@Kidsandliz@yakkoTDI Sounds like someone is amped up to buy this, especially if your depleted laptop needs revolting. I bet all the Coulomb kids on the block already have one, though a little small to replenish the Tesla’s coil.
Anyway, I second the more power to ye.
There are so many of these third party brands, meaning not one you’ve heard of like Anker, pushing these large battery banks (or “solar generators”) on Amazon and Facebook ads. Can someone please provide context on if this is actually worth buying, or if we should spend more on a ‘name brand’.
@Tom Reviews at Amazon for it are mixed. At this price I might gamble on it if I didn’t already have something bigger from a name brand. That said, I probably wouldn’t trust it as an emergency power supply, more for planned use while camping or such.
@PooltoyWolf If it could sustain 600W without burning up, it’d last less than an hour, probably only about a half hour. It probably only hits its rated WHr at about 1/10 C, or 60W.
@caffeineguy The Kodiak portable power station I bought a few years ago from Meh claims to have a rating of 100 watts but is unable to sustain anything for any length of time above 75. I was disappointed because it claimed everywhere on the box and advertising to be able to inflate an air mattress, but the unit doesn’t even come close to being able to run any electric pumps I have tried.
@PooltoyWolf The rating is indeed 600w constant and 900w peak from the inverter. I am pessimistic but not nearly as pessimistic as the person who said 60w lol.
Tough call, seems like a great price per Watt-hour, but reading the limited reviews on it, looks like it’s fairly easy to brick with a minor overload, and 600W really isn’t enough for a coffee maker or kettle. I’d actually feel better if they were factory refurbished units.
(I’ve also got a Jackery 1000 that was bricked by someone, and acquired a Goal Zero Yeti 6000 that was in a flood and is a tear-down recovery effort)
@zsunsun I was trying to find this info too, looking at the Amazon listing and reading the reviews. I did NOT find any mention of the battery type, so I will presume it’s not LiFePO4.
(So I guess I’m keeping the 300w one I bought on Prime Day.)
@defective@ircon96 Wow he looks so different in the pictures! But I guess I could say the same for myself after 10.5 years! He looks great for an 87 year old! (16.5 dog years)
@communistjack@GLaDOS their preferred strategy is to buy all existing stock of a distressed item, at least from what I’ve read before. There must be at least a little traction for these on Amazon to make it worth keeping listed there.
It doesn’t say pure sine wave anywhere in the copy here or Amazon, and given that that’s a big deal in marketing, one can assume that the 110v outlets are powered by a square wave inverter. Should run your electronics just fine but be aware your power bricks may run hotter or even buzz when plugged into this.
Also neat that Sidedeal is the Amazon seller, though there it still says it has a 24 month warranty (might want to check that).
PURE SINE WAVE
Produce clean, silent, and stable AC power up to 600W with the pure sine wave inverter to power delicate electronic devices efficiently and safely.
@cengland0@djslack@ohhwell It’s possible it is. The circuitry to do that is now smaller and cheaper than it used to be and I am seeing it in more consumer-end inverters, though not computer UPS for some reason. (That market seems locked-up by APC and CyberPower and they are perfectly happy charging $100 extra for their pure sine wave models)
@cengland0@ohhwell interesting! Though maybe my experience is tempered by the land of computer UPS as mentioned where they definitely want you to know why they want more money. Or maybe whoever wrote the marketing copy for this box didn’t know it was a feature worth mentioning.
@cengland0 too bad they don’t offer pickup option, Carrollton isn’t far from where I live. But I’m discharged by the lack of energetic reviews on this.
I have a 1000 watt continuous inverter, two AGM 27 batteries, UPSs on my computers and TV/router/modem, and a 3000 watt continuous generator. I still want one of these, but not this one of these.
Also, buy an inverter generator instead of a “solar generator”. These are cool in a pinch while you’re getting your actual generator set up, but if you do camping stuff you’re better off buying big batteries and a good inverter. If you’re worried about size, maybe bring a normal flashlight and not a floor lamp?
