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Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

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Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#41

Post by matwood »

Zanni wrote: post #2

Why your [ultra-light hiker] friend suddenly has [the world's lightest] power bank. I remember Colin Fletcher, years ago, writing in The Complete Walker about trimming the borders off his paper maps to save weight, which seemed like an insane over-optimization to me. But then, I'm not an ultralight hiker. I am impressed folks are getting their loads down to 10 pounds though.

A guy I knew biked across part of Europe and borrowed a travel book of mine. He bought me a new one when he got back because he would tear out the pages of places he visited in order to lighten his load.

Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#42

Post by Nexxxeh »

Lio wrote: post #35
giantg2 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should be one safety razor - just the blade. Just need a steady hand...

You're budgeting for the weight of a safety razor? Surely the hunting knife you use to kill your dinner when combined with the mirror you use for starting your forraged twig fires, that would be the ultimate solution. ...or just not shave for a few days. I guess you could do that too.

Think of the weight of all the extra hairs though.

Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#43

Post by anonymars »

JohnFen wrote: post #9
Zanni wrote: post #2

Why your [ultra-light hiker] friend suddenly has [the world's lightest] power bank. I remember Colin Fletcher, years ago, writing in The Complete Walker about trimming the borders off his paper maps to save weight, which seemed like an insane over-optimization to me. But then, I'm not an ultralight hiker. I am impressed folks are getting their loads down to 10 pounds though.

That insane over-optimization is how folks are getting down to (and below) 10 pounds. I'm not even remotely an ultralight backpacker, but I do count ounces (no matter what your weight limit is, you can't escape making tradeoffs to stay within it). Your hiking load is a great example of how quickly apparently insignificant quantities can add up. Saving fractions of an ounce multiple times gets you large savings far mo…

The topic reminds me of the .NET core peanut butter improvements:

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/performance-improvemen...

Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#44

Post by [deleted] »

jdblair wrote: post #23
codedokode wrote: post #15

Sorry for being off-topic, but why with all the advanced technology today I have to manually copy ounces and pounds into Google to learn how much it is? Instead of adding dark themes and material design, it would be better to add a unit converter. Also do you really need a power bank for a 2-day trip? In airplane mode a phone can live like 2 weeks.

1 oz =~ 28 grams is a really useful conversion to remember (signed, an American living in Europe)

[deleted]

Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#45

Post by Lio »

Nexxxeh wrote: post #42
Lio wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're budgeting for the weight of a safety razor? Surely the hunting knife you use to kill your dinner when combined with the mirror you use for starting your forraged twig fires, that would be the ultimate solution. ...or just not shave for a few days. I guess you could do that too.

Think of the weight of all the extra hairs though.

That's a good point. Personally, I compensate for that by drinking slighly less water each day.

It's a trade off but I think it makes perfect sense after a few nights of not-sleeping directly on the ground under a miniture dyneema tarp.

Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#46

Post by jauntywundrkind »

Nitecore is somewhat accepted as the best lightweight battery, but they aren't cheap.

10Ah battery is $60, 5.9oz. the 20Ah is 10.2oz and $100. Unlike the Hasbro, it comes close to its rated specification.

My backpacking trips have definitely not needed 20Ah. For two or three nights I can usually get by with a 5000mah, if I shutdown at night and frequently use airplane mode. And my phones are usually getting on, don't have Greta battery life.

Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#47

Post by tshaddox »

nickthegreek wrote: post #26
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #22

Are these actually designed by Haribo? Or is it just a branding on top of a Chinese generic?

I feel comfortable in stating that they are not designed by Haribo, a candy company.

Indeed, but it is odd that it’s apparently only these Haribo batteries with this design. I’d expect them to be white-label products that many companies resell with their own branding.

Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#48

Post by thegrim33 »

cenamus wrote: post #5

20Ah for 23 bucks? Seems like it's almost too good to be true. Wouldn't surprise me if it was just half that, would explain the price and weight.

Man it drives me crazy when people/products use Ah instead of Wh as a way to specify battery "capability".

Without knowing more details about the battery, "20Ah" alone does not convey enough information to determine how long the battery could power a given load for. If I need to power a 100 watt lightbulb, will a 20Ah battery power it for an hour? 10 hours? 10 days? No way to know.

Wh is the unit of stored energy, Wh is what I want to see. Even the official Amazon product page for it doesn't list a Wh figure.

Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#49

Post by delichon »

Nexxxeh wrote: post #42
Lio wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're budgeting for the weight of a safety razor? Surely the hunting knife you use to kill your dinner when combined with the mirror you use for starting your forraged twig fires, that would be the ultimate solution. ...or just not shave for a few days. I guess you could do that too.

Think of the weight of all the extra hairs though.

About 12 days per gram.

Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#50

Post by nunez »

etempleton wrote: post #16
heelix wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll find out if this is true. Hiking buddy of mine pointed it out on Friday, so got one on the way. Was $18 when he called it out, $23 by the time I ordered. Apparently they have a bunch of random stuff like this. They must have some outdoorsy folks in marketing.

Thru hikers just kind of find this stuff. They are obsessed with weight and recommendations spread quickly through word of mouth on the trail and on forums.

Us one-baggers also find the weirdest things, for the same reason.
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