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Comment by joaodlf | Hacker News Reader

An Anker Power Bank (24,000mAh) has a £40 discount right now on Amazon UK.

This is a really nice piece of tech that has helped me to work outside the house with peace of mind. Can keep my phone charged (which I use for tethering) for over a week, no problem. Drains way quicker when charging my M1, but that one has far less battery issues when compared to my phone.

The discount is real, as well. I know because I bought it recently, but you can also check it against camelcamelcamel or keepa.

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Anyone else bothered that they do not specify the energy in watt-hour? Back when USB was 5V it was pretty easy to do the conversion from Ah, how does it work now that USB can negotiate voltage dynamically?

The official Anker response on Amazon UK Q&A is "86.4Wh" But yes, it is annoying.

You should be able to calculate the watt hours based on the voltage of the internal batteries. Its likely a 3.7v lithium, so this anker bank would be 3.7v x 24,000mAh = 88.8Wh

The issue is comparable to mileage numbers... I dont trust that at all.

Usually they just multiply the number of cells with their "rated" mAh-value, but who knows what their cutoff voltage is. Also you need to integrate over the voltage (which keeps falling during discharge) and the discharge graph also depends on how much power you draw. Then the 4.2V=>5V (or 9..19V for USB PD) conversion losses are also not counted.

Anker does specify the Wh ratings. Just on the battery itself, not the website. In flyspeck 2.8pt size font (I just checked with my Peak 10x inspection loupe with reticule, the characters are exactly 1mm x-height), dark gray on black for maximum unreadability, that needs a microscope to read. On my 737, it says 86.4 Wh.

If anyone is thinking of buying a power bank, I strongly recommend those ones that can also start a car. Way less hassle than jumper cables

Can you give an example of one? It blows my mind that this is possible - I mean not the technology exactly, that makes sense, but just that something reasonably portable that I would carry around in case my phone dies can also have the level of utility of jumping my vehicle in a pinch.

The future is pretty cool.

The battery packs for jumping cars (at least the ones I've seen) are generally more of a size appropriate for putting in a trunk than a backpack or pocket.

They put mini jumper cable connectors on the pocket-sized ones now.

I had one a while ago when road tripping in the US, served me a few times, it won't fit in your average jeans pocket but it easily fits in a jacket, you could fit 20+ in your glovebox

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/rP7cR7ffBYrpfZ2Yz7FHdE.jpg

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0096/6764/1402/products/AC...

This type of thing: https://www.amazon.com/NOCO-GB40-UltraSafe-Lithium-Starter/d...

I’ve used some of the NoCo ones for years and happy with them. The Drive has conveniently listed the Black Friday deals!

https://www.thedrive.com/news/black-friday-amazon-noco-jumps...

I've had one for each car since ~2017. I have a portable air compressor that goes with us on camping trips, too. Highly recommended.

I've jump started lots of cars over the past 30 years and was super skeptical of these at first. They are pretty incredible. 3-4 starts off of one charge easily and make for a hell of a battery pack.

Just mind the size because they are quite a bit chunkier than average power packs.

edit: I’ve bought a few of these as gifts. I *strongly* prefer the ones with a molded softshell case to manage the jumpers. I haven’t found any from a well-known brand that weren’t just re-badged noname products with a big mark up. Project Farm on YouTube has some of the best product reviews out there, it looks like he’s done a bit of a bake off, might be worth your while watching if you’re looking at these.

I bought one off of Amazon that stopped working after three months, extraordinarily frustrating. Hard to find a decent brand since they all seem to be cheap junk.

This thread reminded me that I was thinking about picking one up, I just looked again and it’s almost impossible to pick from the offerings that are out there.

That does look like a good discount, but in the US it's still pretty pricey ($100). For my needs, the 535 looks like a better deal — it's $50 and has 30W max. Fine for my M2 MBA and certainly my iPhone and other peripherals. It's 20k instead of 24k, but it's half the price and still has USB-C. Not a bad deal!

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerCore-Portable-Charger-Micr...

is this the 140w one that you have?

Yep, the one with the handy digital display.

That's a feature I wish all batteries had. The 737 is twice the weight of my Nitecore NB20000 for not much extra capacity, and I don't have a laptop that draws more then 45W anyway, but I got it for that one feature alone.

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