Better than a power station? Lighter, cheaper micro power system 

I already got the Anker 737 Power Bank and good USB-C cables and will buy the rest to take it with me hiking and bikepacking. Thanks for testing :) Greetings from Germany.

Giving you a like specifically for giving out accurate useful battery info, more people need to understand how to maintain their batteries.

Fantastic review! The detailed camera close-ups directly from the screen set this apart from most reviews, providing a unique and valuable perspective. I recently acquired the 737 for 90 euros through a warehouse deal, and it has been an unequivocally satisfying purchase without a moment of regret.

Just found this video and this is a great idea. I have been running almost this exact same setup for the last couple years, and I'll let you know what I've been doing just to give you another use case to consider. I like to use 18650 batteries, which can be found in just about everything that uses a lot of power. (laptops, power tools, hover boards, etc...) These batteries become the backbone for all devices that I use when out in nature. (flashlights, radios, battery packs) Battery packs! yes you can buy USB-C PD battery packs that support swappable 18650 batteries; I like the XTAR PB2S, but I'm sure there are others. Then I can charge these batteries directly, and once full, place them in the devices that need them. The benefit here is that I'm not using a power bank as a middle man to then charge something else, I'm using the power bank as the primary charger of the batteries that I need charged. I can then just swap the fully charged batteries with the depleted ones, and I'm good to go for another couple days/weeks depending on what they go in. This system has worked really well for me, and I hope this is valuable info for you as well. Thanks!

Love your nerdy-ness (in massive good way). Was not looking for any of this, but good to know I can buy this. Thx mate!

Todds reviews are top notch!!! Always articulate commentary, thank you

Thanks Todd! Been looking at the 737 for awhile now, with plans to probably buy. Now you have given some great suggestions as to how to make it a real DC power station.

Thanks for the demo and info, I have a Anker 737, and could see additional potential with your video. Awesome. Have a great day

Hey Todd! Just found your channel after a research coma about a portable power solution for my laptop when bicycle touring. Your videos are extremely helpful so far, and from a high level when it comes to detail and journalistic integrity. Thanks a lot!

Just got into power solutions and was beginning to think of something like this when I saw this video, thank you so much.

This is great insight, I love this perspective

I’ve been looking into a similar solution although charge cycles would have to matter for me at some extra weight just because of the amount of recharging involved, awesome video!

This is such a well researched and nicely presented video! Thanks for the info!

I like the fact that the Eho have three optional charging port which you can alternate between each one. 😎💯💪🏾✊🏾

This video couldn't😊 have been better. Thank you for taking the time. Long time Anker fan!

I've had my 737 for a year now. Next time my school sends us to camp, I'll look into doing this.

Fantastic set up. This maybe exactly what I'm looking for for my travel kit.

Excellent application

I’ve had the 737 for probably close to a year now. It’s the best power bank I’ve used. I travel with it, an Anker GaN 100w charger, and a good usb c cable. With that I can keep my steam deck, MacBook and phone and headphones charged without issue.

Tip: you can press the 737 button twice to enable a special mode that preserves the battery (slower charging / output) 😊

Excellent video Todd. Thanks for the tips ;)

What a great Video! Thanks Todd!

Finally! a video that actually makes sense 👍

That video was spot on! I have been looking for a solution for USB renewable charging for my 60W laptop charger . You gave a pretty decent solution here. looking forward for your solar panels review, as I’m into one as well

Thanks Todd, excellent as usual. Thanks for doing the research for me that will allow us to up what we can offer to PCT hikers. Not everything is about the latest high powered systems. Ultralight backpacking keeps getting bigger & it's very much about weight. Oops, forgot about the comment below, thought I did that under my wife's acct when we watched it on her computer. (But I'm sure you don't mind another comment ;-)

Thanks you have done something I have wanted to do for a while

this one is quite practical and perfect for camping, thanks fyi !

Great audio! Great content! Bravo!

I am a huge fan of Anker products. I think they almost sell by themself.

Wow! I knew none of this. Thank you!!

Thank you for sharing this

Excellent concept 😎👍🏻

I like that you can keep this in your day pack for the electronics you use running errands and going to/at/from work plus longer commutes. You can then leave the larger power stations charging while away and save them for appliance devices you would keep at a home base like medical equipment, coolers or cooking gadgets.

My current setup is the Flexsolar 40w panel + Anker 737 Power Bank (PowerCore 24K). Bought a hard case for the powerbank and a laptop case for the solar panel. I'm really loving it so far.

Great video! I have the same battery, got them for $90 last year during Black Friday (Amazon). PD 3.1 is amazing. I have a 100w solar panel with USB C out that pairs well (but it is not very mobile). Thank you for this video - giving me some ideas!