@defective@Kyeh@narfcake
My late sister’s fur baby, Bibbit, when she was a puppy…i think she wasn’t even 2 pounds, and she’s not much more than that now.
@defective@Kyeh@narfcake Actually, we have pretty large squirrels around here, so she was smaller than most of them! She’s a little peanut, but fierce as a honey badger!
It has “enough juice to run essential devices for hours.” When I think of essential devices needing emergency backup power, I think of a refrigerator/ freezer, heater or air conditioner, at-home iron lung, or something really important and life-sustaining… like a TV. I suspect this couldn’t power any of those for anywhere near an hour, let alone multiple hours. Their “essential” devices are most likely an old cell phone, an AM radio, a hair dryer, or maybe a toaster. I do want one of these, just not one made by some Chinese company that throws a bunch of random letters together to make a brand name. I’d like an affordable option from an actual brand. Jackery is a fun brand name to say. “Grab the Jackery out of the trunk. I need to dry my hair and make some toast.”
@theonlybuster I’ve seen things listed as 4 times the size of a football field. This is done so frequently that I believe it’s now an official measurement. I don’t like the “banana for scale” as the size of banana isn’t consistent.
@allthatisjosh@cengland0@theonlybuster And although it has not yet been accepted as an actual standard yet, there is a proposed official Banana For Scale which is not just consistent but actually calibrated. I have one.
@allthatisjosh@cengland0@theonlybuster I think you’ll find that the size (volume) of eleven pound puppies is far more consistent than the size of bananas. They all have the same body density; it is only the thickness of the coat that would give any size variation.
@cengland0@theonlybuster I think of football fields when I read acreage measurements - the field (without the end zones) is about 10% larger than an acre.
@rpstrong@theonlybuster Obviously arctic zoologists would rather deal in Emperor penguins, as their knowledge of south american penguin species would likely be far more limited. Just as 110% of a football field is a very helpful approximation to some people, whereas if one commonly uses acreage in their profession a fractional usage of a football field may not be helpful.
But I digress. Your SLP is 70% - 80% water. For all practical measuring purposes, it already is a liquid puppy.
[Please don’t think of using a blender to prove this. You’d need a full size blender; figure at least 800 watts. The manufacturer’s page includes blenders on their ‘No Go’ list.]
@allthatisjosh@theonlybuster For fractional football field measurements, penalties are generally used. E,g., one DelayOfGame is about 10% more than 0.05 acres; one RoughingTheQuarterback is three times as large, plus an automatic first down.
@cengland0@rpstrong@theonlybuster shed a tear for all the 1-10 pound puppies (liquid or otherwise) that have to endure the shame of having “irregular” stamped on their furry posterior
@allthatisjosh@cengland0@rpstrong@theonlybuster FWIW, I rarely ever hear canines referred to being liquid. My late doggie definitely wasn’t, even though she was a lightweight at only 100 pounds.
@theonlybuster Sometime back we had someone measuring things in rhinos or something like that. We ended up with an entire thread about alternatives to inches and cm for measurements. Can’t remember whom though. It’s been a while.
Anyone know how this would do as a CPAP machine emergency power source? Been meaning to buy something for power outages. My CPAP is a ResMed AirSense 10.
@rawhite37 Going purely by the specifications, the manual for your machine says “typical” power consumption is 53W, and the peak is 104W. The power station is 518Wh. If we conservatively estimate that your CPAP will consume an average of 75W, it would run for 6.9 hours on a fully charged battery. (518 / 75)
At exactly 53W, it would run for 9.75 hours.
@rawhite37 there is a review on Amazon from a CPAP user who says it broke on the second use & they can’t get return communication from anyone to have them honor the 12 month warranty.
@rawhite37 I have the ResMed Airsense 9 and i got a talentcell 24V due to some reviews about it doing well with CPAP , with my S9 I can get 2 nights at my air setting before having to recharge it. FYI
@outdoorslife@rawhite37 yep a DC battery is a much better solution for this device… No need to introduce inefficiencies converting DC to AC to convert it right back to DC to run your CPAP.
