[pct-l] external battery

[John Abela]

Hey Ginger,

The Ember is just not worth buying from a specs perspective.

Ignoring the whole aspect of the built in solar charger (which is a
joke, it would likely take days and days to charge that device via
solar while hiking with it hanging from your backpack), from a weight
to performance factor it just does not justify buying it.

If you really want to go with Brunton, the Inspire is probably the
best option. Well, technically the Resync is the best
bang-for-your-buck option, but who wants to carry around a 10oz power
brick.

The Mophie Juice Pack Powerstation is a beast. 4000 mAh at 16 ounces.
That is half the mAh of the Brunton Resync and 6 ounces heavier. Stay
away from it. It is designed to be pretty when sitting on a desk, it
has no place in a  backpack.

Others out there disagree with me, but I still feel that the Duracell
Instant ( http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002FU6KF2/ ) is the best option
for long distance hikers. They are 1150mAh which can take a near dead
iPhone (the most power-hungry device out there) up to around 80%
battery charge. They are fast to charge (unlike some of the Brunton
ones) and they are the least expensive ones out there at this mAh
range that actually work. They are 3.2 ounces in weight.

If you are using an iPhone, the Mophie Juice Packs are awesome - at
least the one for the iPhone 5. From a weight perspective, they older
ones for the iPhone 4/s were not worth the weight from a mAh
perspective. However their new one for the iPhone 5 is 1700 mAh at
2.68 oz. That beats out the Duracell Instant in both mAh and weight.

Unless you plan on taking a laptop with you, there is very little need
to be lugging around the weight of 5000+ mAh worth of power. The one
exception to this c/would be if you plan on taking a power hungry
smartphone AND a GPS device that is charged via micro-usb rather than
have replaceable/rechargeable batteries. In this situation, if you
plan to keep your phone and your gps turned on for 8-10 hours a day,
than yeah, you are just going to have to suffer with the fact you will
have to carry an entire pound or more worth of power bricks.

+John Abela



On Sat, Mar 9, 2013 at 8:53 PM, Ginger Hayes <ginger.hayes at gmail.com> wrote:
> Does anyone have any experience with the Brunton Ember power pack?  I can't
> find much information online, and only one review.  According to their
> website it just became available in January.  Looks like it could be a good
> choice.
>
> I'm also looking at the Brunton Inspire and the Mophie Juice Pack
> Powerstation.
>
> Anyone with an opinion they would care to share?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ginger
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