What Solar Panel?

[Latebloomer]

Wondering what guys use for solar panels to keep all devices charged in the backcountry? I want to get a dark energy power pack, but don’t think one charge will keep my phone/Inreach charged for 5 days. Below is what I bought.

Anker 515 Solar Panel (24W Flexible)

Ultra-Thin and Flexible: Built with CIGS, a type of thin-film solar material that offers greater flexibility than other solar cells while retaining durability. Fast Charging: Give your phone, tablet, or other mobile devices up to a 12W charge in optimal sunlight conditions with this portable...

www.anker.com

 

[croben]

I used the Ryno Tuff 21w this last season and had good luck with it.

 

[snowymtnwolf]

Didn’t read good reviews on some of the big names (& big prices).

Went with good reviews and low price from
Amazon. I think Blue Wave or Blue Ocean (can’t rem).
Wasn’t happy with it being made overseas but sometimes hard to avoid it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[NeedleCrook]

I have a dark energy, the first version. i do think they are any better than an anker. You’re just paying for a name. It looks cool cause it’s camo and in case your going to shoot it with a shot gun or drop it off a cliff??!

but seriously, that’s how theyre marketed. Id save your money and buy an anker or something similar. I have been looking at the solar panel as an option thought. I’ve seen those blue wave or whatever they are on Amazon. Might need to try it out.

 

[NeedleCrook]

10 Best Solar Chargers

Looking for the best solar charger for travel, remote work, or powering your backcountry adventures? Our gear experts have been testing solar panels for...

www.outdoorgearlab.com

 

[camelcluch]

I have the older version of the anker. It’s fine. Solar panels are a bit slow but I was able to charge my 16000 power bank with it.

 

[TreeWalking]

I had this question. Autumn hunts mean a lot less minutes of daylight than summer. Hunt camps can be tucked back in the trees. Skies are often cloudy if not socked in with foul weather.

An engineer I know said to trade off packing in a solar panel to pack in a charged moped battery. I was going in solo 11 miles into the wilderness so weight was a consideration though not a "cut off the end of the toothbrush" situation since had a guy with horses dropping me off. Grizzly country. I took in my sat phone, cell phone, gps and InReach. No bear fence and battery. No handgun.

I figured out a brick would be enough for 11 days for those devices and that proved true. I never tried to calculate if the moped battery held more juice that the brick I had.

 

[Desk Jockey]

not to make this one of those "you asked about apples but you should go oranges" replies, but I have a goal zero nomad 10 or 20. It works OK but needs a lot of hours of good sun to charge a device. After trying it a few times, I rarely use it on hunts. it takes a long time to charge a device and needs to be done during the day when you likely need to use the device so I ended up bringing a battery pack that I charged during the day and then used to charge the device at night. Based on that I came to the opinion that a few charger packs are better for most of my applications, apart from really long trips (+5 days) in remote areas.

FWIW - I use and still have a dark energy charger and they are great and work as advertised. Durable as hell and built like tanks. but they are $100 and they weigh 10oz. For the cost and the weight, I tend to favor ankers in a zip lock bag. Weight is going to be about half of dark energy and they are pretty durable if you are reasonably careful. For longer trips, I actually prefer to have 2-3 10000mAH chargers so if one dies, I still have juice.

 

[mcseal2]

I've been good on my AK hunts from 7-12 days with an Anker 26500 battery pack plus a 10K Dark Energy. I bought both around 2017 I think and they still work well. I keep the Anker in a gallon ziplock and use it at camp, just carry the 10k in my pack for use during the day's hunt.

I have solar panels from Anker and Goal Zero and they all work. I just don't find that I get enough use out of them on most hunting trips to make them worth the weight. Truck camping, fishing, antelope hunts, times when there are a lot of hours of good sunlight it's different. My hunting camps are usually tucked out of the wind in the timber and there just isn't enough sun. Usually it's better for me to pack more battery power and not worry about solar for hunts.

This last trip to Kodiak I did take an extra big 30k battery bank since we had the weight allowance to have more. I went through more battery than ever before because I had a pair of Zippo rechargeable hand warmers I use whitetail hunting around home, or for long days on a horse moving cattle in the cold. They eat a lot of juice, I had to quit charging them after they emptied the 30k bank mid-hunt. I still had the other 2 for my usual items.

I'm normally charging a phone (airplane mode w/ Onx and reading via Kindle before bed), Steripen, headlamp, In Reach, and a sometimes a Streamlight Microstream lantern for the cook tarp.

 

[Beendare]

I have a goal zero..…make me an offer…its a waste of time.
I just bring an Anker backup battery

 

[Churro]

Nitecore nb20000 worked fine for me. If worried, bring 2.

 

[Dented]

Needlecrook tagged the review I used. I ordered the Big Blue 3, works exactly like they said, both good and bad. I may order a second, but right now I've got enough battery storage and this panel to keep everything I need running.

For true back country, I dump every piece of electronics that I can. I get to much of that shit in day to day life. I certainly don't want to drag it into the woods with me.

 

[pcrossett]

I had mentioned this in a previous post but I carry the mpowerd luci pro series lantern which works both as a power station and lantern. It does a decent job of charging during the day with the little solar panel and works great as a lantern around camp at night. Kept my phone and headlamp charged but I was also not charging both from being completely dead every day so I am not sure the total capacity and how that would compare to your use.