Extra Batteries v. Solar Charger

[GoodToGoGuy]

Hey guys. I was hoping to get some input on some gear options that I am considering. I am planning to eventually go on an out of state, backcountry DIY hunt and have been researching gear like crazy. The question I have is if it is better to carry extra batteries for my gear or rely on a solar charger? Specifically, as far as electronic gear I will be carrying my iPhone, a Garmin GPSMAPS 64s, a Zebralight H600w Mk II, and a camcorder of some sort. I don't have the gps or headlamp yet so I don't know if it would be more effective to carry extra batteries or try to charge them via solar. The solar charger I was looking at is the power monkey extreme. Based on a few videos I have seen of the unit, it takes up to 15 hours of direct sunlight to charge the battery. Does anybody have experience with other ones that would be worth checking out? Thanks!

 

[COlineman78]

I did the math last year with my 18650 system and it depends on the length of the trip, quality of the batteries and amount of use. I concluded that you'd have to be going for over 7 days or using your electronics heavily. For the following I will assume quality batteries ($12-$15 each) and a 7 day trip. For flashlights I will usually only go through 2 batteries on a trip under fairly heavy use. I don't have any experience with that GPS unit, but I wouldn't expect you to have it powered on all that often, so I'd be surprised if you had to charge it more than once. The camera you may have to charge every day or 2 and figure 2 charges per battery. I think 6-8 batteries weigh just about as much as a solar charger. Also, if you're like me you will put your phone in airplane mode and play some games and listen to music when going to bed so you'll need to charge it every couple days too.

I am going up to Canada later this year on a fishing trip and planning on getting a panel (looking at the BioLite right now). This is purely because of the amount I plan to be using my electronics as I will be bringing my new Bluetooth fish finder and tablet as well as a Bluetooth speaker for music when hanging out at the cabin and maybe even out on the boat.

 

[oldgoat]

I think you get a little better charge time with the solar at altitude because the rays are more intense, but I have no idea how much. Last year, I never ended up using the panel I bought as the power pack that came with it lasted as long as the three to four day trips we were on. This year I plan on getting an extra power pack as my wife is running a smart phone GPS also. And I have one extra battery for my phone and a charging cradle. We will probably only do 4 to 5 days in then out for a day then back in, plus we don't go in as far as you young studs do, so I can hike out pretty quick if need be to resupply.

 

[Ruskin]

How long will your trip be? That is a big part of the equation?

Also, your behavior determine how much power you need.

E.g Do you leave your GPS on 24x7 or off until needed because you can navigate with a map.

Eg. Do you burn your headlamp for hours at night in camp or build a fire or use a solar MPower lantern instead.

Eg. Are you making high def movies or snapping 1-2 pics a day

Post those answered and you'll get more perspective.


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[GoodToGoGuy]

How long will your trip be? That is a big part of the equation?

Also, your behavior determine how much power you need.

E.g Do you leave your GPS on 24x7 or off until needed because you can navigate with a map.

Eg. Do you burn your headlamp for hours at night in camp or build a fire or use a solar MPower lantern instead.

Eg. Are you making high def movies or snapping 1-2 pics a day

Post those answered and you'll get more perspective.


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My hunt will probably be 5 days in the field with travel time on the weekends. I have been trained on how to use a map/compass on my Search and Rescue team but never really thought about bringing them on a hunt. I have a pretty good sense of direction and would likely use the GPS to mark my camp, truck, and if I decide to dump my pack. And also maybe even navigating the terrain a little bit or using it to check out something, turning it on and off as needed. I would mainly use my phone for taking pictures/videos and use the onxmap on my phone as well. The camcorder is still something I'm debating on bringing. It would be cool to pair it with the Solvid head cam strap and film my hunt that way. I would likely only be filming very little. Lastly, I probably wouldn't be running my headlight at camp all that much. I have one of those Petzl eLite's that I could use inside my tarp. I'm also considering a Primus Easylight lantern that would be money for when it's dark outside. Headlight would pretty much exclusively be used for hiking out in the dark or if I need to take a leak in the middle of the night. Hope that helps!

 

[Ruskin]

5 days is not that long. I would think about sticking with batteries. Try to get electronics that use the same. For instance, I made some changes so my headlamp, GPS, SPOT and radio all use AA. I take those with new lithium batteries and carry 3 extra. Lithium is expensive, but lasts.

Start with a fresh eLite battery. Get a power pack to charge your cell phone twice and keep the phone in airplane mode. My camera batteries are small, so I take 4 pre-charged. If I go crazy on the camera, I can recharge a camera battery once with the power pack (but in my last 5 day I only used 2 batteries).

This is just my approach. I try to keep it simple in the field and have things ready to go.


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[whiskeysierra762]

Goal Zero user here. The battery pack is rechargeable AA batteries and has an adapter for AAA as well. You can charge any device off the whole pack with a usb cord, or remove the batteries and put them into headlamps, gps, or whatever.
I will leave it set up at camp or I have added tie downs and I can lash it to my pack and charge on the move.

 

[Ruskin]

Oh, and I did get a lantern last season. It was worth it. A small amount of heat and great light inside tipi.


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[COlineman78]

I forgot to mention; my system is all based of 18650s for my headlamp and charger. Research 18650 batteries because there are some really good ones out there but they are always changing so I'm not going to recommend a specific one. If you find one to consider buying google the discharge curve for it to get an idea of how it will perform and you will also usually get a mini review along with it. There is a specific Sony that people loved that I think they just started making again, but I don't remember the model off the top of my head.

