Tag Archives: external charger

Backup Power You Can Carry With You – A Review

Posted on by
1

As a prepper, I like things that are rechargeable. It minimizes the gear I have to store and carry. I especially like rechargeable batteries, with very little pre-planning you could continue charging and using them for a long period of time —  even during a collapse.

One of the primary rechargeable devices that I–and everyone else–carry is my phone. Most of the time keeping my iPhone 5S charged isn’t a big deal, I keep it plugged in if I’m in the car, at work, or in bed; in between those times it typically has plenty of battery life. But for the times I’m not around a standard outlet, I like to have a portable charger. Previously I used a New Trent i-Torch External Battery, but recently–after testing and evaluating–I’ve changed to Portable Power Solutions M110 External Battery.

External Battery compared to iPhone 5

External Battery compared to iPhone 5

The M110 External Battery is ruggedly built, it feels like I could drop it and it really wouldn’t care. It’s not much bigger than a deck of playing cards at 4″ x 2.8″ x 1″, weighing 10 ounces (a deck of cards is 3.5″ x 2.5″ x 5/8″). It nicely fits into a convenient pocket on my EDC bag (it even fits in my back pants pocket). It has enough power to completely recharge my iPhone, even if the phone’s dead, four times. The External Battery has an USB outlet so it’s easy to recharge; to completely recharge it takes about 10 hours.

Portable Power Solutions also has a 7W Foldable Solar Panel that pairs nicely with their External Battery. But the Solar Panel can also provide enough power to charge your cell phone, or even tablet, directly from the sun. It folds down to a convenient 7.5″ x 7.5″ x 1″ with a rugged cover that includes a pocket to store accessories. When in use, it folds out to 15 inches long and can easily be attached to your pack (it has eyelets for this purpose), or set down angled toward the sun.

portable power productsPortable Power Solutions’s final product is a 10K Solar Charger. It has the same lithium battery storage capacity as the M110 External Battery, and is about the same size (5.2″ x 3″ 0.8″, weighing 6.2 ounces). It’s a highbred, meaning it can both store power and be recharged by the sun — but it doesn’t do either thing as well as the two individual ones above. It has a small solar charger so it takes a long time to charge (36 hours). And though they still try to make it rugged, it does have a solar panel on it and needs to be handled with much more care. But it can, and does, do both jobs to the best of it’s capability.

Portable Power Solutions is veteran owed, and they’ve “been there”. All of their products are built to be heavy duty, durable, and weather resistant — they’re designed primarily for military guys to take to the field (who are notoriously hard on gear). I like the products and the company, and it’s definitely earned a spot in my everyday carry (EDC) and my Get Home Bag.

Sarah’s View: Product Review: iTorch External Battery

Posted on by
1

iTorch-1The New Trent iTorch IMP52D is a portable, rechargeable, external lithium battery I use to recharge my cell phone (an iPhone). It is compatible with any device (i.e. phone, MP3 player, tablet) that uses a USB plug.

Currently I am travelling for work…again. There are many things on my ‘must pack’ list these days, but ever since Trace bought each of us an iTorch about a year ago, I don’t go anywhere without it. It stays in my purse and goes with me pretty much everywhere.

The iTorch is 3.5” x 1.5” x1”; not tiny, but certainly a reasonable size. There are four blue lights, one indicates the iTorch is charging a device, and the other three indicate the level of charge remaining. It also includes a built-in red laser pointer and an LED light; just in case you need a laser pointer or emergency flashlight (repetitive and redundant!). It comes in a handy drawstring bag with a cord to charge the iTorch itself. In order to charge our phones we had to supply the needed USB iPhone cord.

The iTorch is advertised as having 3.5x the normal iPhone charge. I honestly don’t know if this is true or not as I’ve never used the iTorch to its full capacity. Even when I’ve needed to recharge my phone multiple times before I could recharge the iTorch, I’ve never fully depleted the iTorch charge. For this trip in particular it’s been useful as a charger in the car because I totally forgot to bring a car charger for the rental car. It’s also been handy during the day as I’m in training sessions and I can charge my phone as needed without crawling all over the place looking for a wall plug.

Trace first heard about the iTorch from Steven Harris’ site: battery1234.com — which lists many useful devices, all of which Steven has thoroughly tested and personally recommends. We own many items on this list, it is our go-to list when we want to expand our back-up energy capabilities.

Recommendation

iTorch-2I highly recommend the iTorch, for travel, for the prepper, but also as a simply back-up charger. I can’t count the number of times it’s allowed me to charge up my phone after a day in someone else’s car, or in training, or at an airport.

It’s reasonably priced (about $40) and a compact, and durable, enough to carry in a purse or backpack on regular basis (weights 4.5 ounces). And we’re not the only ones who like it, it has an Amazon Customer Review rating of 4.11 starts (of 5) with over 900 reviews.

As Trace has said before: as a prepper–trying to be prepared in case of emergencies or disasters–communication is very important. Sure the cell network can go down, but if it’s up and available it’d suck if you couldn’t access it just because your phone’s battery is dead. This is a product that can help prevent that from happening.