Funny. I was JUST looking up solar panels to charge my 737 on amazon! Can’t wait to see your solar panel video! Might just wait for the flex solar panel to go on sale.

Wow I have all of those exact things besides the panel. I've thought about it for camping as well, but i just bought more banks since it's lighter than the panels. Both my home and car are all powered by solar, so technically all of my powerbanks are solar charged lol

Great idea, great video

These products are improving every couple of months now 😊

That's cool. I just snagged a EB3A for $146 (refurb w 2yr warranty) & a Dokio 110w panel for $88 w Amazon coupon. Not a great panel but should suffice for my light camping needs. These Ankers you demo should be great for light camping, rec, business trips, etc. Nice review.

Best ankor video on the net 👏

Excellent vid

Great video, I was looking at power stations for emergency use, but a large power bank that can also be taken on a plane makes a lot more practical sense. Do you think you will be testing the Anker Prime 27,650mAh Power Bank (250W)? I guess it's unrealistic at this size, but do you think any

Solid power bank with a stylish display Technical data There are 6 batteries in series, each with 4000 mAh and a nominal voltage of 3.6V together 21.6V This results in a power of 86.4 Wh Fully charged at least 25.2V This is also where the problem of efficiency begins. Anyone familiar with step-down, step-up, buck-boost converters knows that the highest efficiency is only achieved when the voltage difference between input and output is smaller. ___Testing___ ___5V___ Power delivered: 62.4Wh Fully charged (0-100%): 110.3Wh Output efficiency: 72% Charging efficiency: 78.3% Note: At 5V the 737 charges with only max. 0.8A and that takes forever!! ___9V___ Power delivered: 66.2Wh Fully charged (0-100%): 92.2Wh Output efficiency: 76.6% Efficiency loading: 93.7% ___20V____ Power delivered: 79.3Wh Fully charged (0-100%): 92 Wh Output efficiency: 91.8% Efficiency loading: 93.9% ___Loading from an S23 Ultra___ Super fast charging 2.0 is shown but not working because the power bank doesn't support PD PPS like Anker 313 charger. Therefore ALL Samsung and Pixel are charged with only a maximum of 9V 3A = 27W => 24W in practice, which is very disappointing given the high price of the Anker 737. The power bank can fully charge the S23 Ultra 3x from 5% to 100% and then has 2% remaining capacity. ___Conclusion___ The Anker 737 is sleek and the display is nice, but the form factor is awkward. The Ugreen fits better in a pocket or backpack. When charging smartphones or tablets, efficiency suffers, 72-76% is not great. As an application scenario, the is more suitable for laptops or devices with power delivery from 12V, 15V, 20V. At 20V, the 737 has just under 92% efficiency at rated capacity. ___Problem of the 737___ With a number of devices with Powerdelivery 12V,15V, 20V, the power bank simply switches off and the display shows: ⚠️ UVP - Under Voltage Protection And switches off - so it is unusable. The Ugreen had no problems there.

Interesting concept. Brands and items can be rare to find here in the PHILIPPINES, but Anker does have stores in the malls here.

So I have had the 737 since it came out for travel. I charge mine with the anker 717. 5 mins at an AC outlet lets me recharge my phone from 0 to full, which is why I got it. If they had a 140W 10kmah battery, I'd get it to cut down the weight. I'm also an avid hunting/fishing/camping guy. My RV has solar for the house lithium batteries, but I also want to outfit my truck for solar power+inverter too. I could use the truck's "house" batteries to run all of that stuff. The point of contention I have, which is why I watched this video is the value of an all-in-one box like the power cubes you reference can be used to charge a jump box to start my truck if its primary battery fails. The 737 cannot do this feature. So while it absolutely has utility, it could have more utility in another form-factor. Thank you for posting and sharing your content and original opinions on the space!

I already run the ugreen 145w battery and good cables along with the anker 747 and 737 gan chargers depending on the bag i am carrying. all i need from this list is the solar panel and car charger and i am good to go.

thanks for the content)

recently got a similar setup, thanks in part to this vid. I wanted to something I carry for my batteries, and that is the Fenix ARE-D1. this tool can charge and discharge batteries making my flashlight battery charge other things in a pinch. nitecore 18650s are starting to have a type C charge port directly in the battery which gives you another "safety net" for a failure point. I've worn out a charge port on more than one phone, so I've switched to magnetic chargers. another trinket ive found are silicone plugs for ports that arent being used much, like headphone jack, USB, and type C. just be mindful that these ports in larger devices may help slightly with airflow/cooling.

Excellent!

I'm pretty sure speed only affects battery longevity as far as it overheats the battery. It is very possible that they manage heat very well, not making it an issue.

