Best Outdoor Generators & Portable Power
What You Get: Anker PowerCore+ mini (3350mAh Premium Aluminum Portable Charger), Micro USB cable, travel pouch, welcome guide, our fan-favorite 18-month warranty and friendly customer service.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Not All Batteries Are Created Equal. ***NOTE***. This review contains technical observations which I have reported to Anker. The battery I opened was verified to contain a high quality Panasonic-Sanyo NCR18650BF Lithium Ion cell, which is one of the finest cells available on the market today. - 9.99USD at Time of Review for PowerCore+ Mini in Black. Nay: - Inconsistent Fulfillment, Frequent Product Updates/Changes May Result in Order Errors and Old Product. - Inconsistent Performance of Internal DC Boost Converter Between Batteries, Affects Output Current and Capacity, Actual Available Capacity Varies Between 8.5Wh and 9.5Wh. - Possible Inconsistent Quality Control - Based on my numbers Anker deemed 2 out of 4 batteries to be possibly defective and shipped replacements (not arrived at time of this writing). In order to minimize power loss in the USB cable during whole product testing I custom-built an extra-short USB cable using 22AWG conductors, meaning that all of my numbers will be best-case scenarios for each of the batteries I tested. This was the case for me when I ordered two PowerCore+ Mini's in Black last week, and two Astro Mini's in Black showed up, although they were so close to the PowerCore+ in appearance (in fact, they are identical in appearance) that I didn't even notice the error until a couple of days later when during testing I noticed that the tail cap of the battery had "Astro Mini" written on it. At time of this writing both the Astro Mini and the PowerCore+ Mini are listed as separate products on Anker's website, and share the same capacity ratings, but have some minor published differences. During testing of the Astro Mini's I observed some troubling discrepancies that prompted me to order additional batteries. Anker's packaging has always been efficient, easy-to open, and well-thought, and these batteries were no exception. Each battery came with a short Anker USB Micro cable, a tasteful carrying case, and a short and sweet support pamphlet that tells you how to get questions answered or stuff fixed. Each battery's USB port is also covered with a sticker to remind you that the battery automatically cuts power to the port to conserve energy when not in use, and that a quick tap of the small button in the corner is all you need to get the juice flowing. Well, just do a quick search for "Lithium Ion Fire" on YouTube sometime and you'll see quickly why the FAA restricts how much lithium you can carry on an aircraft in the form of batteries, and why most major couriers won't allow you to ship Lithium batteries via Air Mail unless you have a hazmat contract with them. Serial numbers on devices this cheap are the hallmark of a manufacturer that cares because while you are unlikely to file a police report for a stolen ten dollar battery, Anker certainly wants to know which manufacturing batches are having problems, if any. ***WARNING***. I don't pull punches with batteries or battery vendors, and I didn't intend to judge this battery by its casing alone. Eventually I was able to saw off the rest of the casing without putting a scratch on the battery cell itself, and was able to reveal a Panasonic-Sanyo NCR18650BF cell soldered to a small DC boost converter PCB and USB ports. The NCR18650BF cell is a beauty of a battery cell, and represents one of the highest capacity and quality cells available on the market today. Every battery cell has two capacities. What this means is that "12.06Wh" capacity that you see on the product is only true for a couple of weeks right after Panasonic made the battery cells. By the time those cells are stored, sold to Anker, then stored again, used in manufacturing, stored again, shipped to Amazon, stored again, and then eventually shipped to you, these cells have a usable capacity of around 11.52Wh to 11.70Wh, which is actually what is reflected in the official datasheet for the NCR18650BF. I ran the NCR18650BF cell just by itself against a load of .2C or .67A and a cut-off voltage of 2.50V, the same test that Panasonic uses to get their original rating, and got a capacity of 11.4834Wh, which is just slightly under the "Minimum" rating for the cell, but it's close enough that I can't fault Anker for it. This is the real-world, best-case, available capacity of the cell before it goes through any other losses, such as those introduced by the DC/DC conversion up to 5V, before the voltage drop in your USB cable, and before the conversion losses in your device as it charges the internal battery. The harder you run the battery, the lower the available capacity of the cell is. To determine how hard the USB circuit runs the battery and look for efficiency losses, I removed the battery and connected the circuit to the monitored output on the lab power supply. Using the electronic load I applied a 5V 1A load to the USB port and monitored current draw from the power supply: USB Load Battery Load DC Boost Efficiency. 