@CrossIT Acctually it is 10Ah. 10kmAh is so fu**ing stupid. It is bad enough they use Ah instead of Wh, or better yet, J but at least use the correct notation. Meh should have sold it as 10 billion nAh.
I want to point out that I am aware to the rational as to why batteries are rated in Ah rather than Joules, but that rational falls apart when you have circuitry that is changing the output voltage.
@Fen_Star The batteries are rated to store a total of 10.4 Amp hours. That is at a nominal 3.7 volts. The battery is considered fully discharged at 2.75 volts, although it will last longer if you don't go that far. More details in a full comment below.
@darksaber99999 i have a 7k one (different manufacturer) that i use all the time. It's nice that i can charge up my phone at school without having to be stuck near an outlet. Its also great for weekend trips, long flights, etc.
I got a black one last time for myself, but ordered this purple fellow today to toss into the gift stash. Of course, I'm sure the lack of Georgia red will be appropriately noted at some point in the near future.
It could be chartreuse and mauve, I don't care. Toss it in my go bag and fuggetaboutit. Till I need it that is. Or more importantly one of my kids needs it...
Bought one last time. It doesn't work well. The provided cable didn't work, the 1A side didn't work, the 2.1A side sometimes worked, and when it did, the battery drained faster than it charged any device in several trials. It does have a handy flashlight, though!
Anyway, it took a few emails btw me, the manuf. and meh, but meh CS took care of me. Junky battery in my experience, though.
@meh Mine worked dandy, however it's possible I got lucky. After over a month of self-discharge today, I completely charged from single-digit percentages a Nexus 4 and Nexus 7, and ended up with 27% charge left. (It exists for power outages, but good to run a battery through its paces on occasion)
@meh I got 2 the last time they were up (one red and one blue). One of them works great, and the other one is a bit more finicky. The one can charge my phone all day for a week straight before I need to recharge it. The other gets a couple hours usage before I have to charge it. Not the best quality control, but for the price I'd say they're a good product.
@rhinoscerous Oh, and my girlfriend calls the blue and red ones pepsi and coke, respectively, because they look like crushed pop cans. So there's that.
I bought this in blue as my first purchase at Meh months ago. It's great. I love that it has a percentage indicator and the flashlight (two small lights) is bright without blinding. Perfect for my tablet and cell phone which this can charge at the same time since it has two ports.
My sister liked it so much that she wants one in silver. Since this is only in purple, I have to say (but not vote) meh.
Last time they had these, I got two, and one was basically broken when it arrived. Tried to deal with the manufacturer, finally gave up after repeated runarounds and non-respondsiveness. Meh said they couldn't do anything. So, not wasting money on these again. I don't recommend you do, either.
@eeterrific if you have sansa's usb cable. We got one last time and it is OK for 14 bucks, but not great. We have a different brand that everyone uses first.
@Bossington For some reason the iDevice does not always recognize the battery (or vice versa?). I figured this out after plugging my iPhone 5 in and out multiple times. Also, possibly related, not all USB ports are the same (2.0 vs. 3.0), but I'm not sure this should affect the connection of a device.
I was going to say I got one last time and it works great, and I would have appreciated the electrotherapy picture, but I would rather not comment under a puking pumpkin.
Maybe certain colors are worse than others? I should mention that I do not use the micro USB cord that came with my blue charger and instead use one of my other cell phone/tablet cords.
Also, the charger arrived at 54% power so I did have to charge it for a couple of hours for it to reach 100%.
Is it purple or violet? Can't seem to distinguish one color from the other. @KDemo.. Thanks for sacrificing yourself by separating me from the barfer.. Can still see it though (gawk!).
I picked up a red one last time. I use it frequently and I think it's great. The meter is very unreliable and it takes a while to fully charge, longer than overnight even on a 2 amp charger, but once it's charged I can get at least 3 full charges for my S5. I don't use the cable that came with it, if that makes a difference.