@Commonwealth109@rawhite37 yeah, the reviews mentioning the battery failed after a few uses or being stored a while made me hesitant.
I was also worried there would be no one to support the warranty and I too noticed the reviewer who stated that they promised him a replacement then ghosted him.
@Commonwealth109 Thank you! $150 is above my limit for taking that sort of gamble. I bet they have been warehoused for a while and that’s not super great for the batteries.
@Commonwealth109 My general policy is if over 5% of the reviews are 1 star, I steer the heck clear. This one is at 11%, all saying the same thing. Failed after 3rd or 4th use and company doesn’t respond or does and then never follows-up. This is a big no for me.
My main concern on this unit (and also supported by the negative reviews) is the batteries are near end-of-life, which probably means they weren’t really good quality to begin with. You should get at least 3 and hopefully more like 5-7 years out of quality batteries. Sounds like this came out in 2021 and already some users reported problems. Now, 2 years later, it’s probably how these ended up here, with more batteries getting weak or failing completely. And not easily user-replaceable.
And even if you could hand-build a new pack (which often requires an electronic spot welder), you’d find that buying authentic quality batteries of this (stated) capacity could easily be $100 of more, plus considerable electronics repair skills and time.
@ralimore I doubt the battery specs (and life) too, but I think you are comparing a 12V nominal (probably 14V max) battery vs this which is probably the raw cell capacity @ ~3.7V.
EDIT You would need Watt-hours to really compare. But for things like automotive and RV use, the 12V is assumed, which is why they are often just stated in Amp-hours.
They should name this PITA or DOA…couldn’t get it to charge without multiple overheating errors, and won’t turn on now. Obviously limited to no testing before being sent and it shows.
I had the same problem, LED lights when charging but won’t turn on - it’s DOA. Plus neither the manufacturer nor Meh have responded to my messages on 8/30 requesting help.
@machete curious-- I know it’s DOA, but did you try the 10-30V charger AND/OR the USB PD input? (might be different enough circuitry that one can get you up to operational; still not acceptable, but curious what failure mode we’re seeing)
Following up on this post, and with a little experience reviving some of these devices, including a Jackery 1000; If they sat a while and the battery-management-system (BMS) had significant self discharge, they might only last ~6-12 months before self discharge brought the battery voltage down below the BMS threshold; Sometimes they can be revived by manually charging the battery pack directly, then the BMS awakens and you can continue the charge (and cell balancing). That said, often times these have poor cooling and inferior / super-fragile charging circuits, so if the onboard charger is toast, then it’ll just self discharge itself into a brick. If the two charging circuits are truly independent, you might try the secondary method of charging, and might do OK; If you have one of these (types of) things bricked and are a little crafty, you might be able to add an MPPT or other external charging circuitry, so long as the BMS still functions well.
@caffeineguy I’m still trying to figure out why the one I bought on Meh back in 2021 started dropping from 20% to zero in a matter of minutes, then from over 30%, then from about 50%, and finally from 72% before it refused to take a charge. When I took it apart and measured the cell voltages across the parallel sets, I was getting a consistent 3.9V, well under the target voltage and well above the voltage for fully discharged. That made no sense at all. Manually charging the individual sets got it to admit that it was charged, but it would not provide output for very long before it did a capacity plummet and shut down again. I suspect that the monitoring circuitry is borked.
@werehatrack If you have a bench supply, just try to feed the BMS with whatever voltage it claims to need; So, if it’s a 3S unit, 12.8V that’ll let you know if the BMS is still trying to charge it… Likewise, on a constant discharge of a ~20-50W bulb, measure the per-cell voltage; you might have a bad cell or two, might be some crappy spot welds, etc. If it’s a salvage operation, You might try buying a 3rd party BMS since you likely can’t get parts for these things, aside from finding a person here with a different issue and making a good one out of two bum ones
If anyone has one of these things that you’ve given up on and you’re in the DC/MD/VA area, or Binghamton NY area, I’d be interested in taking it off your hands for some frankenbattery experimentation!