Wow. Tnx!

I got the Apple 140w charger, apparently Apple’s only GaN charger. Recharges the 737 quickly. I don’t use a solar panel, as you say, theyare too wimpy. I use it mainly on public transport. I also have a smaller Anker one with the percentage display.

Just picked up the big blue solarpowa 30w to create a similar kind of setup but using Anker 548 and 733 instead. First trial will be camping next week! Looking forward to hearing your opinion on it he bigblue 👍

After being stuck with no power camping i bought the anker 737 and after this video the flexsolar and 140 w type c cables lol i am set if the world ends lol

Best purchase I made in 2022

I got a 100W one. There were higher ones available but they were based on Li Po batteries. This one is atleast based on Li Ion cells. The purpose is to open the device and extend its cells capacity, as I am already going to have the 18650 based circuitry in it. (I apologise and hope this idea does not get you into trouble with the company sponsorship). The most awaited plus point of these powerbanks is that they now get recharged at the same speed that of their discharge rate. Just using 100W PD wall charger or higher.

If this option is the default for performance can you list a higher capacity with similar performance and a lesser one for those of us who don't understand all the specs? I'd love to know a lighter version and a higher one. I still might pick this one up as I already gave that same panel but I love options. Thanks for this awesome video!

The Anker power bank is one of the best I’ve used. Charges a 16 inch MacBook Pro at full power, and it can also charge V-Mount Batteries that I use for work.

I bought it at the $99 price too!

Btw, Jackery recently released the Explorer 100 Plus, it is a 99Wh LFP powerbank with 2 USB-C and 1 USB-A ports. It also appears to come with an adapter for solar charging

Great idea and excellent video production quality and presentation! I have built similar setup to your backpacking variant last year and I agree that small power banks aren't as practical. I actually have BlueTTI power stack, 8kWh capacity and 2.3kW of solar, for off-grid, but I used Flexsolar 20W and Belkin 20Ah power bank for hiking and light usage in car. I would use Flexsolar 40W or even bigger panel specifically for usage in car, except now I can just take AC200max which gives me weeks of autonomy, depending on loads, and then recharge it with large solar array when I am back. Because my portable off-grid I don't have usage for mid-range setup, but in principle it is an excellent idea!

I build my own PowerStation. It only has 22Ah of capacity, but a regular wall socket and some USB-PD sockets.

Great to see so many products on the market now when it was all a strange black art a few years back. Anyway, I like everything you told us - but just to chuck a spanner in the works - what would you suggest for also powering my e-bike?

Great Video, something told me to sell my EB3a, this might be the reason

Hi, very intersting setup. Can you show, how solar panel charge anker with different power depending from sun light? In my expirience with over powerbank some of them have upstairs voltage current charge, and solar panel can produce 25w, but powerbank can just get 8w and from 30w

Nice👍

What an awesome setup!!! Thank you for the video! Have you considered using anker powerhouse 100 which has an ac outlet!???

Excellent presentation!

The anker 737 goes on sale on amazon on 70$ quite often.

Todd, thank you for the video! What backpack do you use?

Did you have a great portable microphone or did you do a perfect ADR?

I have almost the exact same system. Had a large power station and the battery failed 2 months after the warranty expired. I now have several powerpacks of the 737 type and size. As you say fast, light and not so expensive when they go wrong.

I am in the process of looking for the best solarpanel - powerbank combo for backpacking. I recently bought the 737 and I really love the detailed display and the fast charging. I do not like the weight though. Finding a good solar panel proves to be much harder though. The last one that I tried was the SunnyBag 21W, but they are all quite heavy. Aren't there lighter materials for the backing of the panels available that offer the same stiffness? I am looking forward to your panel video.

Wondering if you have tried any of those power banks you see on Amazon with built in solar panels? A lot of 30-40k ones, and whilst I assume they charge slower because less coverage, they have a bigger capacity and smaller footprint so could be good for camping.

Great review Todd!! I'm using Anker 737 now. Do you this is there any reason to switch to the newer Anker Prime 250w?

Do you think that more devices will eventually take advantage of the USB-C PD standard?? Right now we either have little USB-A loads or 120VAC loads, but other than some computers/tablets/phones nothing else that i've seen. Maybe a bigger fan? A work light? A TV?

So when you dropping the solar testing result video for those awesome little panels!?

dang i wish i saw tis before i bought my jackery a week ago. At least i got it on sale for 160$ (the entry level explorer 300). while it is a lot bulkier i dont have solar ATM so it will be nice to have 80,000 Mha equivilant for charging our phones, camera batteries and other accessories while at primitive camp sites. Should last us a few days i hope.