5.000V @ 1A = 5.00W 1.349A @ 4.2V = 5.67W 88.2%. 4.991V @ 1A = 4.99W 1.637A @ 3.6V = 5.89W 84.7%. 4.988V @ 1A = 4.99W 1.825A @ 3.2V = 6.06W 82.3%. Anker claims 90% efficiency with their DC converters, but since they do not publish their testing process or procedure it is impossible to know under what ideal conditions they performed their tests. Based on conversations with Anker, they are constantly updating and making changes to their designs, which is great, but because these changes aren't publicly tracked and because the batteries are sealed, there is no simple way to know what the characteristics of your battery are. It bears noting that so far all of the tests that we have discussed were performed on a battery that was labeled as "Astro Mini" and it is possible that my battery was manufactured during the early stages of the production shift. That capacity will be lower when drained faster and as you can see above, in order to charge your device at 5V @ 1A, the drain on the battery cell is more than twice that. Since modern lithium cells have a stated nominal voltage of 3.6V, I used the current draw of 1.637A and cut-off voltage of 2.50V to re-assess the capacity of the bare NCR18650BF cell to determine the actual available capacity at the higher drain rate. At the end of the day, what really matters is how the customer will use the battery, so let's get to... [Real-World Capacity and Performance]. These tests were all performed with the batteries fully sealed, assembled, and as they came directly from Amazon. In total, I tested four batteries, two of which were marked as "Astro Mini", and two of which were marked "PowerCore+ Mini", all of which were marked 3350mAh/12.06Wh. They were all designated Units A through D. For the testing procedure, I charged each battery through the USB Micro port per the instructions from Anker until they were full. I then connected each battery to the electronic load and programmed the load for a constant current draw of 1.000A, and measured the output voltage ten times per second until the battery died. Item Received Item Model Available Capacity. Astro Mini (Black) (Unit A) A1105 8.769Wh. Astro Mini (Black) (Unit B) A1105 9.345Wh. PowerCore+ Mini (Silver) (Unit C) A1104 8.607Wh. PowerCore+ Mini (Black) (Unit D) A1104 9.578Wh. The difference in capacity between the best-performing battery and the worst-performing battery was over 11%!!! My notes regarding each unit tested are as follows: Astro Mini (Black) (Unit A): Discharge remained flat and stable until the battery was approximately 75% depleted, at which point the voltage became unstable and dropped significantly. Based on the erratic behavior of the drop I believe the boost circuit began to overheat as it tried to cope with the lower input voltage of the battery cell. Based on conversations with Anker this is likely due to Anker's "Voltage Boost" feature which provides a slightly higher output voltage in order to compensate for the loss in the USB cable. While this does provide a slightly faster charge, it also results in a slightly lower available battery capacity, although this small discrepancy alone does not account for the near 1Wh difference between Units C and D. PowerCore+ Mini (Black) (Unit D): Out of all four batteries, Unit D exhibited the best performance. The output was not only super-flat through the discharge cycle, the available capacity tipped the scales at 9.578Wh @ 1A draw, which was better than any other of the batteries that I tested. I would also like to make clear that charge rate and battery capacity are completely independent of each other. I ordered four of the same battery, and ended up with four batteries that performed completely differently, which brings me to... [Anker's Response]. On 11/23/2015 I forwarded my results to Anker Support along with relevant purchase dates, serial numbers, and other information they requested. It means you're potentially throwing away vast amounts of battery capacity in your external battery pack by using an inadequate cable."
"Friends, We are gathered here today to celebrate the life of our Anker PowerCore+. I noticed my phone was near dead and so I hooked up my trusty Anker and went about my day. #sadface. Anker is survived by his older brother (also a PowerCore+), who was purchased in September and is still going strong."