Bought one the last go round. It's big and heavy. For some reason it won't work with an iPad. It get the battery pack red hot and drains the pack super quick and the iPad fails to charge. Although it work perfect o. The iPhone 5 and 6plus. Why? No idea
No way in hell am I sporting a Purple charger. HOWEVER, my girlfriend will love this for $14 and shipped free. So, "meh" for me, "win" for her. She consistently forgets to top off her battery, but always has her urse, which this will easily fit into.
@JonT@snapster Do you know if the charger I won from the last forum meme contest was ever sent out? I never got any shipping notices for it while I was away on vacation.
Got two of these last time since we have four devices in the house that travel everywhere - 2 phones, 2 tablets. Both work beautifully. Secret: Don't use the cable it comes with - use the cable your device-to-charge comes with. Using the 2.1A port charges our phones (Droid 4 & Samsung Galaxy S3) in a little over an hour from nearly dead, and about 3 hours on the 1A port. Tablets take considerably longer, but still charge.
I'm pretty sure the 5V USB wall charger can push 1000 mA, not 1000mAh. Otherwise, you get a 10% charge on the 10000mAh battery pack. Which would be bad.
DO NOT BUY! I bought 3 of these the last time around. They worked fine for 1-2 charges, then quit being functional chargers. Basically they'd say they were at 100%, and when you hook them up to a device the would appear to be charging, but your device would not actually charge at all. TURRRRIBLEEEE!
I bought 2 last go-around. I used one of them this weekend, and it charged my phone just fine, twice. My S3 got down to 14% one night and about 30% the next. I also used the phone for about an hour each time while it was charging.
When I returned home, the battery pack indicated that it had 70% still available. I used the supplied cable.
Looks like I may want to run both of them a few times to make sure they stay working.
These things are the new cigarette lighter. Let me explain. Used to be you could chat up a chick in a bar who pulled out a cigarette by offering a light. Now, no smoking in bars, but you hear girl complain of battery about to die. Voila, you are her hero. Purple might make you seem non-threatening (in that she may assume you're not into her kind) though.
The four cells are labeled ICR18650-26FM SAMSUNG SDIEM TDU1
They are wired in parallel.
My unit says it is at 93% charge. My cheap meters showed the charging voltage was 3.99 volts when I first plugged it in. After several minutes it is now at 4.01 volts. I used a USB charger that was rated at 5 volts and 4 amps. My meter shows that it puts out between 5.08 and 5.15 volts. The charging voltage is the same with a good USB cable where the input voltage was measured at 5.00 volts at charging port on the PowerNow and with a crappy cable, which dropped it down to 4.21 volts.
I also tested it with the charger that came with the unit, and the charging voltage was the same. I did not try it with the charging cable that came with the unit, as I threw them into a box of USB cables, and I'm not sure which is which.
There are two switching power supplies on the circuit board, one takes the nominal 5 volts in, and converts it to the charging voltage. The charging voltage should depend on the state of the battery. The other switching power supply converts the 2.75 to 4.2 volts at the battery terminal to the 5 volts on the output ports.
I most pick up my daughter from school. So more in part 2.
I ordered 2, one for myself, the other for my sister, or my housemate if my sister ticks me off too much. Purple isn't a bad color for women. Just hoping I don't get one that's a floater. I have learned from reading above to use my own cables - not a problem, that's why we carry Tardis like purses you might find a fat screen tv or an elephant in.
It works fine when it's charged, but too often it seems like it doesn't feel like staying charged. I would like to have something like this that's better than this.
@MntlWard Sadly, it probably won't work at all in a few weeks or months.
TL;DR Time to use the warranty. "Warranty - 1 Year PowerNow"
The spec sheet for the batteries quotes that the cells are good for at least 300 cycles if they are charged to no more than 4.2 volts, and discharged to no less than 2.75 volts. The one unit I opened up actually charges to 4.1 volts, so the engineers traded off some capacity for a longer life. I did not drain it to 0% to see what the low voltage was, but I would guess it is somewhat above 2.75 volts.
