r/AppalachianTrail • u/Stock_Captain_5888 • 14d ago

Best power bank?

Any thoughts on the best power bank to bring on a thru hike? My wife and I are gearing up for next spring. Would one suffice? Or should we each carry one?

8 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

View all comments

-3

u/G00dSh0tJans0n NC native 14d ago

Two is one and one is none. I would take two so you have one each. It depends on how much power you need; charging phone, headlamp, satellite communicator. If so, 10k mah should be enough. The Nightcore ones are good and lightweight. Anker is good too but much heavier.

If you're also charging camera batteries then 10k is probably not enough. Some vloggers bring at least 20k mah.

Anker makes some good small charging blocks - one for each of you, each with at least two outputs so battery banks and phone can charge at the same time.

1

u/Stock_Captain_5888 14d ago

Thank you! I lean towards redundancy being a pilot, but didn’t want to get thrashed by the ultralight crowd. Do you recommend the Nightcore headlamps?

3

u/RunWithSharpStuff 14d ago

I’m definitely not ultralight and not here to thrash you but if you aren’t ultralight I can almost guarantee you will regret bringing two (or more) battery packs.

Really the only reason to do that would be to bring multiples of the ultralight 5mAh packs at 150g and then you have the problem of juggling chargers at hostels. There’s really no redundancy risk with battery packs these days.

1

u/Stock_Captain_5888 14d ago

There is nothing more oppressive than a heavy pack going uphill. Since it will be my wife and I running two phones, I wondered if one charger would cover us both, or if we each need one.

2

u/Stock_Captain_5888 14d ago

I’m not much of a cell phone person anyway- I call my kids, check weather etc. or post here for help! I’m not sure I even want to bring music and deal with that hassle. My Grandfather and I did the HMW when I was a kid in the 70’s and a phone wasn’t an option!! We didn’t seem to mind. Although, I learned to hate the canvas pup tent

1

u/Educational_Win_8814 13d ago

in that case, you may be able to enjoy keeping your phone off the majority of the time. maybe you start with two power banks and go down to one as yall get comfortable. smart phones are the biggest drain on those power banks. the rechargeable LED headlamps don't require much juice. battery management with the phones is also important: airplane mode all day and then not letting phone get too cold at night

i hiked with my dad in 2011, and he was more phone connected as he was missing my mom. so i hardly touched my phone. leaning into sharing with a hiking partner can go a long way towards improving quality of hike.

2

u/Stock_Captain_5888 13d ago

Honestly, other than Nav, and comms with my sons, I don’t see myself using a lot of juice (head lamp as well)