"Fully charged this will bring my HTC EVO 4G LTE up from grave to full pretty close to twice. It will charge a iempire 5s grave to full twice with a bit left over."
"I was thinking of ideas to protect these from water and debris in my pocket or backpack."
"See my images). - Comes with a nice little bag that can hold the battery as well as a cable. (Note that it comes with a USB > Micro USB cable to charge the battery but you need to use your USB > X cable where X is the type of connector your phone or electronic device uses. The competitor (Jackery® Mini Premium) has 4 lights to show the amount of battery left, but on the other hand it's square so it's harder to carry in your pocket and that's the reason I got the Anker®. See my images for more details:"
BESTEK Power Inverter. Ultimate car power inverter for road trips, vacations, outdoors, emergency kits and more for your vehicle. Please do not leave the power inverter in the ON position while your car is off. Provides 300 Watts continuous DC to AC power and 700 Watts instantaneous power, featuring 2 AC outlets and 2 USB ports for multi-purpose charging. Fast Charging: two 110V AC outlets for charging larger devices such as laptops and tablets, 2 USB charging ports (2.1A & 1A) for powering USB compatible devices.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Other than that the inverter is a great price and was shipped to me in 8 days!"
"I wish I started using this before my exchange date was up."
"Arrived sooner than expected and right out of the box we left town traveling on an eight hour round trip."
"Fantastic job at providing Real AC power from 2 AC outlets, convenient USB power plugs also on the front!"
"The Wife Unit can use her laptop on the road, and the 2 USB charges provide charging for our cell phones."
"Just what I needed for recharging my phone and such on the road."
"This guy works okay, but it's a bit pickier about spike loads than I expected."
"It doesn't matter if you plug in 1 thing or 4, or if it's just a phone vs your laptop, as soon as it's plugged in, the fan comes on."
Track power usage for connected devices and figure out which devices use the most energy. Controlled from different devices and manage your home on your smartphone or tablet from anywhere.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Sorry, I wanted to love this, but sadly it is a potential hazard and now I do not recommend this for safety in electronics is of utmost importance! Smart Outlet device is small enough to allow use of second plug on the wall receptacle. Between the safety certification issue & otherwise loving the overall unit & app performance = 3 stars on the fence."
"However, you can "skip" the account login part, face some vaguely dire-ish warning for doing so, and get into the app where you can easily register new devices and use them. If you happen to browse the Settings->Feeback section of the app, you will be treated to a few seconds of chinese text before the english version loads. A boot time, the device uses DHCP nicely, then resolves a hostname and proceeds to establish a websocket connection. - it is very likely possible to design a little websocket proxy that would put itself in between the device and its cloud, assuming the DNS server your DHCP server the device talks to is willing to point it at your proxy (custom router software like dd-wrt or tomato would be a great way to do that). - at that point, it's not terribly hard to imagine short-circuiting their cloud service altogether. In short, I strongly suspect this device can be hacked into being part of something greater than itself, although it seems like it may require having a little server sitting somewhere and being able/willing to tweak your LAN DNS configuration in slightly unusual ways."
"I had high hopes for this product but I could not get any of the 4 plugs to connect to my wireless 2.4Ghz network using different security protocols (WPA and WPA 2) and different encryption methods (AES or TKIP)."
Best Outdoor Generator Accessories
Make your home smart at saving energy and costs Smart management actually helps eliminate excess consumption of electricity, since household devices can still eat up energy, even when not in use. Streamline home security Moreover, for the extended days you're away, replace old-fashioned timers that are limited in function. This smart outlet can turn on lamps on a set schedule, or at a moment's notice as you're miles away. Specifications: 1.Energy Monitor: Track your power usage by day, week, month and year; 2.Timer Function: Can set over 30 groups of time for your appliances including schedule, action timer and countdown timer; 3.Triggered Actions: You can set a program that it will automatically switch off the outlet if power of device reaches programmed number; 4.Share Function: You can share your outlets with other family account so that your family can control it at the same time. Track power usage for connected devices and figure out which devices use the most energy. Controlled from different devices and manage your home on your smartphone or tablet from anywhere.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"However, you can "skip" the account login part, face some vaguely dire-ish warning for doing so, and get into the app where you can easily register new devices and use them. If you happen to browse the Settings->Feeback section of the app, you will be treated to a few seconds of chinese text before the english version loads. A boot time, the device uses DHCP nicely, then resolves a hostname and proceeds to establish a websocket connection. - it is very likely possible to design a little websocket proxy that would put itself in between the device and its cloud, assuming the DNS server your DHCP server the device talks to is willing to point it at your proxy (custom router software like dd-wrt or tomato would be a great way to do that). - at that point, it's not terribly hard to imagine short-circuiting their cloud service altogether. In short, I strongly suspect this device can be hacked into being part of something greater than itself, although it seems like it may require having a little server sitting somewhere and being able/willing to tweak your LAN DNS configuration in slightly unusual ways."
