[pct-l] Solar vs External Battery Pack

[jcil000-hiker at yahoo.com]

I posted my frustration here about the the Solio solar product that I purchased years back.
I'm currently using a RavPower External Battery Pack Model RP-PB41 & its their largest capacity, I think, at 26,800 mAh.Go to view their website at RavPower.com .  The warranty is 18 months & they promise free return shipping if it fails.If you do buy it, beware. On each end of the box is a hidden compartment that you can easily overlook and lose the contentswhen you throw the box away. Each end has a cable. *** Oddly, the cable / transformer needed to charge the batterypack itself is a separate purchase that you have to make. Not expensive though.
It weighs one pound and has three charging ports (each a different output) so you can actually charge 3 devices at the same time.I can't vouch yet for durability nor longevity, but I can say that it charges my iPhone, my gps, and a couple of other items abouta half dozen times or more before I have to recharge the external battery. I initially charged everything about a dozen timesand that worked over about a weeks time but the manufacturer doesn't recommend discharging the battery more than half waydown. It has four lights that indicate its power charge. Four lights = 100 per cent. Three lights = 75 per cent. Two lights = 50 per centand the recommended recharge point. 
The charge is rapid, also. I ran my iPhone down to less than 20 per cent and the external batteryrecharged it in about 20 minutes.
They make smaller units which weigh less, also.
As I said, its a new tool for me so I can't vouch for anything other than my initial charges. On that one initial charge where I ran theexternal battery pack to 1 light (25%), it took me about 7 hours to recharge the battery to full capacity. So, if you were hiking andneeded to do that, you'd be sitting somewhere on your Zero Day ... guarding your battery while it got back up to speed.
I'm glad to pass this information along. I hope it helps someone out there.