Solar Phone Charger Review | The Facts that you need know
Solar phone charger really do require a real review it far too easy to select a poor model, read this important review before you make any decision to buy.
High Quality Solar Phone Chargers
At present quite frankly the market in solar phone chargers is littered with very poor quality chargers, making extra ordinary claims about battery capacity, which are quite literally impossible, so we decided to do some research, as it seemed that our solar chargers could not compete on price, however we have been selling these units far longer than nearly anyone in the UK, we started in 2008, and have a huge customer base, so we were very curious to know how this was possible!
We have found that a large number of factories (over 80%) are informing their customers of far higher battery capacities than are truly being used in the unit, although they are being very honest with the traders and telling them that in fact this is not true (if asked), we got several quotes from manufacturers, and when we asked them 'what is the real battery capacity?' they openly informed us of the real capacity, which was far lower than the original quoted capacity.
We enquired further and got our factory to get a price for a descent quality standard Lithium Polymer battery and tell us the cost price from the supply factory, the supply factories are huge, and set the standards and price in these units, they informed us that a standard 10,000 mah battery (only the battery) costs $8, this equates to around £5.75.
This price again is only for the battery it does not include the design, solar panel, electronics (including the absolute necessary over charge and discharge protection), manufacturing and assembly, packaging, instructions, storage, local and international shipping, taxes, and duty for the whole solar phone charger, and of course some profit!
When you calculate all of these costs involved for a normal good quality standard solar charger then any 10,000 mah solar phone charger should cost a bare minimum of £16, if it is less than this then it is almost certain that the battery capacity is far less then stated, or that shortcuts have been taken in the electronics, and you are not getting what you paid for.
It is common practice for manufacturers to label a battery as 10,000 mAh but in reality this battery is 8,000 mAh or far less.
Not only this but normally the actual battery is a very cheap model, which in operational tests outputs only 2000 to 3000 mAh because of sub standard materials and manufacturing processes.
At Powerbee we only write the exact specifications, so you get what you pay for, in fact when we stipulate our design we are very careful to use high quality components, and always have for example overcharge and discharge protection as part of our standard safety policy.
Take for example one of our older models which we have now upgraded, the executive solar phone charger, this charger has sold in its tens of thousands, some customers have happily reported that they need to replace their unit after having it for 5 years! That's the difference between a cheap unit and one that is built to last.
Considerations that should be made that include:
How long will the charger take to fill its battery via solar charging?
Cheaper solar phone chargers do not use high quality mono crystalline solar cells which are more efficient; therefore they take a very long time to charge their batteries, and will only charge them on very sunny days. Solar power phone chargers tend to need to be small in their design, as customers want to carry them in their pocket, jacket, bag etc.
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This natural restriction on the size means that you need to have a very efficient panel for them to operate well in the UK. Powerbee Ltd stipulates very high efficiency mono crystalline solar cells, which are 17-18% more efficient in all weather conditions in the UK.
How long is your phone charger going to last?
Buy cheap buy twice is our motto at Powerbee, there seems in this world to be a growing trend where people want to buy cheaper and cheaper products, this is no bad thing as it can increase people's standard of living, however there is a line in the sand which must be drawn. It's not difficult to design a really cheap charger that will at most last one season; we just choose not to do that as it is completely against our principles.
The whole point about a solar battery bank is that it is not only a very handy gadget, which can at times literally save your life, but also it is good for the environment, to make them disposable is to us outrageous.
When the price seems to defy the laws of possibility then you need to be careful. Electronic devices are not the same as a cheap burger from MacDonald's; they do require a certain level of standard safety to be built in to them.
In this life you get what you pay for, if you want a really good quality solar phone charger that is dependable and built to last then please take a look at our solar phone charger range. Powerbee is a name you can trust.
How many times will the solar power charger actually charge your phone.
This is one of the key questions and will tell you whether you have bought a substandard model, if the battery claims 10,000 mAh but only chargers your phone 2 times, then where is the capacity going?
You just need to take the claimed capacity of the charger and divide it by the capacity of your phone, it will give you the rough number of times, that it should charge your phone.
Example of just how handy a solar phone chargers can be (True story!)
Around 7 years ago after a fun night with friends, we came across a group of youngsters sitting on the pavement looking downbeat; I personally asked if they were ok? They had been drinking heavily and had resigned themselves to sleeping on the floor!
I enquired as to why they would do this, a very pretty young girl, told me that she had tried to call her mum and her phone was 'dead'. Powerbee to the rescue I quickly pulled out my trusty solar phone charger and plugged it in, within 5 minutes she was on the phone to her mum arranging a lift :)
I am very proud of this small act, I am sure they would have been ok, but It really highlighted how important these chargers are, this is one of the main reasons we started developing really reliable good quality models.
We really want people to understand that when buying a solar phone charger, like anything else it's best to be informed, with the facts.