Specs
Product: Puleida 600W/518Wh Portable Power Station
Model: PU600A
Condition: New
What’s Included?
Price Comparison
was $300 at Amazon
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Thursday, Aug 3 - Monday, Aug 7
Watt are you selling today?
@yakkoTDI You’ll get a charge out of it. More power to you if you buy it. It will give you an outlet incase you need it.
@Kidsandliz @yakkoTDI Sounds like someone is amped up to buy this, especially if your depleted laptop needs revolting. I bet all the Coulomb kids on the block already have one, though a little small to replenish the Tesla’s coil.
Anyway, I second the more power to ye.
There are so many of these third party brands, meaning not one you’ve heard of like Anker, pushing these large battery banks (or “solar generators”) on Amazon and Facebook ads. Can someone please provide context on if this is actually worth buying, or if we should spend more on a ‘name brand’.
@Tom Absolutely agree, battery quality varies wildly, and not necessarily in step with price.
I need something called “pure sine wave” AC output for a medical device. This product doesn’t even claim to do that, so it’s a no from me.
@Tom Reviews at Amazon for it are mixed. At this price I might gamble on it if I didn’t already have something bigger from a name brand. That said, I probably wouldn’t trust it as an emergency power supply, more for planned use while camping or such.
A good product I can actually use and would love to have, and at a great price. A shame I’m broke!
Also, what’s the maximum continuous wattage rating for the AC outlets? That bit is important. I assume it’s not 600!
@PooltoyWolf If it could sustain 600W without burning up, it’d last less than an hour, probably only about a half hour. It probably only hits its rated WHr at about 1/10 C, or 60W.
@caffeineguy The Kodiak portable power station I bought a few years ago from Meh claims to have a rating of 100 watts but is unable to sustain anything for any length of time above 75. I was disappointed because it claimed everywhere on the box and advertising to be able to inflate an air mattress, but the unit doesn’t even come close to being able to run any electric pumps I have tried.
@PooltoyWolf The rating is indeed 600w constant and 900w peak from the inverter. I am pessimistic but not nearly as pessimistic as the person who said 60w lol.
@ohhwell @PooltoyWolf they didn’t say it would only put out 60 watts. They said it would meet its watt-hour rating when putting out 60 watts.
Tough call, seems like a great price per Watt-hour, but reading the limited reviews on it, looks like it’s fairly easy to brick with a minor overload, and 600W really isn’t enough for a coffee maker or kettle. I’d actually feel better if they were factory refurbished units.
(I’ve also got a Jackery 1000 that was bricked by someone, and acquired a Goal Zero Yeti 6000 that was in a flood and is a tear-down recovery effort)
@caffeineguy Yup, the price is tempting, but most of the recent reviews have been very poor, especially with regard to the long term battery life.
https://www.amazon.com/Portable-140000mAh-Generator-Electric-Emergency/product-reviews/B08T67SLRN/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_viewopt_srt?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&sortBy=recent&pageNumber=1
KuoH
It took a little digging, but it looks like the battery in this is Lithium Ion (as I would expect for the price / capacity / being sold by Meh).
Which lithium ion chemistry this battery uses? For safety and longevity I wouldn’t touch anything that’s not LFP type.
@zsunsun I was trying to find this info too, looking at the Amazon listing and reading the reviews. I did NOT find any mention of the battery type, so I will presume it’s not LiFePO4.
(So I guess I’m keeping the 300w one I bought on Prime Day.)
My pug weighs way more than 11 pounds, and he’s one a them old skinny ones.
@defective But what did he weigh as a puppy? A pic would be nice as proof, even better with a banana for scale!
@ircon96
I’m not real sure, I got him when he was 6, 10.5 years ago. When he was 6 he was 40 lbs! Now he’s about 21 lbs.
@defective @ircon96 Clearly a gentleman and a scholar!
@defective @ircon96 @mehgrl
He’s SO CUTE!
