Solar Power banks are disappointing. Don't buy them!

2:49:00 AM cc 0 Comments

The world isn't great at the moment. Things are just getting more costly and our income just isn't catching up. I've been researching ways to lower my bills and thought about solar power. Now I don't want the hassle of getting panels on my roof as I've heard some bad experiences of people who had to deal with unresponsive solar companies when they need roof work done. So I looked into portable ones.

 Which ended up me finding that there are power banks with solar charging! I thought this was such a genius idea! There's quite a few on Amazon and I opt to get one of the best selling ones. It was affordable which was a bit suspicious but I went and bought one anyways. 

 Its a lightweight bank and it has mag charge which I do like as I don't need to carry a cable to charge my phone. The manual says it recommends just charging it through an outlet but I got it for the solar charging. Some of the reviews I've read said they were able to charge by sun in a day. I tried and sadly I did not get that.

 I put it on a window that had direct sunlight. I let it sit there for a week and not one charge bar went up. I did leave a 1 star review and was contacted by the seller telling me the solar is just for emergency use. This explanation didn't make sense to me. If its for emergency, it should still charge a decent amount to even power your phone! It be useless in an emergency! 

 I had this thing for months without charging it through an outlet and it still hasn't gone up one charge bar! I left it outside in the sun once it was warm outside and still no one charge bar went up. So I feel these solar power banks might just be a gimmick. Its not the best battery pack either as it charges rather slow. I do like how lightweight it is and it is more weather resistant. 

I don't think any solar banks like this one will ever be able to do what I was hoping for. It might be just too small of a solar panel surface to get enough of a charge. So I'll be looking for portable solar panels instead.