This is for 
First: Power outages suck.
In today's connected world being without the Internet or without power means you are cut off from friends, information, entertainment and in the case of HIVE, a source of income.
In this regard many people opt in getting a Power Bank so they can protect themselves from being cut off.
However, all Power Banks are certainly NOT created equally and while a great power bank can be an awesome help, a bad power bank can be pretty much useless and make you feel cheated.
For a bit of fun I decided to go through each of my power banks and give a rundown of their pro's and con's. Let you know which one's I'd recommend and why.
A bit about power.
Now I'm not an electrician (that would be my son) but I need to explain a bit about power for anyone who is new to power bank.
There are lots of terms thrown around out there when buying Power Banks. Many of them are misleading.
For example: I see a lot of ad's saying things like "With 10,000mah" of power. Your USB charger probably says 5V 2A output. Your phone may way 15W fast charge.
Now I could talk electricity but I'm going to make things a little simpler than that. I'm going to use a picture of a jobsite to do it.
Imagine a job site. You have workers to do the work. Some workers will be stronger and be able to life heavy objects while others aren't as strong and can't lift as much. In the end this is a task you want to complete.
In electrical terms:
Amps are the workers. 1000 milliamps = 1 amp.
Volts are the strength of those workers. A 12V worker is stronger than a 5V worker.
Watts is a measure of the work being done.
Amp Hours (or milliamp hours) are how long the workers are working for.
Watt Hours are how long the work is being done for.
That's the non-technical version of the terms in electricity.
Now my smallest power bank actually lists some of those numbers so I'll use that to give some sample numbers:
What do the numbers there mean?
Input / Output 5V (5.5V) which is the voltage of a USB cord (Cars are typically 12V and houses either 110V or 220V). Those numbers just mean that this is a USB power bank
How about all those 500mAh numbers. That means it can provide 500milliamps of power for one hour (or 250 for 2 hours etc).
But what it doesn't tell you is how well it will recharge your phone. However, there is a little bit of math you can use to figure that out.
Watts = Volts * Amps.... (Amps = ma/1000)
In this case 5V * (0.5Amps)
which is only 2.5W of power and it can only do that for one hour. (Which is 2.5Wh<--Wh is watts for an hour)
Now most regular cellphone chargers these days are 10-15W so a 2.5W maximum means a very slow charge indeed and it can only do that for one hour.
This would be a very poor cellular phone charger indeed
So how about another example from my favorite power bank?
Look at the same numbers:
This one has a capacity of 27,000mah compared to the previous at 500.
.....This battery has 54x the capacity of the other one.
How about the input?
.....It will charge from a USB-C cable at 5V, 9V, 12V, 15V, or 20V which means by USB cord, or Car Battery or Solar panel. Lots of options--as long as its going through a USB-C connector.
How about the output?
.....The most important one is 5V * 3Amp == 15Watts
.....That's a fast charge for a cellular phone.
.....The 20v 3A means that it will actually power my laptop
.....The 110V, 100W means that it will power many household appliances as well as USB type devices.
Far more useful than the previous one.
And one last example for another very good power bank.
Now this one says that it is 24,000mAh so not quite as large as the previous one but still more than enough to charge up a cellular phone many times.
DC Input 15-25V means you have to use a special charger. It won't charge from USB and it won't charge from a vehicle (13.6V). It might charge from solar panels.
USB output 2.4A * 5V which is 12.5Watt which is still in the range of USB fast charging.
AC output 120W max which means it can run a lot of household items like TV, stereo, fan, etc.
DC output 12V * 10Amp which means it can actually run anything designed to be powered from a cigarette lighter in a vehicle.
What does this all mean?
In short it means that every power bank is very different. Some are very low capacity and very limited in what it can power. Others are far more versatile and can power more things for a longer period of time.
My power banks and how I tested their capacity.
Now I have a lot of power banks and many of them don't give any specifications on them at all which is really annoying. Especially annoying because manufacturers lie on their spec sheets. Or at the very least provide misleading numbers.
To give a more realistic idea of the capacity of these power banks I devised a test for them. I had each of them power up this fan and timed how long it could run the fan for:
First up:
My oldest power bank:
This is an old old power bank. With only 2.5Wh (Watt hours) of power it can only give my cellphone a 10% boost in charge and only able to power the fan for 2 hours.