@defective @Kyeh @mehgrl
@defective @ircon96 Wow he looks so different in the pictures! But I guess I could say the same for myself after 10.5 years!
He looks great for an 87 year old! (16.5 dog years) 
/giphy power station
@somf69 Some like it hot.
meanwhile on amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08T67SLRN
@communistjack Not only is meh/side deal/mercatalyst selling it on Amazon, they’re the seller even in the buy box!
Edit: to be fair, I noticed, after looking into it that side deal is the only seller for it on Amazon.
@communistjack @GLaDOS their preferred strategy is to buy all existing stock of a distressed item, at least from what I’ve read before. There must be at least a little traction for these on Amazon to make it worth keeping listed there.
It doesn’t say pure sine wave anywhere in the copy here or Amazon, and given that that’s a big deal in marketing, one can assume that the 110v outlets are powered by a square wave inverter. Should run your electronics just fine but be aware your power bricks may run hotter or even buzz when plugged into this.
Also neat that Sidedeal is the Amazon seller, though there it still says it has a 24 month warranty (might want to check that).
@djslack yeah, I noticed the lack of a sunewave claim for the inverter as well.
Not sure I want to spend this much for a really big PD power bank…
@djslack @ohhwell I think I found the owner’s manual and it does mention pure sine wave. Question is… Do you trust that?
https://manuals.plus/m/8d4215d1d766e12cc4f68d99965fc49993abd760ff8ce342cf17aed684b97e85_optim.pdf
@cengland0 @djslack @ohhwell It’s possible it is. The circuitry to do that is now smaller and cheaper than it used to be and I am seeing it in more consumer-end inverters, though not computer UPS for some reason. (That market seems locked-up by APC and CyberPower and they are perfectly happy charging $100 extra for their pure sine wave models)
@cengland0 @ohhwell interesting! Though maybe my experience is tempered by the land of computer UPS as mentioned where they definitely want you to know why they want more money. Or maybe whoever wrote the marketing copy for this box didn’t know it was a feature worth mentioning.
@cengland0 @djslack actually yeah I kinda do trust that. It’s likely “pure” enough.
Kind of sneaky to say it sells on Amazon for $300 when it’s meh.com’s sister site sidedeal that is selling it at that price.
@cengland0 I assume that’s why they linked to camelcamelcamel to show the price history.
@cengland0 too bad they don’t offer pickup option, Carrollton isn’t far from where I live. But I’m discharged by the lack of energetic reviews on this.
@cengland0 @djslack yup, we didn’t want to compare to our own sale and needed to prove that we’re selling it at the same price it was last at
@katsuronishi maybe they stock it in the Morningsave store… Or could, if you ask nicely.
And you light up my life
You give me weight to haul around
You light up my nights
Until your battery dies down
@hchavers Nice one.
/giphy applause
I have a 1000 watt continuous inverter, two AGM 27 batteries, UPSs on my computers and TV/router/modem, and a 3000 watt continuous generator. I still want one of these, but not this one of these.
Also, buy an inverter generator instead of a “solar generator”. These are cool in a pinch while you’re getting your actual generator set up, but if you do camping stuff you’re better off buying big batteries and a good inverter. If you’re worried about size, maybe bring a normal flashlight and not a floor lamp?
Aww, I wanted to see pictures of puppies.
@Kyeh Hang tight, I’m trying to get @defective to post one of his pug! (See above.)
@defective @ircon96
Moar puppies!!!
@defective @ircon96 @Kyeh
/giphy puppies!!
@defective @Kyeh @narfcake
My late sister’s fur baby, Bibbit, when she was a puppy…i think she wasn’t even 2 pounds, and she’s not much more than that now.
@defective @ircon96 @narfcake
Hardly bigger than a squirrel!
@defective @ircon96 @Kyeh @narfcake Here’s mine - King.
@defective @ircon96 @narfcake @Trinityscrew He’s so handsome!!!
A tuxedo pug!
@defective @Kyeh @narfcake @Trinityscrew I love that angle, it makes his head look even bigger… He must be a very smart boy with all that brain space!
