Phone/Camera Battery charging for 1 week hike

This is the best discussion I have seen on the topic:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=88583&disable_pagination=1

Regardless of how much extra battery juice you bring, you might want to be more concerned about the poor battery retention in your old phone. This summer, my now-older iPhone 4s kept dying and was useless half of my trip, even when it said it had a 50% charge. It could not deal with some combination of cold and altitude above 11,000, but worked fine in similar conditions in years past. Might not apply to where you are going-

Thanks for the link I will check it out.

I am replacing the original 2400mAh battery regardless as it is on the way out. Just wanted thoughts on weather taking 2 (new) batteries that are 3x the charge holding of the original battery is the go to method. :-)

…because it's not coming up with anything to do with battery life :-)

be VERY careful about the ratings of some of those powerbanks … some use very cheap cells

the quality ones will use panasonic/LG/sanyo/samsung internal 18650 cells

figure on a 10-20% loss when charging

another option is to get a battery case/charger and use that as a powerpack with separate 18650 cells

;)

Here is the ones I bought:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/221387525741?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

It doesn't say what cells they are using……

EDIT: What does it mean if I did end up with the cheap ones?

If you want to play music or listen to audiobooks, get the 7th gen ipod nano — 1oz for 30 hours of audio.

As for your phone – if you really have your battery sapping to a minimum, I think you should be lasting well over a week on a single battery with the kind of use you describe. My iPhone 5, not reputed to be the a particularly good battery, gets well over a week on a charge. That's with cell functions completeld disabled, occasional GPS usage, taking a few photos, reading pdf guides.

I assume that you have figured out how to switch off cellphone functions completely, even when you're using GPS? Searching for towers that are not there, even for a short time, drains a lot of juice. And keep it in a pocket near your body at night, cold temps aren't good for the battery life.

"What does it mean if I did end up with the cheap ones?" – mik

1) you got the cheap ones

2) they might not last as long as the battery you replaced… they certainly are not going to give 2-3x the life of your old OEM battery when it was new.

3) there is no one size fits all solution to what you want to do. Swapping out batteries is a pretty good technique (no efficiency loss due to charging one battery from another). See how the batteries you bought will work out for you. Check out if a fully charged battery left out for a week will still be fully charged. Cross your fingers.

1. Cheap batteries can often have very good paper specifications, but they don't necessarily meet them.
2. Cheap batteries often look pretty good on Day One, but quickly all sorts of problems creep in, like high self-discharge. That means that they tend to go dead while sitting on the shelf.
3. As a result of the self-discharge, often they warm up too much while being charged. Similarly, often they take more time to charge up.
4. Self-discharge can get to the point where the battery is unusable after a fairly low number of charge cycles. I've seen a lot of good ones that stayed good after 300 or more cycles, and I've seen some bad ones that were looking weak before 20 cycles.

–B.G.–

there is no way on gods green earth that the bat pack you posted is 6200 mAh at ~3.7v (standard LiOn voltages for many phones)

the best and most efficient common consummer LiOn battery rates 3400-3600 mAh and weights ~45g … these are used in power banks, tesla cars, high end flashlights, ecigs, and laptop bats … they also cost ~10 US each for the bat alone

http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_88&product_id=167

;)

hmmmmm…..I think I've just been had….

I haven't owned a samsung phone but my experience with the iphone 4s is that I can get nearly a week out of it in airplane mode without a re charge. If I take 30ish photos and a half dozen videos per day, and take my phone out of airplane mode a few times to check Gaia GPS ap, I still easily get 4+ days of use without a recharge. Your Samsung May Vary.

Ian – I do exactly the same and get the same results. Airplane mode and then switch when using gps.

I also have some cheap chargers that when new, would charge up the phone from 10% to about 90%. After a year and a half, they provide maybe 30% charge. They cost under $5 each from Amazon.

I can last three days with the 4S, occasional GPS, some music, pictures, kindle at night, when it is not giving me trouble like it did this year. I have heavily used the battery pictured above in the past, and I have actually been able to go from 2% to 85% with it, so that is another 2-3 days. This battery is also good in that it is a charge controller, so I was using a small solar cell with it, and it managed the wildly varying current just fine. It does not "pass-though" while charging. 1.8 oz. But warning: it is flimsy, and despite careful handling, the contacts broke off inside and I was left with a non-functioning charger. If you need any more than an 80% charge, I would consider the small Anker 3200 from Amazon. 1 1/2 charges, 2.8 oz, sturdy.

I've got a couple of the chargers like Gordon showed. Mostly for airline travel, but it's nice to have a recharge option in the woods, too. I've gotten many, many cycles out of them, 50 or more each. They don't hold as much of a charge as they used to, but it is still a useful amount. One of them has a white LED that has a separate switch. I like that little bit of redundancy – it lets me skip having a back-up light.

"take my phone out of airplane mode a few times to check Gaia GPS"

I don't know if this works with iPhone 4S, but on iPhone 5 you can disable all cell services by locking your SIM card.
Airplane Mode will then turn your GPS chip on/off, while your cell services remain off the whole time.
This saves quite a lot of juice while you're checking GPS.

My power drain checklist for iPhone 5 is (iOS 8) is as follows:

Power cycle phone; do not enter SIM card PIN – leave it locked (if you haven't set a PIN, do it under Phone > SIM PIN )
Airplane Mode = ON (when not using GPS)
Wi-Fi = OFF
Bluetooth = OFF
Cellular > Cellular Data = OFF
General > Background App Refresh = OFF
Privacy > Location Services = ON, but remove all non-essential apps
Privacy > Location Services > System Services > everything OFF

I do the same as Ralph with my 4s and can get 5-6 days worth of general use. As far as a battery pack goes, Eric is right – nothing will match an 18650 battery pack for weight and power. Charger, battery and cord would be a little over 2oz. Plus, I think most are rated for something like 1,500 cycles.

We're going to see some huge advances in battery technology in the next 10yrs. Tons of money being spent by both Govt and private enterprise. Exciting stuff.

Ryan

Hello Ryan
Could you confirm that one 18650 3400 mAh battery can deliver a full two iPhone charges, as I have read elsewhere? If so, coming in at 2.8 oz the Miller charger and 3400 mAh battery are the same weight as the Anker battery I mentioned previously but deliver approx. 30% more charge. Better choice.

Which iphone

Remember that the mAh rating for powerpacks and batteries are for the source themselves

When charging other devices figure a 10-20% loss

Which means a 3400 mAH 18650 bat probably transfers less than 3000 mAh to the phone itself

Also make sure you calculate the watt hours

watt hours = amp hours X voltage

This is all simplified of course

;)

I've been using this one for some time with great results:

http://www.amazon.com/Compact-10000mAh-Portable-External-Technology/dp/B009USAJCC/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1415892252&sr=8-4&keywords=anker

They also make a smaller / lighter one for less demanding use. One thing to keep in mind when considering power sources is battery performance as it relates to temperature.