AA Wall Charger for a Thru-Hike

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

So 1.9oz gets me the unit + a USB cord to charge it, right?

Then if I want to charge something else, I don't need anything if my iPad Mini already has a cord to connect to a USB socket right? The weight is attractive and so is the ability to buy extra AA's and use them to boost my iPad on long stretches. 5 hours for two AA's might be problematic. I'll give it more thought.

[Mike W]

>> So 1.9oz gets me the unit + a USB cord to charge it, right? <<

Yes but it depends on what you need to do.

Here's what I will take on a week long trip.

SolarFocus Charger with Lithium AA batteries (1.5 oz for the charger and 1 oz for 2 Lithium AA's)

Camera Battery Adapter 0.5 oz (very cool alligator clip that adjust to fit most Lithium batteries for pocket cameras) My Olympus has a weird mini USB plug and the cable weighs 1.7 oz, so I leave the cable behind and use the adapter that came with the SolarFocus charger (smaller and lighter than the camera cable).

The charger comes with a bunch of mini USB adapter plugs that fit on the supplied cable. One fits my inReach SE and there is a standard mini USB as well so lots to choose from (each adapter weighs 0.1 oz and the supplied cable is .04 oz. – without any plugs attached)

I have a note in my gear list that indicates I have charged my iPhone from 16% to 100% with a set of lithium AA batteries however, I didn't note how much power was left in the AA's after the charge.

Good luck with your search and let us know which charger you settle on. I have to admit, if I was doing what you are doing I'd buy one of the 15 minute chargers and not worry about the weight (I guess it's a choice (weight vs wait))

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

I'm unclear on how you actually charge AA's inside this device. It appears that you would need a male/male USB cord to connect this device to a USB port and I don't see that here.

That adapter is cool.

I'm likely going to start with a more potent 4 x AA charger, but once I'm across the Mojave (finished night hiking) I might make the move to something like this, as it would allow me to boost the iPad mini if need be.

It's too bad that no one seems to make my dream charger. The Duracell CEF27 chargers will charge two AA's at 1550mA, but they are a four capacity charger and no one seems to make a two battery fast charger. As the CEF27 halves the speed when you put 4 batteries in, there's no time advantage to having 4 spots. I wish someone made a <70g 2 x AA charger that charges at 1550mA.

[Mike W]

>> I'm unclear on how you actually charge AA's inside this device. <<

Dan –

The charger comes with a cable that has a standard USB connector that goes to the wall (USB wall plug required, same as your mini) and the little adapter end piece (supplied) fits on the other end. One of the end pieces is a standard mini USB and as you can see in the first photo, the device has both large and small USB ports. Mini USB is for power "in" and Standard USB is for power "out". The multiple ends work with various devices. In my case, there is a little "flat" mini usb end piece that plugs onto the end of the supplied cable that fits my inReach SE, so I don't have to carry the cable that came with the inReach (saves me 1.5 oz).

[Derek M.]

"Unfortunately Sanyo's 55g USB 2 x AA Compact charger takes 6.2hrs for two high capacity AA's which means hanging out in town all day even for 2 batteries."

Dan,
Bear in mind that the stated charge times for all these different chargers you are looking at are actually the time it takes to charge the batteries to 100%… But charging a battery is not a linear affair. What am I getting at?

Well, you will be able to charge your batteries to, say, 80% in much less time than it takes to get to 100%. You get diminishing return in terms of charging effort the closer you try to get the batteries to full capacity.

The upshot of all of this is that you could just charge the batteries for however long you are in town, and if your stay happens to be at least a few hours then you are very likely to get the batteries more than 3/4 charged. And since you are using high capacity batteries, you will probably be fine with this sub-100% charge for most of the PCT (where you probably won't need your headlamp for more than 1 hour per day).

Just some more food for thought! :)

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Fair enough. Good point.

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