Lithium ion cells suffer greatly reduced life if they are drained below their rated cutoff voltage. When a correctly working unit hits the cutoff voltage it will report 0% capacity, and refuse to drain more power from the battery.
A unit that drains itself when nothing is plugged in, also known as "self discharge", will not magically stop draining at an arbitrary cutoff. It will drain the cells to the point of permanent damage.
Even if it hasn't reached total death, the next time you use it, it will have less capacity. A few such cycles, and it will reach total death.
If you want to try to keep it alive for holiday travel this year, you could leave it on a charger, and press the button daily or weekly to make sure it never gets too close to 0%.
That sounds like too much work for this sort of product. It is probably time to investigate the warranty or throw it away.
Assuming you didn't get it too hot, too cold, or wet, you can go the warranty route without guilt. (Above it says Warranty - 1 Year PowerNow.) Are there any signs that the unit got wet or too hot before you got it?
(Too cold seems really unlikely, it is rated for storage down to -20 °C, which is -4 °F.)
@hamjudo I have no reason to think it got wet or overly hot before I got it. I've been thinking that keeping it in a backpack has caused some accidental pressing of that button. I'll see if I can work out some way to keep an eye on the charge level, as it's been very useful to me when it keeps a charge.
Specs
Condition - New
Warranty - 1 Year PowerNow
Ships Via - FedEx SmartPost
What’s in the box!?
Pictures
Purple
Accessories
Price Check
$60 at PortableCharger
$40 at HSN (24 Reviews)
Warranty
90 days
Meh! Purple for a double Meh
@Stallion I love purple.
@Barney I don't. Totally cool that you do though
Meh. Portable charger. Disappointing.
$19 at macmall with free shipping? meh.
shipping isn't free, but a decent deal - http://www.macmall.com/p/PC-Treasures-Chargers/product~dpno~13167247~pdp.ihhjihc
@TheAlmighty1 Free with shoprunner, anyone with amex gets it for free. I guess it is unfair to assume everyone has an AMEX card.
WHY that ugly purple
@CrossIT I love purple.
totally meh.....
meh to the 10k
@CrossIT Acctually it is 10Ah. 10kmAh is so fu**ing stupid. It is bad enough they use Ah instead of Wh, or better yet, J but at least use the correct notation. Meh should have sold it as 10 billion nAh.
I want to point out that I am aware to the rational as to why batteries are rated in Ah rather than Joules, but that rational falls apart when you have circuitry that is changing the output voltage.
@Fen_Star I don't think I've ever met someone so passionate about proper battery rating conventions, electrical engineer?
@Fen_Star The batteries are rated to store a total of 10.4 Amp hours. That is at a nominal 3.7 volts. The battery is considered fully discharged at 2.75 volts, although it will last longer if you don't go that far. More details in a full comment below.
@JonT Yes, but I get annoyed over lots of little things, it just so happened that this was electrical.
Do people use these?
@darksaber99999 yes.
@darksaber99999 Darn tooting they do.
@darksaber99999 i have a 7k one (different manufacturer) that i use all the time. It's nice that i can charge up my phone at school without having to be stuck near an outlet. Its also great for weekend trips, long flights, etc.
@darksaber99999 Yup. I have an 11k IO Gear that I've used for about 2 years now.
@darksaber99999 I use mine to recharge my Estes ProtoX
Step 1) Manufacture a consumer electronics device in purple
Step 2) 1.5 years later, when none of the purple ones have sold, liquidate by selling to meh.com
Step 3) ???
Step 4) Profit
@killdevil I love purple.
I'd be interested if it weren't purple... Why not a neutral black? Or white. Blue...
@Nexar you're going to be showing off the color? it's a thing you hide away for backup charging. leave it in your bag and color becomes pointless
@ChadP If you leave it in your bag, will it get hot and light on fire?
@Fej mine has NEVER caught fire once.
@Nexar
@Fej I don't have this brand , but i do use a battery like this. Mine doesn't even get warm.
