these if they are indeed defective? edit: Also worth mentioning my package (not shipping envelope, but battery box) was fairly damaged when it arrive with the contents hanging out of the box.
@meh I had that "rapidly decreasing percent" happen once. After letting it go ~15% I performed a plug/unplug/plug cycle of the USB cable plugged into the power now. While the device always indicated "charging" the battery percent had actually dropped while the "rapidly decreasing percent" was happening. I've also had several occurrences of the device indicating charging but the power now percent not flashing. In those situations the device percent kept falling, so it wasn't actually charging. But plug/unplug/plug made the PowerNow start flashing and the device start actually charging (increasing battery percentage).
@opello Thanks, it seems to happen with any device. The devices did start charging a little. About 1% for every 5% the battery lost on average it seems. Seems like it might have a dead cell. Either way, I'm not excited about having to cycle the cable several times to get it to charge anything.
I emailed meh.com about the issue and they advised me to contact the manufacturer. I have sent them an email - will post if/when I hear back.
@meh check which outlet on the battery you're using. 2.1A will fly through battery with no clear assist to the device while 1A seems to be the one desired for normal use
@brandon I tried both ports, but even so, using the other port sounds like a lot of excuses, lol. I don't want a defective 2.1A port - that's kind of why I bought this pack. Have to be honest I am a little disappointed I was told to contact the manufacturer. I get it, but when a device arrives defective I would have liked to have it taken care of by the seller. The CS rep did say to let them know what the manuf. says so we'll see.
@meh I was only pointing it out based upon usages. I don't understand the difference but do see one charging my iPhone properly and effectively while the other seemed intended for something else
@brandon Oh ya, I hear ya. The 2.1A port is more geared for tablets and bigger devices. Might run your iphone/ipod a little hot. But for me, I have a large capacity high res mp3 player and tablet I want to charge, and to be useful I really need the 2.1A charger for those. But either way, I get similar results with either port unfortunately.
@meh Ahhhh this makes me feel so much better about being in the middle of buying this deal when the witching hour hit and my order blew up… (sorry you got burned) - and how did you managed to get meh as your handle? I would have thought the lab flask people would have snagged that one LOL
@Kidsandliz Hehe, I've been meh for years and registered with it the very first day Mediocre opened up for lab rat registrations last year, before any one knew this was going to end up "meh.com" :)
@meh Ahhh. I get it. They stole the name from you LOL. Demand royalties or at least free speaker doc.
Got two. One came 51% other came 2%. 51% charged to 100% in ~5 hrs, while 2% took ~14 hrs (both with included 5v, 1000ma chargers). Planning to try with a beefier charger, but can only find 1000ma and smaller ones atm (the charge controller may limit charge current anyway, so a beefier charger may not charge faster).
Tried charging both of my cell phones (HTC Amaze and HTC One) with all of the ports on both battery packs and have to say that it was not a good experience.
First, the included cables appear to not work at all.
Both phones completely ignore the 1A port (both phones charge fine from a 1A wall brick).
The HTC One charges very slowly from either of the 2.1A ports. The Amaze ignores one of the 2.1A ports and on the other, it started at 7% and after 30 minutes was at 2% (the phone... the battery pack remained at 100% throughout). After another 5 minutes or so, the phone shut itself off.
I'll do more tests tomorrow with an ammeter and voltmeter and purely resistive loads, but I'm thinking that these are either funky and rather meh flashlights, or else they are four packs of 2500mAh 18650 Li-Ion cells in (very) hard to open opaque blister packages.
I do like the drawstring bags tho... definitely the best part of the deal.
@baqui63 i have the same thing on the first of my battery packs. my iphone 4s won't charge off the 1A port (actually discharges faster), but does work on the 2.1A. I need to get the other pack out and see if I get the same issue
@all... I have learned some more after playing with one of my battery packs. I've not tried the other yet. First, it is a bit finiky about the cable used. Second, it only starts charging reliably if I turn on the charger BEFORE connecting the phone. Will experiment more tonight and tomorrow.
@brdubb I had that happen a couple of times (phone not charging, but actually discharging faster). It seems to happen when the charger doesn't start charging, i.e. when I connect the phone before turning on the charger. But I'm not certain of any of this yet. Too many variables thus far.
@baqui63 even if turning the charger on first it still wont' charge my 4s. I have a battery pack for my 4s, so going to try charging that to see if it works. (aka see if it's just the iphone/cable or the port itself)
@baqui63 i tried using the external battery back that goes with my 4s case and it charged on the 1A port, so it looks like the iPhone doesn't like it for some reason. (or it didn't like my quality Apple cable) guess I will try the cable that's in my car this afternoon.
@brdubb Good luck... I'm starting a new post as I've learned some stuff that may be helpful to people.
Mine arrived and the display says "70U". It's also either fully charged (which means the LEDs are damaged) or it's not charging. Already pinged meh about it, so I'm contacting the manufacturer now...
Mine was at 13% when it arrived, took some trial and error to figure out why it wouldn't charge, finally figured out the cable is bad. I have others so not the end of the world. Took about 6 hours to get it to 100%. Plan on trying it out this week.
Mine is unusable, the plastic casing doesn't line up with the USB output ports at all cannot even try this thing out.
@Jasonf1984 If you ended up returning this to Meh (and it was purple), I do believe I may have gotten yours in my Fukobukuro. It was an easy fix!
@ssiemonsma I love purple.
I bought three and had a fast discharge on one the first time I used it. I didnt note which one and now I think all three are working fine. On 1A I got a full iphone charge and the percentage read out was quite high remaining. I used another on 2.1A to charge my tablet while playing civilization and it ran down quickly from a half charge but I think it was normal-quick.
my guess is the percentage read outs may be a bit finicky - possibly a too-good-to-be-true type of precision in a battery pack. Perhaps especially true if the batter is left sitting for a long time like on the initial charge some had. Possibly they are also governing the recharging function?