I use a Nitecore charger at home and carry one of these for charging my devices off an 18650 in the field:

1) https://www.fasttech.com/products/0...enb-tri18650-1a-3-18650-battery-usb-emergency
2) https://www.fasttech.com/products/1421/10001919/1137904

The first one is sold out, but can be found on ebay. The downside is that it requires 3 batteries to work, but works with every battery. They do make a model that only uses 2 as well. The second one is my go-to, however it is much less forgiving as far as battery size goes and my better batteries don't exactly fit it. My Samsungs are too short and fall out all the time and my Nitecore's are too long and I think I'm going to break the thing one day making them work.

 

[colonel00]

I'll mention something that I'm not sure anyone else has hit on yet. If you are going the solar route, you will still need some sort of battery bank to leave with the solar panel while it's charging. During the day when the sun is out, you are probably out hunting and need your gear with you. So, you would want to setup the solar panel and let it charge a battery pack all day. Then you can recharge your devices at night. So, here lies another thing to think about. If you need to carry that battery pack, perhaps a slightly larger (capacity) one will suffice. I recently picked up a 20,000mah battery because I travel a lot and hate having to huddle around a power outlet in an airport. This thing has some weight but I think would still be less than a smaller battery pack and a solar panel.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X5RV14Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[twall13]

If you are using Onxmaps on your phone I would think you could leave the GPS behind. That would especially be true if you took a compass and maps. I ran a cheap solar charger for a few years but realized after a while that with the poor reliability of being able to sufficiently charge it with the sun I was more relying on the power bank itself. After I realized that I bought 20,000 mAh battery pack to take instead. I think that would be overkill for a shorter trip but there are a lot of options out there and it may be another thing to look into considering the length of trip you have planned.

 

[Dromsky]

The nice thing about extra batteries is you can carry them with you away from camp, my possibles kit always has spares for headlamp and gps and is always with me even in daypack mode.

 

[Ruskin]

Dromsky has a good point. Always carry a set you can swap into your headlamp. Blood trailing on a dying light is the worst. Seems like everything has an led these days (phone, battery pack, even my lighter), but you never know what will happen.


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[inupiat1]

Extra batteries is my favorite option, but if I want to recharge I use BioLite kettlecharge or the stove and or their lamps which have charging capability.

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[stratofisher]

On this subject the big factor is the quality of the solar panel. I paid a little extra for the suntactics panel, but it will recharge my 11k battery pack in an afternoon. Found that this worked well for using my phone as a GPS with Onyx maps. My buddies goal zero seemed to take much longer to charge. In the case of solar there are huge differences in quality.

 

[rbljack]

I have the goal zero solar panel and battery pack. I wonder if they have a charger adapter for the 18650 batteries. If not, I need to a super lightweight single slot charger that can work with the goalzero pack/solar panel. My primary light is the zebralight 600, and my back up light is the h52 which does run on double aa batteries. So if I run out of a charge on the 2 18650 batteries, I can still get by with the H52. the double aa batteries can also be used in my GPS if needed.

 

[Lockster]

Here are the details for a single slot charger that I use, should work off the goal zero.

it is the Klarus CH1, it can charge lithium batteries sized between 10440 and 26650. Will also do Ni-MH from AAA-C sized.

it is the only single slot charger that I could find at the time that :

charged from USB port
charged Li-ion
charged Ni-MH

Its only about 2 inches long and has led lights to indicate if it is charging and when it is full.

It also had another feature listed that I have never used, but apparently you can use charged batteries in it as a tiny power bank, so if you had a charged 18650 for example and you needed to charge your phone you could potentially do so using the phones charger cable plugged into the USB port on the battery charger, it just offers a few more options.

 

[twall13]

I have the goal zero solar panel and battery pack. I wonder if they have a charger adapter for the 18650 batteries. If not, I need to a super lightweight single slot charger that can work with the goalzero pack/solar panel. My primary light is the zebralight 600, and my back up light is the h52 which does run on double aa batteries. So if I run out of a charge on the 2 18650 batteries, I can still get by with the H52. the double aa batteries can also be used in my GPS if needed.

I can't fathom anyone burning through two 18650 batteries on one hunt. How long do you plan on staying out? Do you use you lamp on the high setting all the time? I can easily get through a 7 day hunt on one 18650 with plenty to spare in my zebralight. I've always carried a spare just in case I end up butchering or hauling an elk out in the dark but so far I've never even come close to needing the 2nd battery. I've always got a Petzl E+lite in my bino harness as a backup as well.

 

[Tsnider]

On this subject the big factor is the quality of the solar panel. I paid a little extra for the suntactics panel, but it will recharge my 11k battery pack in an afternoon. Found that this worked well for using my phone as a GPS with Onyx maps. My buddies goal zero seemed to take much longer to charge. In the case of solar there are huge differences in quality.

which one did you buy? i was looking at these, they seem like one of the better choices.

 

[stratofisher]

which one did you buy? i was looking at these, they seem like one of the better choices.

My suntactics solar panels really charge well. Suntactics - Portable Solar Chargers | Reliable-Durable-Compact
Not the cheapest option, but does put out a really good charge. I have the 12W model that they don't make anymore. Now they have an 8 and 14 model. They just cost a bit more than the goal zero stuff.