Fast, multi-device charger/power bank?

[Acadie]

We're on day 4 with no power, with repair estimated 9 days after the storm 🥳 I'm pretty sure the pole supplying our neighborhood went down. 

What brands or specs for multi-device charging work for you? With more extreme weather maybe we need to invest in a couple options--one that's higher capacity and heavier, and one suited for travel. Family of 4, iPhones, capacity for other devices and solar option would be great too.

Our storm radio and solar/crank flashlight that allegedly charge phones have been useless, which is disappointing. Also looking into backup generator with our HVAC guy.

[MEmama]

We have a portable generator, though we make sure all our chargers are full before a storm. We can also use the emergency portable battery starter for our car to charge appliances when our generator isn't running.

Im sorry you're going to be out for so long. Did you know they make battery operated shower heads?! I love ours, lol

[prairiewindmomma]

This is what we are looking at:

https://us.ecoflow.com/products/delta-pro-dual-fuel-generator  This is dual fuel, propane + gasoline (and I would try to keep it propane only because it burns cleanly). Buy the adaptor that connects the Delta Pro with the generator, it does not come with it. EcoFlow also has solar options, and you can pair stuff together, and also with power banks. 

or

https://powerequipment.honda.com/generators/models/eu3200i

 

You want really clean inverter power if you're going to put expensive electronics on it to charge. We prefer to keep our electronics on anker batteries and stuff for outages of just a few days because of the risk.

Don't forget filters, spare spark plugs, etc. when you make your order.  There's really regular changes that you need to be doing when you're running a generator regularly. 

[Arcadia]

For charging four devices at one time, I have the mycharge power hub 15000mah bought at Costco. I have charge four simultaneously a few times. I bring it with me when running errands in case my iPhone 6s battery dies on me.

https://www.costco.com/mycharge-powerhub-max-15%2C000mah-all-in-one.product.4000138580.html

If we are only charging two devices at a time, any powerbank which has at least 20000mah capacity and pass through charging is good enough for us. Our phones are iphone 6s, iPhone SE and two OnePlus so they are easy to charge fast. 
However, the 20000mah are typically good for four charges so if your phones need charging once per day, you need to go higher capacity. I see Jackery being recommended here for power outages especially those with solar panels for people living in zipcodes that tend to get rolling blackouts during fire season. 

[Indigo Blue]

You mean power banks and not generators, right? We have a Bluetti power station. This one will charge an iPhone approximately 12 to 15 times or power one lamp for 12 hours. They make much stronger watt and more expensive ones than this. You can buy a car charging cable for it, separately, that you can use to charge in the car while driving. 

https://www.amazon.com/BLUETTI-Portable-EB3A-Recharge-Generator/dp/B09WW3CTF4/ref=mp_s_a_1_3_pp?crid=3JQ2VW31QO6XW&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.kXhJG1wnTGc79_GTb8MFDwHQgHgy-BDg4ES007uLkNJfoEbIQTRGz-j2a4HkbaI6RU8bLVE5_41Q2rfgJ8f0RodP3sVDy1TK6W2sYEkmNZ2qcWiN87W4s116AbtHHdGhtS7lYxtWiD_UBfSDucvLotDzfaT2e6JAIZl3dUtkWI91LPpnbjquOfzhSzbvcEkX1ITaPOLExaqAAYQpKxOZrQ.rP2o4zzZ4LmdsY4IMgR9IYjwBk7phj_jBzvbSlCJTsk&dib_tag=se&keywords=bluetti+portable+power+station&qid=1723225745&sprefix=bluetti+%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-3

I keep my lamp plugged in after dark only, and I can squeeze three afternoon/nights of power for one lamp. It’s in a central location and lights up the kitchen and living room adequately. Or I can use lanterns instead and save the Bluetti for phone charging only. 
 

I also keep a rechargeable fan on hand and Buddy heater, along with both battery powered and rechargeable lanterns. And one old timey kerosene lantern, too. 
 

My Bluetti will get us through for a couple days, but maybe the biggest models could do a 4 or 5 day outage. I’m not sure how much you could get out of the bigger ones, but they are supposed to be really good.  We do use the generator for saving contents of fridge. And we have a Coleman stove to use outdoors if needed. 
 

Jackery is another good brand for big power stations. 
 

I have an Anker power bank for short outages and being outdoors. Just one or two phone charges. 
 

Sorry…this is more than you were asking for…..

 

Oh, this Bluetti has one usb, one usb-c, and one wireless port. I guess you could plug a charging brick into the spot where regular plugs go and you could theoretically charge at least four at a time. You would need a high watt station to charge four phones for four days. Mine is too weak, but they make all different ones. 

Edited August 9 by Indigo Blue

[Kassia]

1 hour ago, Acadie said:

We're on day 4 with no power, with repair estimated 9 days after the storm 🥳 I'm pretty sure the pole supplying our neighborhood went down. 

What brands or specs for multi-device charging work for you? With more extreme weather maybe we need to invest in a couple options--one that's higher capacity and heavier, and one suited for travel. Family of 4, iPhones, capacity for other devices and solar option would be great too.

Our storm radio and solar/crank flashlight that allegedly charge phones have been useless, which is disappointing. Also looking into backup generator with our HVAC guy.

Ugh - I'm sorry.  I was thinking of you and @freesia who is also in our area.  What an awful storm.  I hope your power comes back on much sooner than expected.  It's pretty scary how this one storm pretty much shut everything down.  

[freesia]

Just now, Kassia said:

Ugh - I'm sorry.  I was thinking of you and @freesia who is also in our area.  What an awful storm.  I hope your power comes back on much sooner than expected.  It's pretty scary how this one storm pretty much shut everything down.  