@Nexar The last time the PowerNOW was sold here, there were half a dozen colors available. I have an orange one. https://meh.com/deals/powernow-10k-mah-power-bank
@Nexar I love purple.
헐........... 미국살고싶다 진짜 ㅜㅜ
@sherryblue 오셔요 ㅎㅎ
I got a black one last time for myself, but ordered this purple fellow today to toss into the gift stash. Of course, I'm sure the lack of Georgia red will be appropriately noted at some point in the near future.
@khunjeff Shit I just realized mine is UGA colors. Now I have to throw it away :(
@Ellimis court system still not allowing you to own said property?? Sad.
I did a 10k once.....
It could be chartreuse and mauve, I don't care. Toss it in my go bag and fuggetaboutit. Till I need it that is. Or more importantly one of my kids needs it...
Bought one last time. It doesn't work well. The provided cable didn't work, the 1A side didn't work, the 2.1A side sometimes worked, and when it did, the battery drained faster than it charged any device in several trials. It does have a handy flashlight, though!
Anyway, it took a few emails btw me, the manuf. and meh, but meh CS took care of me. Junky battery in my experience, though.
@meh Mine worked dandy, however it's possible I got lucky. After over a month of self-discharge today, I completely charged from single-digit percentages a Nexus 4 and Nexus 7, and ended up with 27% charge left. (It exists for power outages, but good to run a battery through its paces on occasion)
@meh I got 2 the last time they were up (one red and one blue). One of them works great, and the other one is a bit more finicky. The one can charge my phone all day for a week straight before I need to recharge it. The other gets a couple hours usage before I have to charge it. Not the best quality control, but for the price I'd say they're a good product.
@rhinoscerous Oh, and my girlfriend calls the blue and red ones pepsi and coke, respectively, because they look like crushed pop cans. So there's that.
@Ringold A month of self-discharge is pretty impressive but maybe it's time to meet some new people.
I bought this in blue as my first purchase at Meh months ago. It's great. I love that it has a percentage indicator and the flashlight (two small lights) is bright without blinding. Perfect for my tablet and cell phone which this can charge at the same time since it has two ports.
My sister liked it so much that she wants one in silver. Since this is only in purple, I have to say (but not vote) meh.
@JT954 I love purple.
Last time they had these, I got two, and one was basically broken when it arrived. Tried to deal with the manufacturer, finally gave up after repeated runarounds and non-respondsiveness. Meh said they couldn't do anything. So, not wasting money on these again. I don't recommend you do, either.
Would this recharge a Sansa?????
@eeterrific if you have sansa's usb cable. We got one last time and it is OK for 14 bucks, but not great. We have a different brand that everyone uses first.
I got one of these the last time Meh sold it, and it sucks at charging. It will be plugged in, but it doesn't typically, Ya know, charge. Don't buy.
@Dumbledore did ya....like...you know...press the power button thingie?
@TheDagda What?? I thought It charged with microwave emitters just like iOS8 does!
Meh. I purchased this the last time it was offered. Did not work for iPhone5 (and up, most likely). Would NOT buy.
@TheOneAlex Do iPhones not charge via USB?
@Bossington For some reason the iDevice does not always recognize the battery (or vice versa?). I figured this out after plugging my iPhone 5 in and out multiple times. Also, possibly related, not all USB ports are the same (2.0 vs. 3.0), but I'm not sure this should affect the connection of a device.
Meh!
@foodog Just adding more padding between this pic and @unkabob & @KDemo.
@Thumperchick (closing umbrella and handing to goat) Take this, you're gonna need it. And thanks for running interference.
@KDemo Footage of @Thumperchick's block
I was going to say I got one last time and it works great, and I would have appreciated the electrotherapy picture, but I would rather not comment under a puking pumpkin.
@KDemo And yet you did (comment under a puking pumpkin)...
@baqui63 - Whaa? Huh. Wonder how that happened?
@KDemo It's ok now... @Thumperchick and @jonT fixed it
Maybe certain colors are worse than others? I should mention that I do not use the micro USB cord that came with my blue charger and instead use one of my other cell phone/tablet cords.