Now if my phone is at 0% then 10% is so much better. If I have no fan then 2hrs of breeze is so nice.
Mostly though this power bank isn't really used much.
Weight 30g
My $7HBD power bank (current price probaby about $15HBD)
Nothing special about this power bank but at least it has a slightly newer style USB charging port. It doesn't tell me anything about its capabilities but I can say that it ran the fan for about 4 hours. That means 5Wh of power or 20% charge for my phone.
Weight 65g
Another cheap power bank that I also paid about $7HBD. Which would also sell for about $15HBD regular price.
Guess what. About the same size. About the same weight 75g. About the same amount of power. It ran the fan for about 4 hours as well.
The only benefit of this power bank over the last one is that this one has a flashlight. It may not sound like much but it can be useful at night time when you need to see where you are walking to.
Other than that this one doesn't get used very much either. 20% battery charge just isn't enough to be useful most of the time.
This next power bank I had high hopes for:
It can be charged by plugging into a wall outlet as usual. However, it will also charge by just placing in sunlight. That solar input was what I was hoping for!.
However, its performance wasn't really that great.
When fully charged it would fun my fan again for 2 hours. So, while it was a much larger unit it seems the battery power inside was the same as those much smaller units. Also, leaving it in the sun for an afternoon with a totally dead battery only gave me about 30 minutes of running the fan. Or about a 3% charge on my phone.
To be sure 3% is so much better than no charge at all. However, I was hoping for more from this unit.
On the plus side it has two lights. A flashlight in the front and a room light on the back.
The room light was actually surprisingly useful when I was out camping. That made it more useful than I had anticipated.
Weight 340g
This next one actually gets a little more respect from me. It has a more compact solar panel which is nice. It will power the unit fully but takes well over a week for that. Usually it is powered by a wall charger but doesn't have to be in emergency.
It was even more expensive than the previous solar powered power bank and it cost roughly $45HBD.
The added features for this power bank were the flashlight in the front which was better than the other ones listed before. It also had a compass on the back in case you were using it outdoors and needed direction. The clip means it can hold on nicely to a backpack or belt clip.
This one had better capacity. It lasted just over 6 hours on a charge whch meant it would charge my cellphone by just over 30%. It also charges by sunlight but again not by much per day.
Then again this is a much smaller unit than the last one. It weighs only 200g and fits nicely in a pocket. Plus its more rugged. This is one I'd take with me if I needed a portable go anywhere type of power bank.
But it still doesn't get that much use at my home.
This PAFISH laptop portable charger is actually one of my favorite units.
I paid about $52 HBD for it and it is so much more capable than any of the other units I've displayed so far.
Now this one weighs in at just over 700g. However, it lasted almost 10x longer than those smaller power banks. This unit powered the fan for over 36hours and still had charge when I disconnected it (down to just one bar but still running). From experience it can charge up my cellphone to full multiple times.
Even better it can charge up my cellphone to full in under 45 minutes because it will fastcharge my cellular phone.
In addition to that it can also power my laptop for 3-4hours using either the USB-C cable or the 110V cable. It's charges on a cheap $10 USB charger so no special charger required. Doesn't have any lights of special features but fits in a jacket pocket and will reliably charge my cellphone far more than I could use in a day.
Cool Side Feature
It is 27,000mAh * 3.7V which is 99,990 mAh. Big deal...right?
Except that airplanes will only allow lithium batteries UNDER 100,000mAh. That means this is the largest battery pack you can take on an airline flight. Plus it will keep my phone charged for at least 15hrs...which means that I can keep my cellphone charged through even the longest airline flights with this little power box.
SO COOL at least for me!
Another Power Bank that I really like:
This Rocksolar unit is actually very similar in capacity to the PAFISH one that I just wrote about.
Capacity is just under 100WH (100,000mAh) so again will charge my phone numerous times. Although with this pack I can charge my phone, my wifes phone and both of my childrens phones from dead to 100% at least once! All at the same time and all with fast charge.
It also lets me plus in small household appliances. It also has a nightlight and a flashlight!