@defective @Kyeh @narfcake Actually, we have pretty large squirrels around here, so she was smaller than most of them! She’s a little peanut, but fierce as a honey badger!
What, no IRK??
@ircon96 Take their advice in the write-up and attempt to run a blender off this kit and the regret will be instant!
@ircon96 You’ll probably get the same level of disappointment with this item so I guess you could call it a relative of the IRK??
@IndifferentDude IRK-adjacent, if you will?
I want to buy one and walk around doing he man impressions with it “I HAVE ThE POWER”.
/giphy he-man power
It has “enough juice to run essential devices for hours.” When I think of essential devices needing emergency backup power, I think of a refrigerator/ freezer, heater or air conditioner, at-home iron lung, or something really important and life-sustaining… like a TV. I suspect this couldn’t power any of those for anywhere near an hour, let alone multiple hours. Their “essential” devices are most likely an old cell phone, an AM radio, a hair dryer, or maybe a toaster. I do want one of these, just not one made by some Chinese company that throws a bunch of random letters together to make a brand name. I’d like an affordable option from an actual brand. Jackery is a fun brand name to say. “Grab the Jackery out of the trunk. I need to dry my hair and make some toast.”
@warpedrotors it could run a mini fridge for quite some time I guess…
@warpedrotors it won’t run a hair dryer at all, let alone for hours. Most hair dryers are 1800 watts. This is good for 600.
@dorri732 i dry my hair with a little usb fan
Weight = One Puppy or 11 pounds.
Just a reminder that Americans will measure with ANYTHING but the metric system.
@theonlybuster I’ve seen things listed as 4 times the size of a football field. This is done so frequently that I believe it’s now an official measurement. I don’t like the “banana for scale” as the size of banana isn’t consistent.
@cengland0 @theonlybuster The size of a banana is orders of magnitude more consistent than the size of a theoretical 11 pound puppy.
@allthatisjosh @cengland0 @theonlybuster And although it has not yet been accepted as an actual standard yet, there is a proposed official Banana For Scale which is not just consistent but actually calibrated. I have one.
@cengland0 @theonlybuster @werehatrack I’m impressed that you’ve standardized not only your banana but your menagerie
@theonlybuster There is an Alex Horne inspired unusual measurement converter, if you needed this weight in emperor penguins instead. https://properdave.com/measurements/?v=11&u=lb&g=1
@allthatisjosh @cengland0 @theonlybuster @werehatrack I didn’t know that they even made metric bananas.
@allthatisjosh @cengland0 @theonlybuster I think you’ll find that the size (volume) of eleven pound puppies is far more consistent than the size of bananas. They all have the same body density; it is only the thickness of the coat that would give any size variation.
@allthatisjosh @theonlybuster Who’d want to deal with 0.14 emperor penguins when you can just use a nice, neat 2.0 Galapagos penguins instead?
@cengland0 @theonlybuster I think of football fields when I read acreage measurements - the field (without the end zones) is about 10% larger than an acre.
@cengland0 @rpstrong @theonlybuster You’re definitely right if you’re dealing in liquid puppies, in standard living puppies I disagree.
@rpstrong @theonlybuster Obviously arctic zoologists would rather deal in Emperor penguins, as their knowledge of south american penguin species would likely be far more limited. Just as 110% of a football field is a very helpful approximation to some people, whereas if one commonly uses acreage in their profession a fractional usage of a football field may not be helpful.
@allthatisjosh @cengland0 @theonlybuster I’ve heard of Standard Poodles, but not of Standard Living Puppies (SLPs).
But I digress. Your SLP is 70% - 80% water. For all practical measuring purposes, it already is a liquid puppy.
[Please don’t think of using a blender to prove this. You’d need a full size blender; figure at least 800 watts. The manufacturer’s page includes blenders on their ‘No Go’ list.]
@allthatisjosh @theonlybuster For fractional football field measurements, penalties are generally used. E,g., one DelayOfGame is about 10% more than 0.05 acres; one RoughingTheQuarterback is three times as large, plus an automatic first down.