My cable sucked the big meh. I just used one of the other cables I have. Problem solved.
Plugged it in. Pressed big button on front and my phone lit up saying it was charging and the battery started counting down.
I just got my package after a weekend away from home. Ordered 1 black... got 1 black and 1 orange. I hope I didn't end up with someone else's charger! Would the meh gods like me to send one back??? What's going on here?
@jdp Whoops, well looks like our mistake is your gain. No need to send it back, feel free to keep it.
Ok, I've played with one of my two battery packs enough to offer some advice and comments.
Start by throwing away the cables that came with the battery pack. (They are like the shipping tabs in a printer: it won't work right until you get rid of them.)
Mostly ignore the actual number on the gauge, at least until you've used the charger for a while. The important thing is to make sure the low digit is blinking when it is charging; no blink means no charge.
To get charging to start, I've mostly had to turn on the charger, then hook up my phone or tablet. The reverse works sometimes, but not always.
When power is drained from the battery pack at a low rate, the gauge doesn't update right, if at all. Because Li-Ion batteries (the one(s) in your phone or tablet, etc.) draw less and less current as they get closer to full, the gauge may not drop all the way for that charging session until the next time you use the charger to charge something that isn't mostly full. This is why the charger drops quickly for a bit when you first hook up a device.
The battery pack has Li-Ion cells and they will last longer (more charge cycles) if you neither drain them completely nor charge them completely (say keep the pack between 30% and 70%).
However, the gauge will likely be more accurate if you occasionally drain the pack completely (down as low as it will go) followed by charging it completely (at least 10-12 hours). I've not had a chance to do this yet, so I don't know that the gauge can be recalibrated, but most of them can be by doing a complete drain followed by a complete charge. Note this has nothing to do with a memory effect like NiCds. Li-Ion do not have memory, it only MIGHT recalibrate the gauge which MIGHT make it more accurate.
All in all, I'd say these battery packs are worth the $14 they cost (especially given the awesome drawstring bags), but I totally get anyone who thinks they are complete garbage.
@baqui63 I tossed out my cables first thing. The wall charger to charge the battery was garbage too. Used my phone's charger and it was much faster
@capguncowboy I know I have some chargers around here that can put out more than 1000mA, but I cannot find any to try. The 1000mA ones that came with are able to charge it fast enough for my needs (overnight) so I have little need (other than academic) to find one of the bigger ones.
@baqui63 my charger cable (for the batter pack) was 250mA -- it was just too slow. Took about 10 hours. My other charger took it only 4 hours
Great deal!!!
bought 3 they all work great.
Thanks
So... bad news regarding my second battery pack (not the one I've been using above). Took it with me on an overnight trip and used it to recharge my HTC One and the gf's Samsung S3, taking it down to 45%.
Tried to recharge the battery pack using the two-port, 3.1A car adaptor that has charged my phones and other devices for over a year. The battery pack started charging and seemed fine, so left it charging for about 40 minutes while shopping. Came back and discovered that the smoke had gotten out and melted the battery pack a bit above the 1A port, to the right of the button. The battery pack no longer charges, tho I was able to get the 47% or so out of it into my phones and my gf's S3.
And then there was one... :(
@baqui63 That sucks. I've had bad luck with car chargers.
@medz so have I (the buck converters in them frequently smoke). But this one has been rock solid and is still rock solid (used it for ~5 hours this afternoon on my phone as GPS and gf's phone). I doubt the problem was due to the car charger.
I used mine once, and now it is not working. Press power button, and nada. Plugged in to the charger, LED's light up and indicate charging, but that is the only function I can get from it. Very, very meh...
So I tore it down and found out what happened... The + side of the battery bank is joined by a piece of foil across the tops of all 4 cells that in turn is soldered straight to the PCB. There is no extra material in this connection, it is nearly rigid, whereas the cells can move ever so slightly. So a shock load from the right direction can snap that foil away from the PCB solder. You will still get lights when plugged in, but no charging will occur or it may charge if contact is maintained, but it will not be reliable. This connection is at the lower right corner of the PCB, just to the right of the power button when the charger is facing you. Tearing down the charger is easy: the silver ends pop off, there are 2 tabs at the bottom which when depressed allow that edge to unhook, and by removing the black covering faceplate over the power button, you can get at the 2 small screws which when removed will allow you to fully open the case. I used a razor blade to pry up the black faceplate, it is held on with adhesive.
Been a while since I bought it and am using for the first time right now. I love this thing. I ordered the blue one and it arrived to me at 54% charged. The numbers aren't hard to read and has a nifty flashlight. I am charging my phone right now and there have been no issues with it. I am curious to see what else I can use the charger for.
My sister liked it so there's a good chance I will order another one for her as a Christmas gift. Thanks, Meh.
http://sellout.woot.com/plus/powernow-10-000-mah-power-banks
@snapster
@snapster A month late and $20 more? Sounds about right.
I needed a better meme but I've never used the Ain't Nobody so I guess I settled for using it wrong. (we should do a "best meme for the woot event gets a free PowerNow" contest)
@snapster To anyone thinking of buying one:
haha nice - I figured the result but I had to research
@snapster
@snapster
@lichme oh I am so pained to have missed the obvious choice. good show.
You just won a $35 power charger! yuk-yuk. I'll try to pick your least favorite color.
@snapster Woohoo! I absolutely hate the blue one, so don't send that one.... yeah, that's it. Thanks for doing these random little things!
@lichme but you didn't say anything about purple. Hmm.