Also, the charger arrived at 54% power so I did have to charge it for a couple of hours for it to reach 100%.
@JT954 The battery data sheet recommends draining the batteries down to 50% before storing the unit for an extended period.
Is it purple or violet? Can't seem to distinguish one color from the other. @KDemo.. Thanks for sacrificing yourself by separating me from the barfer.. Can still see it though (gawk!).
@unkabob - You're welcome. I'm just going to have to wash my hair a lot more. We probably should have called on @Thumperchick to intervene.
@KDemo ... Ha..!!
I picked up a red one last time. I use it frequently and I think it's great. The meter is very unreliable and it takes a while to fully charge, longer than overnight even on a 2 amp charger, but once it's charged I can get at least 3 full charges for my S5. I don't use the cable that came with it, if that makes a difference.
Bought one the last go round. It's big and heavy. For some reason it won't work with an iPad. It get the battery pack red hot and drains the pack super quick and the iPad fails to charge. Although it work perfect o. The iPhone 5 and 6plus. Why? No idea
@Upallnite SCIENCE!!!
@Upallnite From your description, it sounds like a wiring mismatch that caused a short-circuit.
Does it come in purple?
@PocketBrain I love purple.
No way in hell am I sporting a Purple charger. HOWEVER, my girlfriend will love this for $14 and shipped free. So, "meh" for me, "win" for her. She consistently forgets to top off her battery, but always has her urse, which this will easily fit into.
@dungoyle I love purple.
@JonT @snapster Do you know if the charger I won from the last forum meme contest was ever sent out? I never got any shipping notices for it while I was away on vacation.
nicer one on amazon for $17 free shipping w/prime 702 reviews 4.5 stars.
amazon link
Got two of these last time since we have four devices in the house that travel everywhere - 2 phones, 2 tablets. Both work beautifully. Secret: Don't use the cable it comes with - use the cable your device-to-charge comes with. Using the 2.1A port charges our phones (Droid 4 & Samsung Galaxy S3) in a little over an hour from nearly dead, and about 3 hours on the 1A port. Tablets take considerably longer, but still charge.
I'm pretty sure the 5V USB wall charger can push 1000 mA, not 1000mAh. Otherwise, you get a 10% charge on the 10000mAh battery pack. Which would be bad.
This is for my wife, so Purple is good. She never used the Duracell ones I wooted years ago, probably because they were ugly.
@halnwheels I love purple.
DO NOT BUY! I bought 3 of these the last time around. They worked fine for 1-2 charges, then quit being functional chargers.
Basically they'd say they were at 100%, and when you hook them up to a device the would appear to be charging, but your device would not actually charge at all. TURRRRIBLEEEE!
Bought one for the purple-addicted wife. Went to Amazon to get a good one for myself.
@NapkinEater I love purple.
If you don't like the color, just print this out and slap it on the side and you'll be the hero of all your '80s retro friends!
@editorkid I love purple.
I bought 2 last go-around. I used one of them this weekend, and it charged my phone just fine, twice. My S3 got down to 14% one night and about 30% the next. I also used the phone for about an hour each time while it was charging.
When I returned home, the battery pack indicated that it had 70% still available. I used the supplied cable.
Looks like I may want to run both of them a few times to make sure they stay working.
These things are the new cigarette lighter. Let me explain. Used to be you could chat up a chick in a bar who pulled out a cigarette by offering a light. Now, no smoking in bars, but you hear girl complain of battery about to die. Voila, you are her hero. Purple might make you seem non-threatening (in that she may assume you're not into her kind) though.
@CraigDanger
@CraigDanger I love purple.
Already own a battery or I'd be very interested. Also poor at the moment :(
I got one of these last time I saw it on Meh and it doesn't charge my Lumia 1520, though it will charge my iPad. Just fair notice.