"Sorry, I wanted to love this, but sadly it is a potential hazard and now I do not recommend this for safety in electronics is of utmost importance! Smart Outlet device is small enough to allow use of second plug on the wall receptacle. Between the safety certification issue & otherwise loving the overall unit & app performance = 3 stars on the fence."
"Description says they work with Alexa, I could not get them to interface."
"I had high hopes for this product but I could not get any of the 4 plugs to connect to my wireless 2.4Ghz network using different security protocols (WPA and WPA 2) and different encryption methods (AES or TKIP)."
Best Outdoor Generators
But it can also be used for those times when convient power isn't available. Enter your model number to make sure this fits.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Only Honda and Yamaha generators have build reputation of quality products there are many outside of Japan companies to enter the market but none of them have consistently good reputation of their products. I did a good research when choosing between the Blue and Red generators so I can share some key points and tips if you considering inverter generator or already narrow down you choice between the honda eu2000i and yamaha ef2000is. Honda is using 98.5 cc engine and Yamaha ef2000is has 79cc engine and thats what makes the main difference between the two - honda is two pounds heavier and can produce 2000W for half an hour (proven) while Yamaha arguably able to provide the claimed 2000W for 30 seconds. If you need more power Yamaha offers more options like 2400W generator and Honda jumps to 3000W or parallel kits. Honda's fuel pump makes it easy to add extended run fuel tank - Yamaha has no fuel pump on the other hand has a fuel gauge - very nice since it's has only 1 gallon tank. If generator with oil but no gas 47.2 pounds with gas 53.4 then if it weights 50.3 pounds you are about half full (or empty). Eu2000i has a "plastic" camshaft and a timing belt and 2000ef is a pushrod - it does not seem to make much difference but it's good to know - yamaha seem to be more reliable by design, while honda have a proven reputable history. Pure sine wave power is also nice (even if most electronics can handle the ugly square AC there is no chance of damaging equipment if governour gets stuck like on conventional 3600RPM generators) also non inverter generator much louder heavier and often consume more gasoline on idle then inverter generator at full load. Tip: you can get a "kill-a-watt" type meter to measure the power consumptions of household items (some items like cable boxes and playstations consume quite a bit when on stand-by while energystar should be less than 1 watt per item when not working but plugged in). Also use kilowatt when running generator it gives you information on how much power is used as well as keeps track on how many hours the generator been working - very important for oil changes and other maintenance (generator does not have factory hour meter but it will blink on a start as many times as hundred hours it was used up to five blinks of 500+ hours - good to know if you looking at used generator with unknown hours). Also as for oil changes I use an empty cocktail long neck plastic bottle that fits perfectly over the drain port and I tip over all oil straight into the bottle without spilling a drop on a drain lip of generator -no mess and easy - some people use short plastic pipe."
"This is my second, added to parallel with my four year old example to run my r/v air conditioner. Super dependable, clean inverter power, lightweight, easy to service, and whisper quiet.... You get what you pay for with these. Details like the carb drain, 12v output, easy parallel operation, and QUIET, make the difference. It takes five seconds and I've used my two examples for hundreds of hours with periods of no-use ranging from a week to 4 months. During the racing season, I use my units 10-12 hours a week and change the oil monthly with Mobil 1 synthetic. Read and follow the manual and this thing will outlast you... My older unit has hundreds of hours of use and runs as well as it did the day I unpacked it."