@cengland0 @rpstrong @theonlybuster shed a tear for all the 1-10 pound puppies (liquid or otherwise) that have to endure the shame of having “irregular” stamped on their furry posterior
@allthatisjosh @cengland0 @theonlybuster I once adopted a purebred Akita when a cow-orker was going through a divorce and couldn’t keep the dog.
But I’m happy to say that the other 6 - 8 dogs that have shared my house have all been ‘irregulars’ - albeit without the stamps.
@allthatisjosh @cengland0 @rpstrong @theonlybuster FWIW, I rarely ever hear canines referred to being liquid. My late doggie definitely wasn’t, even though she was a lightweight at only 100 pounds.
Cats, OTOH …
@allthatisjosh @cengland0 @narfcake @rpstrong @theonlybuster
A thorough discussion of animal-based measurements started by @carl669 here: https://meh.com/forum/topics/things-i-learned-today
@allthatisjosh @carl669 @cengland0 @Kyeh @narfcake @rpstrong @theonlybuster But then you have to remember to convert that to centipedes and millipedes when talking to people in the metric based countries.
KuoH
@allthatisjosh @carl669 @cengland0 @kuoh @narfcake @rpstrong @theonlybuster
So 1 inchworm = 2.54 centipedes?
@allthatisjosh @carl669 @cengland0 @kuoh @Kyeh @narfcake @rpstrong @theonlybuster
It’s the Megapede I’m worried about
/image dune sandworm
@theonlybuster Sometime back we had someone measuring things in rhinos or something like that. We ended up with an entire thread about alternatives to inches and cm for measurements. Can’t remember whom though. It’s been a while.
@Kidsandliz @theonlybuster
I just posted that, above.
@Kyeh @theonlybuster Well serves me right for not reading better LOL
/giphy curious-nosy-cabbage
Let’s see WATT happens…
@tru335 That giphy after the distasteful discussion above is kind of horrifyingly appropriate.
Anyone know how this would do as a CPAP machine emergency power source? Been meaning to buy something for power outages. My CPAP is a ResMed AirSense 10.
@rawhite37 Going purely by the specifications, the manual for your machine says “typical” power consumption is 53W, and the peak is 104W. The power station is 518Wh. If we conservatively estimate that your CPAP will consume an average of 75W, it would run for 6.9 hours on a fully charged battery. (518 / 75)
At exactly 53W, it would run for 9.75 hours.
@rawhite37 there is a review on Amazon from a CPAP user who says it broke on the second use & they can’t get return communication from anyone to have them honor the 12 month warranty.
@rawhite37 I have the ResMed Airsense 9 and i got a talentcell 24V due to some reviews about it doing well with CPAP , with my S9 I can get 2 nights at my air setting before having to recharge it. FYI
@outdoorslife @rawhite37 yep a DC battery is a much better solution for this device… No need to introduce inefficiencies converting DC to AC to convert it right back to DC to run your CPAP.
@Commonwealth109 @rawhite37 yeah, the reviews mentioning the battery failed after a few uses or being stored a while made me hesitant.
I was also worried there would be no one to support the warranty and I too noticed the reviewer who stated that they promised him a replacement then ghosted him.
This is shocking!
A 5KG battery pack.
If you set the Amazon reviews to “most recent”, something like 12 of the last 13 are really bad.
@Commonwealth109 Thank you! $150 is above my limit for taking that sort of gamble. I bet they have been warehoused for a while and that’s not super great for the batteries.
@Commonwealth109 My general policy is if over 5% of the reviews are 1 star, I steer the heck clear. This one is at 11%, all saying the same thing. Failed after 3rd or 4th use and company doesn’t respond or does and then never follows-up. This is a big no for me.
“Palm size”, eh? Coconut, fishtail, Royal, Sago, Palmetto, or some other species?
I just want to know what’s up with janky upside down Switch.
