New lightest battery Anker Powercore 10000

[Cameron M]

The new Anker Powercore clocks in at 6.4 oz for 10000mAh. This is the lightest in the category around 10000. Output is 2.4 amps, input a minimum of 2 amps.

[Mitchell Ebbott]

Efficiency is 60-70%. Still an impressive feat, and probably one of the best options for a power-hungry backpacker.

[Thomas Willard]

I have both the Anker 10,000 and the RAVpower 9,000.  I like them both.  I feel like the RAV gives me more charges than the Anker.  I haven’t done any head to head tests yet but I am going to soon as I need to figure out which I’m taking on my thru hike.

The best part of the RAV is the wall outlet and apple lightning wire are built in.  The best part about the Anker is it’s lighter weight and allegedly has 1,000 more mah.

[Cameron M]

One can well imagine some power or efficiency trade-off to get the Anker both lighter and smaller (6.4 oz vs 8.6.) I recall dimly that the older Ankers produced around 73% efficiency, not sure, but the claims for the RAV online are closer to 82%. A test would be good. You could argue the weight advantage of incorporating the cable and charger, and the charger is fast, which is a real advantage as faster chargers are even heavier. On the other hand there is the general rule that multi-purpose items might introduce more of a failure risk. At any rate the battery vs solar calculation just got a bit stiffer.

[bjc]

My Anker 10000 arrives tomorrow and I leave for the AT Tuesday morning early. Using it with a Galaxy S6 so when I can I will post my experience with it after some use. Not my original plan to try on the run, but I seem to lose things! I know my planned battery will be found after I leave!

[Mark Fowler]

Looking at the images Anker have used 3 x 3400mAh 18650 batteries in the new 10000Ah charger rather than 4 x 2600Ah batteries which are the common bulk 18650 batteries found in many chargers.

[Eric Osburn]

I used some Amex rewards points and picked it up off of Amazon for free. Looking forward to testing it out. I have a smaller 5200mAh battery pack that does a great job but comes up just a little short of the capacity I would like. It weighs 145g vs this pack at ~ 182g so not a huge difference for double the capacity. This battery pack will be overkill but will also allow me to be less careful with battery consumption. Thanks for the head’s up.

 

[Cameron M]

I have verified that the new Powercore 10000 gets exactly four iPhone 6 charges. That’s 72% efficiency.

Mine weighs 6.3 oz.

There is a RAVpower 10050 that they claim is 6.2 oz, but they also only claim 3.6 iPhone charges.

[Matthew / BPL]

Amazon’s page says it will charge from empty in 3 hours via 2amp usb which is very impressive. Can anyone verify the claimed charge time?

[Jerry Adams]

Okay, at the risk of picking nits

Battery is 3.6 volts or whatever.  USB is 5 volts.  The amp-hours of USB voltage will be reduced by factor of 3.6/5 to do this conversion.  USB chargers are always speced at the mAh of the Lithium battery.  This is not inefficiency.  Some conservation law.

When you take this into account chargers are more like 90% efficient.

[Richie S]

Well you buggers made me go order one.

 

[Richard Nisley]

Cameron,

I tested the Anker PowerCore 10000 battery and mine weighed 6.5 oz. versus the 6.4 oz. spec.

Regarding output efficiency it tested 86%. The formula is rated_capacity*3.6/5*efficiency -> expected_output_capacity.

[Richard Nisley]

Matthew,

You said, “Amazon’s page says it will charge from empty in 3 hours via 2amp usb which is very impressive. Can anyone verify the claimed charge time?”

I tested this battery’s charge time at between 6 and 7 hours. My best result was 6.1 hours with a 2.4A charger and 6″ 18AWG micro USB cable. Although the charge rate starts at 2100 mAh,  it only averages 1680 mAh at 50%, and 800 mAh at 75%. What is the URL and location of the erroneous 3 hr 2A charge time report?

