Portable battery recommendation?

[bandaidqueen]

I'm looking to buy an inexpensive "portable power station" or something similar, it will take a while to save up for a whole solar system and house batteries. I work in an office and can re-charge it from an outlet every day, on the weekends I have another job and can recharge it from an outlet there too. I will use it to power my backup/dash cam overnight (so it will continue to record for security) and possibly charge my cell phone in a pinch. Someone linked to this page in this forum: https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/ultra-portable-systems.html and these look great, but still a little expensive for me. Anyone have a recommendation? I was thinking a power pack with jumper cables, tire inflator, and some outlets might be good. Any feedback would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[DLTooley]

Amazon has a variety of devices at different sizes, the market is developing with prices a bit under a watt hour. I’ve been happy with my 75 wh suaoki which also doubles as a vehicle starter. They’ve also been good with service.

They have no nonsense hype spec rich marketing and are competitively priced.

Amazon also has the first lifepo4 pack, 166wh at a similar price.

 

[MrAlvinDude]

Something along these lines?

Some of these lithium packs are under $100, and offer 12V jump start and USB ports.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=jump+starter+battery+pack

or

The lithium packs in this search are all over $100, but include 110V outlets, as well as  12V out and USB out.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=power+station+lithium



I do not think that any of the lithium packs offer tire inflation.


Are you aware of the difference in how to use, and manage the charge, of a power pack, when a power pack uses either a lead acid battery, or a lithium battery, to store the power in the power pack?

If you can charge it each and every day, then you Might get good use from a power pack that uses a regular lead acid battery to store the power.
For any other use case, I would always recommend the newer power packs, that use lithium batteries to store the power.


So perhaps you could narrow it down to look at a few specific power packs, and get some help to list pros and cons, for those ones that you are specifically looking at?

 

[bullfrog]

Be sure and look at how much they weigh. The lithium ones will give much more power for pound. The older lead acid ones will give you a good workout if stairs are involved. There have been several threads and YouTube videos on ones you can build yourself. Maybe you can talk one of your coworkers into assembling a power pack for you! I have used a couple of them on cloudy days to supplement my solar bank so it is possible. Ryobi has just come out with an inverter/power station that runs off their 18 volt One battery system and has 120 volt (150 watts) as well as USB ports so using a charger at the office and a couple of their 9 AH lithium batteries would be super easy as they will fit in your purse but probably to expensive unless you already have some other Ryobi products.

 

[RVTravel]

Need to figure out how many amps to power the dash cam overnight.

 

[MrAlvinDude]

Ryobi has just come out with an inverter/power station that runs off their 18 volt One battery system and has 120 volt (150 watts) as well as USB ports so using a charger at the office and a couple of their 9 AH  lithium batteries would be super easy as they will fit in your purse but probably to expensive unless you already have some other Ryobi products.

Now there is an idea  :idea:


Just for fun, I have looked up some Ryobi options. 

The 110V (150W) and usb outlet: https://www.amazon.com/150-Watt-Inverter-Generator-Lightweight-Convenient/dp/B07TGJ7WWQ

Different batteries:
- 4Ah  (at 18V, 4Ah is a 72Wh battery):  https://www.amazon.com/Replace-Lithium-Battery-Cordless-Indicator/dp/B07QZ2KKYW
- 9Ah  (at 18V, 9Ah is a  162Wh battery):  https://www.amazon.com/Ryobi-18-Volt-Lithium-Ion-LITHIUM-Capacity/dp/B07TM7ND6M
- a battery charger: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=ryobi+charge


Battery package deals
- charger and 2x 3Ah batteries (3Ah@18V  =  54Wh)  so dual batterey is  108Wh: https://www.amazon.com/Ryobi-Lithium-ion-Battery-Charger-Separetely/dp/B07WWKJ759
- 2x 2Ah batteries (2Ah@18V = 36Wh)  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079CJ6CBG

- a tire pump:  https://www.amazon.com/Ryobi-P737-Portable-Cordless-Inflator/dp/B017JIWT9U
- a light with USB port: https://www.amazon.com/Ryobi-P781-Lithium-Workshop-Included/dp/B01MCSUCUY


I like the modular concept, and the fact that if anything breaks or wear out, then that part alone needs to be replaced, without needing to replace everything. 

And compared to the 'small'  all-in-one  power stations, that all seem to cost about $125-$150 and have about 130-165Wh capacity, the modular systems from Ryobi  are not necessarily that much more expensive.

 

[bullfrog]

Even though you can charge Ryobi 18 volt One batteries with a Ryobi 12 volt vehicle charger I don't think they yet have a way to use the 18 volt batteries to produce 12 volts. I'm sure someone has as a diy project but as far as I know they don't sell one yet.

 

[janeontheroad]

Just my two cents, but it's better to make a DIY one (if possible). The "Power Station" is nothing more than a battery and inverter. You can put together a "station" which is better for a bit less using youtube tutorials.
Also commercial ones usually have a very short warranty, which is a big no for me as I had some incidents with portable stations in the past.