Ok, not the most imaginative titles I’ve ever devised, but I have little communication from the company (Bonic) who sent this power pack to me – so basically I’ll give you some headline specs and photos I took this morning. As this is the first item I’ve received in the mail since arriving in Spain at the weekend I can afford to give them some space on the blog. Here’s their Amazon link.
The IESAFY is a sizeable power pack complete with 4 foldable solar panels, 2 USB outputs and a micro-USB input – so not the latest tech in the world but solid-looking. I remember having a so-called solar battery pack years ago – on investigation the one panel could put in about 100ma – and as I was in the UK at the time, not even that – it was therefore utterly useless.
By contrast, this beast arrived this morning here in Southern Spain on the last of a short spell of sunny days (rain for the rest of the week it seems) so the very first thing I did was open up the folded panels, stick the unit on a bench outside along with some solar lights for a “solar charging morning”.
The result, the unit is showing a full set of blue indicators lights (I’m fairly sure at least one was lit up when I opened the box – probably more) and I’m ready to go – thanks to the upcoming weather the beach trip will have to wait a while.
The IESAFY claims to have a waterproof cover and it certainly LOOKS at least shower-resistant. There’s a panel on the outside (when folded) which at the long-press of the only button on the unit, lights up and would do for a general purpose (though not ridiculously bright) torch. Another long-press and it’s off.
According to the spec, inside is a 26,800maH battery. The solar specification is a bit vague, claiming 300ma for a single panel but there are four of them, so the only way I’ll get to the bottom of this is actual use – after a great (if short) day of sun, we don’t expect any sun now until this time next week, though weather forecasts around here are invariably over-pessimistic.
March 22, 2022 – we’ve still (unusually) had only minimal sunshine so I’ve had no excuse to go anywhere and give this solar charger a good hammering – maybe in April.
The company are claiming 1,200maH solar charge – that’s still at least 2 full days to completely charge the battery depending on where you live – of course there is always the USB charge option (claimed input 2A@5v max – a lead is supplied but not a charger). Outputs are able to handle 2.1A max each with an overall maximum of 2.4A.
Mustn’t forget the included “free gift” – a keychain compass. Finally, I’ll just add this for the sake of it: I have a 2M roll of USB-powered RGB LEDs (with remote) sitting doing nothing.. so I left them plugged into the power pack yesterday afternoon – it’s now 9am the next morning (March 3, 2022) – battery indicator still half full – these have been running in full brilliance RED all night (mainly as I forgot about them). Not very scientific but hey…
OK I put in a link at the top of this article – which is universal (Spain says out of stock, others not necessarily) – here are two more: USA link – Germany link.
Update October 2022
I really hope this blog entry wasn’t too successful – months later I just pulled out this battery unit and gave it an overnight USB charge (3A supply) – result – only 2 blue bars – also in August, after a couple of days of sunlight it would only charge my phone once despite it’s size and the multi-layer solar panels (and remember, Spanish sun is HOT).. not impressed.