I carried mail through ice and heat for thirty years on one rural route, and I retired three years ago with a route in my knees and the habit of watching the sky. What I did not have until this past year was a way to charge a phone when I was not standing at my own kitchen counter. That sounds like a small gap in a plan. It stops feeling small at the wrong moment.
The reason I own one at all is a night last April. Two days of rain brought the creek up fast, a deputy came down the road and told the low houses to leave, and we spent one night on cots in a church fellowship hall in town. The wall outlets near our cots were already taken by other families and my phone sat at about 20 percent by morning. In May I bought one BLAVOR Solar Power Bank, 10,000mAh, for my purse. Six months later, here are ten plain reasons it stays there.
What I Carry Now That a Wall Outlet Is Not an Option
One BLAVOR Solar Power Bank, 10,000mAh, 9.3 ounces, clipped to the inside strap of my purse. Six months of ordinary use behind it, filled from the wall, not from the sun.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →A phone at 20 percent on a cot is what started this
I had never owned a power bank of any kind before this one. What I wanted was something small enough to leave the house in a purse, and I picked a solar model so it cannot go completely flat if I forget to charge it. That is the honest version. It has topped up my own phone a handful of times on long errand days in town, always with the cable. Nothing dramatic happened. I just stopped watching the little battery icon the way I used to.
9.3 ounces leaves the house, 7.5 pounds does not
The Jackery in my hall closet is a 7.5 pound box that charges phones and runs a lamp at home. It does that job well and it sits on the closet floor doing it. The BLAVOR is 9.3 ounces and listed as pocket size, so it goes where I go. At home in an outage the Jackery is the phone and light station and the BLAVOR stays in my purse as the spare. Two jobs, and I do not ask either one to do the other.
The wall fills it in about four hours
I charge it from the wall with a USB-C cable on the same four dates I charge the Jackery, the first of March, June, September and December, written on the paper calendar on the refrigerator. The first charge was the day it came in May. The listing says about four hours from the wall. I plug it in and go do something else and it is done before supper. I do not top it up between those dates. It does not need babysitting.
The sun keeps it from going flat, and that is the whole job
One week in June I left it on the back porch rail in the sun most days. The charge indicator went from two lights to three. That is the whole test and the whole promise. The solar panel is a slow trickle and a backup, not the way to fill the thing. Anybody who tells you the sun will top this off in an afternoon is selling something. Charge it from the wall. Let the sun keep it from going flat in the bottom of a bag.
The listing says it charges three devices at once
There is a USB-C port and USB-A ports, and the listing says it charges three devices at once. I have not run three at once, because I have one phone and one use. The listing gives the USB-C output as 20W. More than one connection is handy if a second phone ever needs it.
The wireless pad works when the cable is somewhere else
The Qi wireless pad is on the other face. I tried it once at the kitchen table. It worked fine and it was slower than the cable, so I use the cable. But if your charging cable is at home in a drawer, the pad is still right there and the phone still charges. That is worth having and it is not worth bragging on. I would call it a second way in, not the main road.
Two flashlights live on one end of it
The listing calls them dual bright flashlights and there are two, on one end. I have used them a few times walking from the pickup to the porch after dark. That is a small thing until the porch light is out and your hands are full of grocery sacks. I am not going to tell you it replaces the good flashlight in the kitchen drawer, because it does not. It is the light that is already in your bag.
IPX5 means rain and splashes, not a dunking
The listing says IPX5 water resistant, which means splashes and rain, not a swim in the creek at the bottom of the road. In storm season that is the difference between a battery that works and one that does not, because your hands are wet and the rain is coming sideways. Do not drop it in a puddle to find out. Do not put it in the creek. It is not built for that and the listing never said it was.
It is the spare, not the station
Here is the division of labor at my house. The radio is for news. The Jackery is for phones and light at home. The BLAVOR is for my phone when I am away from home. The food kit is for meals, the water filter is backup, the backpack is for leaving. Nothing overlaps and nothing is asked to do two jobs. It has never been used in an outage, because there has not been one since I bought it in May. I carry it anyway.
The carabiner keeps it on the strap, not in the bottom of the bag
A compass carabiner comes with it and I clipped it to the inside strap of my purse. I have never used the compass. What I use is the clip. When the lights are off and I want the battery, I can put a hand on it without digging through a bag in the dark. That is not a feature anybody puts on a box. It is the reason the thing gets used instead of forgotten.
What I'd Skip
I would skip three things. First, I would skip expecting the sun to fill it. A week on the porch rail moved one light on the indicator, and that is all it moved. Second, I would skip treating the wireless pad as the fast way to charge a phone, because it is not, and the cable is quicker every time. Third, I would skip the notion that 9.3 ounces is weightless. The panel makes it heavier than a plain pocket battery and you will feel it in a small bag. I would also skip calling it a household power plan, because it is a phone battery with a flashlight on the end.
What it will not do matters more than what it will. It will not run a refrigerator, a range, a heat pump or a space heater. Neither will the Jackery, and I have never pretended otherwise. It is one phone, kept alive, in a purse. If a storm is coming, charge everything while the wall still works, keep the radio where you can put a hand on it, and follow your local officials and your utility. If they tell you to leave, leave. No battery in a bag changes that, and I would not want you to think it does.
The solar panel is a slow trickle and a backup, not the way to fill it. Charge it from the wall and let the sun keep it from going flat.
The Battery I Would Put in a Purse Before the Next Ice
9.3 ounces, about four hours from the wall, a solar panel that keeps it from going flat, and a spare for the phone when the house battery stays home. Today's price is on the listing.
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