However, at $70HBD it is getting more expensive to be certain. Also at almost 1050g it is getting heavy. However, it still fits in a jacket pocket.
One of the things I didn't like: I have to plug it into the house to charge it up. However, once charged it has a 12V output. Why is that a big deal? Well. I have a 12V tire inflator so this works great to power a tire pump for flat tires. However, I was also able to find a low wattage, 12V rice cooker. This power bank has just enough power to cook 1/2cup of rice with an egg and sausage!
Getting to the bigger Power Banks now.
This Ctechi power bank does everything that the above power banks do but with even more capacity.
At $170HBD its getting expensive though. At 3300g it is getting heavy as well.
Although at 240Wh it has a capacity 2.5x that of the Rocksolar or PAFISH units. It can also power USB, 12V, or home appliances up to 300W. I guess in that way its not overpriced but may be more than someone would need.
However it can charge up your cellphones may times without issue. I've used it to power a small fridge. I've used it to power my computer, TV, recharge power tools and many other items.
Even more cool because it has an MPPT solar controller on board.
What is an MPPT controller? In easy terms it means I can hook this up to a car cigarette lighter, or a solar panel and it will automatically make the best use of the power that it gets. Today I actually charged it with a big solar panel and then used that power to make a loaf of bread. I could also use it to make some soup or other food.
How cool is a device that powers your phone, electronics, and even does cooking using only a solar panel to charge it up?
Then again, at $170 its getting up there in price.
Oh yeah...the light it comes with is also pretty bad.
Now we are getting into the BIG units.
The Bluetti here is POWERFUL and HEAVY.
It hold 2000W of power or 20X as much as the ROCKSOLAR or PAFISH units. It also costs a little more than 20X the price at $1400HBD.
However, it has MPPT solar input (just like the CTECHI unit) and can hook up to 600W of solar panels. Use as a backup to house power. Charge from your vehicle. Charge from solar panels. Doesn't matter it will take any of it.
Need to power something in your house? No problem. Fridge? Sure. Hotplate? Sure. TV/Stereo/Laptop? Sure. Cellphone...of course...many many many times.
Now if only it wasn't so big, heavy, and expensive!
Now for my favorite Power Bank.
The one that I use almost every day.
It has a 12,000 Watt Battery pack.
6x as large as the Bluetti. Or about 6000x the size of the first battery pack.
It has USB outputs, 12V outputs, 110V outputs and can power any appliance in your home no problem at all.
In addition it has really good flashlights.
Plus it has the side benefits or air conditioning, a generator in case the power bank is running low, and the ability to drive in to town.
Right now I can only charge it using either a plug in the house or gasoline...but once I figure out how to power it with solar panels it will absolutely be my favorite battery bank!
Final thoughts and types of battery chemistry!
There are lots of power banks out there!
Don't think they are all the same. I included the weight of them because weight is often a good way to get an idea of how much power it will be able to hold.
It comes down to energy density:
let's look at those 100Wh batteries (The Rocksolar and PAFISH ones).
They use Lithium Ion batteries: MAX 300W/kg. Usual 200-250W/kg
100Wh = roughly 500g (the rest of the weight is casing/lights/circuitry).
anything less than 500g there wouldn't be enough battery inside so it couldn't hold that much.
How large is a cellphone battery? The Samsung S23 Ultra battery is about 20Wh. Typical weight of the battery 20g.
There are other battery chemistries out there.
I personally like Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiPO4) because it can't burn like lithium ion batteries can and can charge up 2000 times. Except its about 3x the weight.
There are also lead acid batteries (think car battery). They are even heavier at about 5-10x the weight and can charge even less 50-100times (depending on usage).
If you are hunting for pack.
Do some reading. Do some thinking. I absolutely love my PAFISH and Rocksolar banks. I woudn't buy them at full price but they are a great deal when I got them on sale.
The other smaller banks....not nearly as useful.
The larger solar banks? Useful but because of their weight and size they actually aren't as useful as I thought they would be.
Thanks for taking a look
Hope you learned a little bit about power banks.
Hope it helps you make a decision if you are looking for one.
Good luck,
Thanks again for reading.