Still won't run a cpap though and my eb3a does for 2 nights with a 12v adapter no problems without charging at all. Add solar and its near endless. The inverter can go nonstop while the sun is up. This micro setup is great if all you need it to charge a phone, but honestly you could probably pick just the solar or battery for that and not both saving more money and weight.

Have the USB solar panels been tested on the power stations, I wash because my 24w Anker solar panel will not charge my Anker 521 which would of been useful for alittle charge especially when the power went out.

Its reasuring that I went through the same pain researching solar panals and came to the same result! It says its really durable, I didnt think it would be THIS durable. My only complaint, well not even really that, i cant run my macbook directly off of it. My guess is that the mac is expecting 65w and this can only supply 40 max, when it tries it seems to trip a limiter in the panel causing it to reset continually.

My eb3a was 180 and a 120w cloth weatherproof foldable briefcase Solar was 120 for total of 300. I also get about 230 plus watts out of eb3a before time to recharge.. Why would I buy an anker 24000mah pack for hundred dollars? That puts out 74 watts or so then try to charge it slowly with a 40 watt panel?

This setup is exactly what I’ve been exploring recently! Researched power banks specifications, PD, interfaces and then started researching charging back up via solar! I think it’s a viable option for an individual power solution without A/C! Also, with a charging (USB-C PD 3.x) should 100W solar panel? Aside from cost, I imagine better charge time. Thoughts?

Just a question, hoping to get an answer, especially in the current state of the world we're in right now. How important are these power sources in this day and age? Speaking from someone who is considering maybe starting a business with these types of products

i love PD

Have you looked at the Anker 537?

Newbie question here but wouldn’t you need a fairly long cable to connect the panels to bank? I’d assume the bank itself needs to somewhat be in shade and not direct light/heat

Maybe I missed something but I think you said some thing about the bigger power packs being able to run a fridge or a CPAP machine but not for very long. I assume with the smaller one you wouldn’t be able to run either of those right? Are used to have a 10,000 or 15,000 mA hour battery bank that had a place to plug in an AC plug but unfortunately I lost it before. I really had a chance to use it. I really don’t know how long it would have ran some thing like a refrigerator, but I would assume not very long for something of that size.

So in hindsight after doing all the solar panel tests, would you recommend the bigblue 30W panel rather than the flexsolar 40W in this vid? Thanks

Nice, I've been thinking of doing the same but with the anker 548 it's alittle larger but the battery is LFP witch you can get alot more cycles and is safer, can be charged solar aswell !

@Todd Parker Here is one thing many people don’t understand about power banks. Fast charging and discharging capability degrades the battery very very quickly. I bought a previous version of top of the line Anker power bank being happy that it will quickly change my iPad and 13 MacBook on the go. I haven’t actually used it very much for that purpose. I mostly charged it quickly with a 65w charger. 1.5 years later I noticed a decline in performance. I did an actual test and realized that the power bank holds only about 30% of its rated capacity. You can never expect 100% but 30% of the rated capacity is excessive after seldom use for 1.5 years. Fast charging and discharging power banks degrade very very quickly. The anker power bank at the time of purchase cost me around 140$ I bought a 26,800mah power bank on Amazon for around 30$. Weighs 15.2 Oz. Three usb outputs, one usb c output and one lighting charging input. I think for camping, safety bag, etc this is a much better solution. Holds charge for a very long time.

Does Anker not make a 140W wall charger? I have one that is 100W, so being a huge fan of Anker, I may go with their wall charger. Looking at getting a setup like this to keep in my 511 LV10 Sling pack. I have "travel packs" like this setup for myself, my wife, and my son. They are in Maxpedition pouches and include the wall chargers, Anker wall chargers, Anker battery packs and multiple cables, but this would also charge my tablet as well as my laptop, so it may be time to upgrade!

If you had to choose a PowerBank with a Car Jump Start capacity, would suggest any you like? Since, one is carrying a powerbank, why not choose one with more capability. Thanks.

Thanks for the video. Do you know of a slightly larger foldable panel that the USB-C supplies more ? Weird that this is a 40 watt panel, yet the USB-C PD port maxes @ 18 Watts.

Wish they would add 1/4-20 threads to these things to mount to things.

The only thing I would do differently is instead of the battery pack, I'd think about adding a jump pack Fanttik T8 APEX 2000 Amp Jump Starter, 20000mAh. Then, at least you could jumpstart your car. I'm sure there might be something better, but I have this and have no complaints.

Just looked on their site they make a 250W | 27,650mAh

need to find power banks with ppt and xt60

I actually came here for the only piece of information you didnt give. How long did it take the solar panels to charge the power bank?