My main concern on this unit (and also supported by the negative reviews) is the batteries are near end-of-life, which probably means they weren’t really good quality to begin with. You should get at least 3 and hopefully more like 5-7 years out of quality batteries. Sounds like this came out in 2021 and already some users reported problems. Now, 2 years later, it’s probably how these ended up here, with more batteries getting weak or failing completely. And not easily user-replaceable.
And even if you could hand-build a new pack (which often requires an electronic spot welder), you’d find that buying authentic quality batteries of this (stated) capacity could easily be $100 of more, plus considerable electronics repair skills and time.
No way ita 140ah only weighing 10lbs. The lightest lithium 50ah weighs 10.
@ralimore I doubt the battery specs (and life) too, but I think you are comparing a 12V nominal (probably 14V max) battery vs this which is probably the raw cell capacity @ ~3.7V.
EDIT You would need Watt-hours to really compare. But for things like automotive and RV use, the 12V is assumed, which is why they are often just stated in Amp-hours.
@pmarin @ralimore
518Wh divided by 140Ah is 3.7V so that establishes the probable battery chemistry.
Is the last picture @mediocrebot?
They should name this PITA or DOA…couldn’t get it to charge without multiple overheating errors, and won’t turn on now. Obviously limited to no testing before being sent and it shows.
@rtpllc
These do have a 90 day warranty, so if you haven’t done so already, contact Support.
https://meh.com/support
I had the same problem, LED lights when charging but won’t turn on - it’s DOA. Plus neither the manufacturer nor Meh have responded to my messages on 8/30 requesting help.
@machete Send another message and flag staff here if you still get no response. Usually they are pretty good.
@machete curious-- I know it’s DOA, but did you try the 10-30V charger AND/OR the USB PD input? (might be different enough circuitry that one can get you up to operational; still not acceptable, but curious what failure mode we’re seeing)
Following up on this post, and with a little experience reviving some of these devices, including a Jackery 1000; If they sat a while and the battery-management-system (BMS) had significant self discharge, they might only last ~6-12 months before self discharge brought the battery voltage down below the BMS threshold; Sometimes they can be revived by manually charging the battery pack directly, then the BMS awakens and you can continue the charge (and cell balancing). That said, often times these have poor cooling and inferior / super-fragile charging circuits, so if the onboard charger is toast, then it’ll just self discharge itself into a brick. If the two charging circuits are truly independent, you might try the secondary method of charging, and might do OK; If you have one of these (types of) things bricked and are a little crafty, you might be able to add an MPPT or other external charging circuitry, so long as the BMS still functions well.
@caffeineguy I’m still trying to figure out why the one I bought on Meh back in 2021 started dropping from 20% to zero in a matter of minutes, then from over 30%, then from about 50%, and finally from 72% before it refused to take a charge. When I took it apart and measured the cell voltages across the parallel sets, I was getting a consistent 3.9V, well under the target voltage and well above the voltage for fully discharged. That made no sense at all. Manually charging the individual sets got it to admit that it was charged, but it would not provide output for very long before it did a capacity plummet and shut down again. I suspect that the monitoring circuitry is borked.
@werehatrack If you have a bench supply, just try to feed the BMS with whatever voltage it claims to need; So, if it’s a 3S unit, 12.8V that’ll let you know if the BMS is still trying to charge it… Likewise, on a constant discharge of a ~20-50W bulb, measure the per-cell voltage; you might have a bad cell or two, might be some crappy spot welds, etc. If it’s a salvage operation, You might try buying a 3rd party BMS since you likely can’t get parts for these things, aside from finding a person here with a different issue and making a good one out of two bum ones
@caffeineguy @werehatrack Battery cell quality plays a role too. Lower grade cells may have more impurities which affect their output and/or longevity.
If anyone has one of these things that you’ve given up on and you’re in the DC/MD/VA area, or Binghamton NY area, I’d be interested in taking it off your hands for some frankenbattery experimentation!
Charged it and then let it sit seven months until I went to use it, deader than a doornail. Moral of the story: don’t buy expensive things from meh.