 

[Matthew / BPL]

Richard,

My error. I was looking at the 10,000mah Powercore+ not the normal Powercore. This model weighs 10.9 ounces. Bummer.

http://www.amazon.com/Powerful-10000mAh-Anker-PowerCore-Technology/dp/B013HSQXZC/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1462744015&sr=8-8&keywords=anker+powercore

[Jerry Adams]

That sounds right Richard.  86% efficiency is pretty good.

[Cameron M]

-My best charging time has been 8 hours- Sorta long.

-Mine weighs at 180g- that’s 6.35 oz. Different from what Richard reports or the manufacturer website

-Picking at Jerry’s nits, I list “efficiency” as the ratio of stated battery to user battery. So a user might expect 7200mAh equivalent when judging their device battery size. We can find a different term than efficiency, but you get the point.

[Richard Nisley]

Cameron,

The output capacity measurement will vary with the discharge rate. I used a fixed load so as to draw 1800 mAh hour to simulate an average iPhone 6+ draw. The total mAh out was 6223. Did you use a fixed load or a variable load (device)?

Battery specs versus the ACTUAL output capacity, as well as weight, can be quite different. Most UL backpackers just make a decision based on dividing the published capacity by the published weight… WRONG.

[Jerry Adams]

I got one of these http://www.amazon.com/Soondar%C2%AE-USB-Voltage-Current-Multimeter/dp/B00ORN78WE/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1462854071&sr=8-12&keywords=usb+meter

Measures the voltage and current.  That and a timer will give you watt hours.

Someone here turned me onto it

Or they have more expensive meters that will calculate watt hours directly

[Cameron M]

Hi Richard. I started up an iPhone 6 from zero four times. I suspected that charging from 30% or 60% would not be an accurate measure, so I made sure to go from zero. So I can claim that this battery will charge up an iPhone 6 exactly four times. Looks like those Android people will just have to do their own tests :)

[Richard Nisley]

Jerry,

The issue with a meter like you referenced is that the current draw of a device like a smart phone will change with the charge level. To determine its battery capacity with your device, you need to, periodically measure the amps and volts, take the product, and average it with the prior readings.

Let an 8 bit microprocessor do the grunt work for you. A typical price versus your $6.92 device is $11.99 on eBay or $14.53 on Amazon. In addition, you need to buy a constant current variable load to determine the real discharge rates and capacities for batteries. I sense some reviews coming…

[Richard May]

I’ve been looking at the Proda 30000mAh (WTF!) power bank that weighs in at 259g (9.1oz). More than I need really, but the weight to power ratio looks pretty darn good.

[Jerry Adams]

Funny how we’re comparing $7 vs $15.  Stuff is so cheap.

Yeah, one that calculates the watt hours would be easier to use

I’ve used a USB fan so it has constant load

[Mark Fowler]

Bet you the Proda it is not 30000mAh.  259g is about 4 18650 batteries + case so you may, if you are really lucky get 10000mAh.

[ben .]

hopefully this isn’t too far off the original topic: has anyone else noticed that a “full” charge off an anker-style battery isn’t as “full” as one from a wall outlet?

speaking specifically, i have an iphone 6 and a jackery fit. (i originally bought an anker that was dead on deliver, so i tried a different brand with the same specs.)

when testing the battery at home, a “100%” iphone charge from the jackery very clearly runs down faster than a 100% charge from the wall.

i’ve used it while backpacking and have been happy enough with it since i don’t use my phone extensively out there anyway, but it’s something i’ve noticed and wondered if anyone else has noticed something similar and/or knows why this happens.

[Jim C]

Ben,

Unless the battery level indicator on the iPhone is inaccurate, I’d say there must be be some usage difference that accounts for the run down time. How many times have you tried this test and gotten these results? I’ll bet that in a more controlled test (e.g., before disconnecting from power, shut down all apps, and restart the phone. Then, run a controlled test like playing a video on loop), you’d get the approximately the same 100-0% time in both cases.

Electrons are electrons, and a phone isn’t going to know or care if they came from your wall charger or a battery, so I’d experiment some more if you’re curious, and look for a different explanation.

[Author]

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