And the best Powerbank is? NOT!

Found this, just had to share….
Gotta love the sand filled batteries….
All the Best,
Jeff

Basically unless you spend big bucks on name brand ones (like Anker, etc) you’re buying ones that have 1/2 to 1/3 the advertised capacity and output. I’ve tried the kits with QC and PD and they work, but even with 15 aH on board they only charge my phone to 40% before the display says 0%

Just spend the money and get a name brand one or deal with overinflated specs and poor performance

Somebody else opened this one and found legit cells inside. I think it was reported here

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09LQQ3CYK?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

OK found the link

I picked up one of those and must say that it seems pretty good to me. I loose track of just how much it puts out. Roughly I would say at least 18,000 mAh. (I think it does my phone at least 5 times.) Don’t have the ability to give it an empirical test and as I said I forget just exactly how much I have used it between charges. I also know that any USB charging from a power bank will have some built in inefficiency. Not sure what is reasonable to expect. 18 or 20,000 mAh from a 26800 mAh battery source?

I do know that it will easily charge both my phone and my tablet at the same time. I know that if I charge it with a single iPhone charger it will take more than 16 hours to charge it. The first couple of times I charged it I used two chargers so it was much faster. I paid as much for a single Anker 18650 charger that would only do about 2/3 of One charge on my phone. Quite happy with the purchase.

That Power Bank has a unique feature—double click the power button —you will see the light go from one bar to the other like a strobe affect—that is low power mode —it will enable you to charge small devices with low charge current —also let it charge your phone to 100% without shutting off

Most power banks are rated for the Full Cell capacity before conversion to 5v and also they don’t empty the cells fully—I figured this out when I went to recharge one of the PowrADD 26800 banks —only took 23000 mah to fill

I bought one and tested it and according to my notes, and if my USB meter is accurate, I got 17810 mAh out of it from a full charge. That works out to 66.5% efficiency if it’s truly a 26800 mAh powerbank.

What is a reasonable efficiency number for a powerbank?

65% is pretty average capacity ratio — Like I stated above —after figuring out I only put 23000 back in — I checked several of my power banks and figured out they don’t get drained all the way —- I’m not sure what the bottom voltage is that can be boosted to 5v —- my only gripe with this 26800 PB is — anything over 1.3 amp draw — it goes below 5v

Do you suppose the cells in the video were recycled SandFire cells with a wireless charging feature?

how do you avoid fakes though?

obvs the sand-batteries are not really what they claim to be

Maybe the efficiency tests I did are of some use for someone.

Bigger picture

Yep, conversion is never 100%

A mistake I often see is that people test mAh instead of Wh.
The mAh on the PB is at 3.6v and the tests are usually done at 5v. That causes an instant 30% ‘loss’…

havent seen this video, but once "sand batteries" are mentioned, i have to mention that i reviwed several Romoss powerbank (from 10000 to 57 000mah) - they performed flawlessly

Was it really sand? Maybe they use this kind of “batteries” to smuggle drugs and it was just a mistake that the youtuber got one with extra power?

Years ago I had ordered some Vacuum Tubes from a guy in Hong Kong — When I opened them they had a sandy white powder all in the packaging —that was around the time when Anthrax and other poisons were being sent in the mail — scared the hell out me, but I had been waiting on these tubes — come to find out the dealer also dealt in stone statues etc — He explained that powdery stuff had gotten on his shipping station

They look like this:

The article

I’ve opened a “10 000 mAh” powerbank which looked like it had room for 4 18650s in it. It only contained 3 18650s and they measured out to be about 800 mAh each.

Any good finds for a battery power bank that will power a Pinecil? (USB type C: takes both PD and QC 3.0 but needs 12V-20V, 3A)

Seems like you’d need a Powerbank that has cells in series for that much power

20v/3.25A

I've got a few Powerbanks. Just got one from goodwill for $6 and it has 8x18650's in it. It works pretty good not gonna lie. Lasts for a very long time. Cells are rated 2000mah each (still about 1000mAh too low imo) I have the klein et900 and an eBay usb meter. Going to do some testing.