We were without power for 48 hours—just got it back last night. Fortunately the church had power, so we could move our fridge/freezer things and cook there. Some of the time it had internet, too. Weds night when we had to bail water out of our sump well  so our basement wouldn’t flood was fun. Our town was hit the worst in our county. Most people were out. 

[freesia]

1 hour ago, Acadie said:

We're on day 4 with no power, with repair estimated 9 days after the storm 🥳 I'm pretty sure the pole supplying our neighborhood went down. 

What brands or specs for multi-device charging work for you? With more extreme weather maybe we need to invest in a couple options--one that's higher capacity and heavier, and one suited for travel. Family of 4, iPhones, capacity for other devices and solar option would be great too.

Our storm radio and solar/crank flashlight that allegedly charge phones have been useless, which is disappointing. Also looking into backup generator with our HVAC guy.

I’m sorry. Where we used to live we’d be out for 9-10 days sometimes. Not fun. We were only out for two days with this storm but boy were we getting cranky! I want a generator. I’m done. 

[Kassia]

3 minutes ago, freesia said:

I’m sorry. Where we used to live we’d be out for 9-10 days sometimes. Not fun. We were only out for two days with this storm but boy were we getting cranky! I want a generator. I’m done. 

Same.  Most of our county (Geauga) was out and we are on well water, so no showers or toilets.  We looked into a full house generator last year, but DH decided against it but this storm freaked me out the way everything shut down.  No mail, no gas, no cell service...

[Indigo Blue]

Is this from TS Debby? I I hope the power comes back on soon!

[Indigo Blue]

3 minutes ago, Kassia said:

Same.  Most of our county (Geauga) was out and we are on well water, so no showers or toilets.  We looked into a full house generator last year, but DH decided against it but this storm freaked me out the way everything shut down.  No mail, no gas, no cell service...

Dh was talking about this last night. He was telling me you can buy a big metal box to house the generator outside up against your house and wire it into your electrical system. He said when you lose power, the generator kicks in automatically. That sounds so appealing. We have a large one, but it’s not wired in. He just drags it out when needed. That would be a nice thing for a woman who lives alone. He said they are $5,000 to $6,000 or more. 

[freesia]

38 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

Is this from TS Debby? I I hope the power comes back on soon!

No, not from Debbie. We had severe thunderstorms Tuesday night—they caught me off guard bc we didn’t even have a huge chance of any rain.  I had just pulled all the ingredients out to cook dinner and I looked out at the trees and thought—wow, this storm reminds me of the hurricanes we had when we lived in NY. Then boom out went the lights. Lots of trees down in our town. 
 

Over 400,000 people in NE Ohio lost power. And a lot of our linemen had gone south to be ready for the hurricane. 

Edited August 9 by freesia

[MEmama]

9 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

Dh was talking about this last night. He was telling me you can buy a big metal box to house the generator outside up against your house and wire it into your electrical system. He said when you lose power, the generator kicks in automatically. That sounds so appealing. We have a large one, but it’s not wired in. He just drags it out when needed. That would be a nice thing for a woman who lives alone. He said they are $5,000 to $6,000 or more. 

There are whole house generators that come on automatically, a lot of people here have them because we lose power so often and heat security is essential.

A much less expensive option is to have an electrician (this NOT a DIY project) wire a portable generator to your system. Then you’ll just need to hook it up and start it and you’ll be set. I will repeat: DO NOT LET A DYI DH OR FRIEND DO THIS. Wired properly they are totally safe, improperly can kill a linesman. 

[freesia]

12 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

Dh was talking about this last night. He was telling me you can buy a big metal box to house the generator outside up against your house and wire it into your electrical system. He said when you lose power, the generator kicks in automatically. That sounds so appealing. We have a large one, but it’s not wired in. He just drags it out when needed. That would be a nice thing for a woman who lives alone. He said they are $5,000 to $6,000 or more. 

I was looking at those, too. But we live in a parsonage and I think that will be too much. Dh is afraid that a portable one won’t work when we want it to. 

[Kassia]

24 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

Is this from TS Debby? I I hope the power comes back on soon!

 

It was just a really strong front that came through.  Four confirmed tornadoes, but the power company said this was the most damage they've seen with poles/trees/lines down since 1993.  

[freesia]

1 minute ago, Kassia said:

 

It was just a really strong front that came through.  Four confirmed tornadoes, but the power company said this was the most damage they've seen with poles/trees/lines down since 1993.  

We had a tornado touch down in our small town in April and this was at least as much damaged and far more outages. 

[Indigo Blue]

40 minutes ago, freesia said:

I was looking at those, too. But we live in a parsonage and I think that will be too much. Dh is afraid that a portable one won’t work when we want it to. 

Oh, the portable ones are great. Ours is at least 15 years old and we expect to have last us. It turned on first time he tried to start it. The Generac ones are good. 

[Indigo Blue]

I can see that you’d need a good generator if you live up North. We are in the South, and we might would get by without it, but we always lose our power. I don’t know what it is. They are always hacking back the trees in our area, and still it goes out every time. 
 

We haven’t needed our gas logs in years. We just shut them off. We used them in the past when winters were still cold and we had lots of snow and ice storms. Now, even if it goes out, we can get by because the house is just not too cold that we can’t just put on extra clothes. If we get caught off guard, we could always get them going, but we just never need them anymore. We only ever used them for emergencies anyway. 

Edited August 9 by Indigo Blue

[Indigo Blue]

Our yard is a mess and I want to go start cleanup outside, but there is a heat index of 103 right now. 

[Kassia]

14 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

Oh, the portable ones are great. Ours is at least 15 years old and we expect to have last us. It turned on first time he tried to start it. The Generac ones are good. 

We have a small Generac and have had a terrible time with it.  It's very unreliable.  It's great when it works but so darn stressful because we never know if it will or not.  We use it to run our refrigerator.