Here is a link to the spec sheet for an earlier generation of the individual cells http://www.batteryonestop.com/baotongusa/products/datasheets/li-ion/Samsung-SDI-ICR18650-26A.pdf
I bought 3 in the last sale. I opened one up to see what's inside. Then I repaired what I broke, so that it would function while open.
The four cells are labeled ICR18650-26FM
SAMSUNG SDIEM
TDU1
They are wired in parallel.
My unit says it is at 93% charge. My cheap meters showed the charging voltage was 3.99 volts when I first plugged it in. After several minutes it is now at 4.01 volts. I used a USB charger that was rated at 5 volts and 4 amps. My meter shows that it puts out between 5.08 and 5.15 volts. The charging voltage is the same with a good USB cable where the input voltage was measured at 5.00 volts at charging port on the PowerNow and with a crappy cable, which dropped it down to 4.21 volts.
I also tested it with the charger that came with the unit, and the charging voltage was the same. I did not try it with the charging cable that came with the unit, as I threw them into a box of USB cables, and I'm not sure which is which.
There are two switching power supplies on the circuit board, one takes the nominal 5 volts in, and converts it to the charging voltage. The charging voltage should depend on the state of the battery. The other switching power supply converts the 2.75 to 4.2 volts at the battery terminal to the 5 volts on the output ports.
I most pick up my daughter from school. So more in part 2.
@hamjudo
@jsh139
I think Barney loves purple.
No Georgia Red. . . for that alone, meh.
@jrwofuga Ah, right on time. Thank you.
@JonT no problem.
@jrwofuga I love purple.
@Barney me too.
I ordered 2, one for myself, the other for my sister, or my housemate if my sister ticks me off too much. Purple isn't a bad color for women. Just hoping I don't get one that's a floater. I have learned from reading above to use my own cables - not a problem, that's why we carry Tardis like purses you might find a fat screen tv or an elephant in.
@venussuz Fixed the link for you, though I'm not sure exactly what it has to do with your post. I still like it because bacon.
@JonT Thanks! Couldn't get the link to work. No relation to the sale, but IT'S BACON!
@Thumperchick "I love ripple."
Can I use it 220V??
SO MANY ISSUES! ABORT! ABORT! ABORT!
It works fine when it's charged, but too often it seems like it doesn't feel like staying charged. I would like to have something like this that's better than this.
@MntlWard Sadly, it probably won't work at all in a few weeks or months.
TL;DR Time to use the warranty. "Warranty - 1 Year PowerNow"
The spec sheet for the batteries quotes that the cells are good for at least 300 cycles if they are charged to no more than 4.2 volts, and discharged to no less than 2.75 volts. The one unit I opened up actually charges to 4.1 volts, so the engineers traded off some capacity for a longer life. I did not drain it to 0% to see what the low voltage was, but I would guess it is somewhat above 2.75 volts.
Lithium ion cells suffer greatly reduced life if they are drained below their rated cutoff voltage. When a correctly working unit hits the cutoff voltage it will report 0% capacity, and refuse to drain more power from the battery.
A unit that drains itself when nothing is plugged in, also known as "self discharge", will not magically stop draining at an arbitrary cutoff. It will drain the cells to the point of permanent damage.
Even if it hasn't reached total death, the next time you use it, it will have less capacity. A few such cycles, and it will reach total death.
If you want to try to keep it alive for holiday travel this year, you could leave it on a charger, and press the button daily or weekly to make sure it never gets too close to 0%.
That sounds like too much work for this sort of product. It is probably time to investigate the warranty or throw it away.
Assuming you didn't get it too hot, too cold, or wet, you can go the warranty route without guilt. (Above it says Warranty - 1 Year PowerNow.) Are there any signs that the unit got wet or too hot before you got it?
(Too cold seems really unlikely, it is rated for storage down to -20 °C, which is -4 °F.)
@hamjudo I have no reason to think it got wet or overly hot before I got it. I've been thinking that keeping it in a backpack has caused some accidental pressing of that button. I'll see if I can work out some way to keep an eye on the charge level, as it's been very useful to me when it keeps a charge.