"I bought a Honda EU2000i in 2004 after a series of hurricanes in Florida left my family without power."
"We lost power for 12 hours and this generator powered my fridge and a stand alone freezer in the garage while also powering my tv, cable box, modem and AT&T power box so we could still use Uverse."
Best Power Inverters
BESTEK Power Inverter. Ultimate car power inverter for road trips, vacations, outdoors, emergency kits and more for your vehicle. Please do not leave the power inverter in the ON position while your car is off. Provides 300 Watts continuous DC to AC power and 700 Watts instantaneous power, featuring 2 AC outlets and 2 USB ports for multi-purpose charging. Fast Charging: two 110V AC outlets for charging larger devices such as laptops and tablets, 2 USB charging ports (2.1A & 1A) for powering USB compatible devices.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Other than that the inverter is a great price and was shipped to me in 8 days!"
"I bought this to power up Christmas lights on my Corvette for the Christmas parade in our small town."
"Other than that it works great and is an absolute must have if your car usb doesnt charge your android phone like mine does.."
"We do tons of driving and the kids are always trying to charge their phones and and I Pads and fighting over a plug when their electronics need some juice, this makes all of that possible, even when they need to charge things at the same time!"
"I use this thing all the time in my worktruck for my laptop, phone and power drill batteries and it just works, doesn't get hot or noisy either."
"I have heard of difficulties using inverters that are not pure sine....no problem ever with this unit. Just returned from a 2 month 9,000 mile road trip and it never missed a beat."
"This inverter is simply incredible. Now most cars have USB ports but few have regular outlets still."
"The company is completely unresponsive, will not answer emails or any contact. I put that filter between this Bestek unit and my laptop, and ignored Ultrablok's complaint about the wiring."
Best Solar & Wind Power
Anker PowerPort Solar Charge with the Power of the Sun. Fast Charging Technology Exclusive to Anker, PowerIQ discovers and replicates your device's original charging protocol to provide its fastest possible charging speed up to 2.4 amp per port or 3 amps overall (with enough direct sunlight). Incredibly Durable Industrial-strength PET plastic faced solar panels sewn into high-wear polyester canvas ensure it's able to withstand the trials of your outdoor adventures. What You Get: Anker PowerPort Solar (21W 2-Port USB Solar Charger), 3ft Micro USB cable, welcome guide, our fan-favorite 18-month warranty and friendly customer service.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I wondered why my Anker PowerCore 20100 power bank would never charge from this solar charger, but would charge from a wall charger. I again contacted Anker support and asked for a list of batteries that have been tested with and charge properly from the Anker solar charger. The Anker Astro E7 26800mah Power Bank works perfectly with the Anker solar charger. However if the sunlight drops too low and the charger produces close to 0 ma, but then the sun comes out before the solar charger powers off, the RavPower would not charge anymore."
"My first test of the panels was on a mostly cloudy day when my power brick was charged in the 26-50% range. My pack was drained back down to the 26-50% range and was fully charged after about 4 hours in direct sunlight, using both cables. As expected the angle of the panels affected power output as well, with around 45 degrees to the current sun azimuth producing the highest output."
"Both three panel fold outs were arranged in nearly identical positions on a small table in my back yard. Both units consistently produced sufficient power to cause my 5 inch Android phone to reflect charging. I strongly suspect that both the Anker and Aukey solar chargers would have charged at a much higher rate had something more than a 5" Smart phone been used. That both the solar chargers charged the Smart phone at a greater rate than the regulated power supply would tend to validate the claim of both manufacturers that their solar chargers would charge at the fastest rate safely possible for a given device. My technical video reviews routinely require at least a couple of hours to produce and I would appreciate a helpful rating if you found it so. POSTSCRIPT. Since some of you might be interested in seeing how the Anker Solar Charger did under a greater load, I placed the panels on the same table about 1:15 p.m., again with a nearly cloudless sky; the temperature was again about 50 degrees. With the panels laying flat on the table, the Drok meter registered 4.64 volts at 1.28 amps (5.9392 watts). The Aukey charger was not tested, but since it employs the same brand, quantity and size panels, I have no reason to believe the results under a greater load would have been substantially different. POSTSCRIPT - STATING THE OBVIOUS. While there is no simple answer to realized solar panel efficiency, suffice to say that you are much more likely to achieve good results in Arizona than in New England."
