Portable power becomes more and more important in the outdoors as we love to bring our gadgets with us. Some times we might need purpose built but sometimes we can improvise or find solutions that where not designed for the outdoors. This week we have a special guest post from our friend Gregory Parker about the Milwaukee M18 Power Bank:
The price point for this device is not terrible.You can get it online or in certain stores for around 30$. It is just the adpater, you have to buy the batteries separately. Those can get a bit pricey. If you already own the batteries and don't own a proper battery back up for modern cell phones this could be an alternative option.The beauty of this style recharging system you can exchang batteries if your current one goes dead. There is no need to worry about if you have enough sunlight for a solar pannel. Just grab a second battery and you are good to go. If you are out with multiple people each person can carry their own battery and you only need one adapter. The weight with the adapter on a High output CP 3.0 battery is roughly the same weight as the battery pack I'm comparing. With this battery on it you will get 5 charges for a 1 year old phone with the battery percentage under 10% for each charge. The milwaukee battery and adapter are built for the work place so they have the potential to stand up to the more harsh enviorments of the oudoors. Plus they are rated for -28 degreesFahrenheit so even in the tundra you can have back up battery power.
One of the more premier batteries out there is the Anker Power Core+ with a 26800mAh battrey. The price on amazon for that battery is 69.99 plus shipping. They make the claim that you can charge different phones at different rates, but let's be honest. Most of the time you get 4 maybe 5 times out of one of these batteries, they have not updated their numbers since roughly 2015. The Anker battery pack weighs in at 1.35 pounds. This battery is just like almost any on the market. It has the potential on being dropped and broken very easily with its hard plastic case and no real padding.What it boils down to in reality is all about prefrence and what you might already have in your toolbox at home. Any portable battery has the potenial to charge you electronic devices. I have a tendency of dropping things like this so something a little more durable would be always better in my opinion.