Best MP3 Player Chargers & Power Adapters
What You Get: RAVPower 60W 6-Port USB Charging Station, 5ft / 150cm detachable power cord, a user guide, our fan-favorite 18-month warranty + 12 months extra (on registration), and friendly customer service.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"First, BEWARE of other units specifying high currents for their multiple ports only to find out that they can't deliver high power (current) on ALL of them at once. With these inexpensive adapters, I can use my charger both at home and abroad. My Charger worked perfectly."
"Finally I have a good multi-port charger. This time though I purchased the two bad ones from somewhere other than Amazon (sorry Amazon I didn't mean too, lesson learned). Once back to Amazon and reading reviews it was obvious that this one must be a good one. I have two Ipads as does my wife, two Iphones 6s and 6s plus, new Fire HD8, Multiple Bluetooth headphones and probably quite a few more that I am leaving out and they all charge great."
"There are many options to buy out there (several here on amazon), however due to my experience with Sunvalleytek (the company who sells Ravpower) I keep on coming back and recommending that if you find a similar product (sometimes almost the same – see ANKER @ $35.99 vs this unit @ 26.99) you can be assured that for the customer service alone provided by these guys you will end up way better off. Now to the review of the actual product: I've been in the market for a good USB charger for the past few years. Between the mix of android, iOS, and other devices (kindle, raspberry pi, etc) that I have, I was puzzled that no one had created a reasonable product that would charge all of them. Now, yes, I know there are several devices that have labelled ports (2.1 Amps, iOS, Android, etc), or dedicated chargers, but it's all such a hassle. For the vast majority of use cases, (i.e. those involving a mix of high and low power draw devices like phones and tablets), this should meet and exceed all requirements. Note though, that at only 40W, it can only provide high speed charging to four iPads simultaneously (or other similar big 2A draw devices)."
Best Boat Shore Power Cords
Camco RV 18" PowerGrip Dogbone Electrical Adapter with easy grip handle is designed for greater convenience and ease of use. Handles make unplugging easier.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I had a 30 amp to 20 amp adapter for my old RV and is the same quality and construction."
"we have a 50 amp service camper but was without power until the park technician could repair the breaker at the park site, if i had a dog bone to reduce from 50 to 30 like this one, i simply could have plugged in and had power."
"Plugs are also oriented so that the short cord points down when the 15 amp is connected to the wall (when outlets are oriented with the ground prong at the bottom as they usually are) allowing the adapter to hang nicely from the 15 amp connection even when the heavy 50 amp cord is attached."
"We bought this for our 50 amp RV to have on hand for national and state park stays which may not have 50 amp service."
"Took it to a park that only had 30 amp and I need 50 amp."
"What can I say except it does the job very well."
"This works perfectly for hooking up your RV to various camprground service."
"Disappointed at how flimsy the conductor feels, I doubt the wire is the correct gauge for thirty amps."
Best RV Receptacles
Camco RV 25' 30 AMP PowerGrip Electrical Powercord with Handle is designed for greater convenience and ease of use. Cord length is 25';NOTE: These will not fit standard home wall outlets.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"While the official line is to not use any extension cord with the Tesla UMC/EVSE for charging the Model S, I'm concerned that there will be a time that the 18' cord just won't be long enough."
"Even the 15 amp version of this is a nice hefty extension cord."
"Cut off the ends and wired it up with some plug and receptacles from Amazon to fit my dryer outlet and welder plug."
"My 2006 Cherokee 5th wheel toy hauler ( cheaply made piece of junk) didn't come with a cord-- just a socket and a short adapter and a 'normal' outdoor electrical cord got warm and would not run the A/C."
"So far its been a great cord."
"Very handy to get your genny away from your RV."
"It arrived quickly and at the best price I could find on the internet or local."
"Awesome as a Model X owner it works very well no heat buildup."