Travel Technology - Found at Home Depot: $2 portable device chargers with AC inverter and battery pack!

I've posted about something I found at the local Home Depot... Article link (http://boardingarea.com/blogs/traveltechtalk/2008/03/31/silly-cheap-but-great-gadget-of-the-day/).

Essentially it's an AC inverter with a USB port, perfect for charging a phone, iPod or PDA. It's only got the capacity for 3 or 4 charges of your device but at only $2 it's a steal.

My Home Depot also had the 20 watt and 100 watt units for just $5, both also have a battery pack, the 100 watt version has enough juice to power my laptop back to 100% AND charge my PDA a few times...

Great find! By the way, I like the site.

Cool stuff Scott - thanks. Are these in the tool area?

Cool stuff Scott - thanks. Are these in the tool area?

I found them around the generators (where they also have other inverters and chargers).

I found them around the generators (where they also have other inverters and chargers).

I am glad I asked. Sometimes they confuse the heck out of me with their logical placement.

I am glad I asked. Sometimes they confuse the heck out of me with their logical placement.

And it is different in every single store....

Here are the item numbers from my receipt, in case they can lookup the stock:

10W is 885911028622
100W is 885911028646

Here are the item numbers from my receipt, in case they can lookup the stock:

10W is 885911028622
100W is 885911028646

Which would you suggest to recharge my eeePC on the way to HNL this weekend?

:D

Which would you suggest to recharge my eeePC on the way to HNL this weekend?

:D

Absolutely the 100W version. The small one is limited to 10W output, so there is no way it can power a laptop. It's made for PDA's and mobile phones. The 100W version won't have any trouble powering a laptop. Just keep in mind that it is a whopping $3 more than the 10W version! :D

Absolutely the 100W version. The small one is limited to 10W output, so there is no way it can power a laptop. It's made for PDA's and mobile phones. The 100W version won't have any trouble powering a laptop. Just keep in mind that it is a whopping $3 more than the 10W version! :D

Thanks Scott. I am kind of daft when it comes to wattage stuff. I will count my pennies in my ashtray...

I've posted about something I found at the local Home Depot... Article link (http://boardingarea.com/blogs/traveltechtalk/2008/03/31/silly-cheap-but-great-gadget-of-the-day/).

Essentially it's an AC inverter with a USB port, perfect for charging a phone, iPod or PDA. It's only got the capacity for 3 or 4 charges of your device but at only $2 it's a steal.

My Home Depot also had the 20 watt and 100 watt units for just $5, both also have a battery pack, the 100 watt version has enough juice to power my laptop back to 100% AND charge my PDA a few times...


You really just made my day. My daughter is taking a Greyhound SEA-BUF in June. (Yes, she's ridden a Greyhound before, what can I say?) Anyway, she mentioned it would be difficult going and returning when her laptop/cellphone batteries died. This is just the answer.

Bonus: next month is her birthday, this will be a terrific little unexpected 'extra'!

^^^

I've posted about something I found at the local Home Depot... Article link (http://boardingarea.com/blogs/traveltechtalk/2008/03/31/silly-cheap-but-great-gadget-of-the-day/).

Essentially it's an AC inverter with a USB port, perfect for charging a phone, iPod or PDA. It's only got the capacity for 3 or 4 charges of your device but at only $2 it's a steal.

My Home Depot also had the 20 watt and 100 watt units for just $5, both also have a battery pack, the 100 watt version has enough juice to power my laptop back to 100% AND charge my PDA a few times...

Scott, you're like a bloodhound the way you find clever stuff for us to spend money on. :)

Just went to the Home Depot in SGF (my destination du jour) and picked up one of each size. $12.82 all-in!

I just did a little Googling and found out some specs:

The 100W unit's cells are rated for 39 Watt-hours (or about 1/2 the size of my Dell's battery), implying an internal voltage of 9.6V. On one site, a guy opened it up to discover it's basically 16 AA NiMH cells (in 2 parallel banks of 8) to get the 4Ah rating.

Glad I wasn't the only one to find them!

ScottC, thanks again for another nice find!

The 100W unit's cells are rated for 39 Watt-hours (or about 1/2 the size of my Dell's battery), implying an internal voltage of 9.6V. On one site, a guy opened it up to discover it's basically 16 AA NiMH cells (in 2 parallel banks of 8) to get the 4Ah rating.
Plain and simple English, please! :o

Don't understand what you meant. But I can do math. :) All I know is power supply for a laptop has to be at least 75W (or more or something?). How does that translate into the 39 Watt-hours you just referenced to?

Is it why some reviews @ Amazon stated only 30-minute runtime from the 100W units for their laptops (meaning to use it like an emergency charger)? At least I know better than those who had complained over there. What an unrealistic expectation to have this 100W unit power any laptop for 9 hours!

I may be ignorant. I haven't heard of any laptop that can have enough juice from one single battery for 9 hours (in one charge). For any battery, 4 hours would have been heaven, right?

Thanks, Scott! (heading off to home depot right now!)

ScottC, thanks again for another nice find!


Plain and simple English, please! :o

Don't understand what you meant. But I can do math. :) All I know is power supply for a laptop has to be at least 75W (or more or something?). How does that translate into the 39 Watt-hours you just referenced to?

Is it why some reviews @ Amazon stated only 30-minute runtime from the 100W units for their laptops (meaning to use it like an emergency charger)? At least I know better than those who had complained over there. What an unrealistic expectation to have this 100W unit power any laptop for 9 hours!


Plain and simple - 39 Watt-hours = 39 watts for 1 hour. Or, 78W for 30 minutes, or 10 watts for 4 hours.

My Treo has a battery that's 1.2 amp-hours at 3.6V = 4.3 Watt-hours. So, the big one could charge my Treo about 9 times, assuming 100% efficiency. (realistically, you'd probably get 7 charges) I think the iPod's classic's battery is a similar size.

Assuming the same cell voltage in the smaller ones, you'd get roughly half the charges out of the 20W unit, and about half again from the smallest one. In terms of size/weight tradeoff, I think the 20W is the sweet spot, unless you want to supply emergency power to your laptop.

My local home depot didn't carry it. Searched the whole store :(

I popped over to the home depot near me. They had 0 of the 10-Watt ones and minus 3 of the others. I went home empty handed. Thanks anyway ScottC.

hmmm, on the HD website, the 100W unit is 90USD (http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?jspStoreDir=hdus&catalogId=10053&productId=100597179&navFlow=3&keyword=885911028646&langId=-1&searchRedirect=885911028646&storeId=10051&endecaDataBean=com.homedepot.sa.el.wc.catalog.bean s.EndecaDataBean%401bc6cbb&ddkey=Search)? :eek:

hmmm, on the HD website, the 100W unit is 90USD (http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?jspStoreDir=hdus&catalogId=10053&productId=100597179&navFlow=3&keyword=885911028646&langId=-1&searchRedirect=885911028646&storeId=10051&endecaDataBean=com.homedepot.sa.el.wc.catalog.bean s.EndecaDataBean%401bc6cbb&ddkey=Search)? :eek:

Yeah, this a "brick and mortar" store only promotion. The website rarely matches in-store discounts.

Went to the Home Depot by me and they were out, then even checked other stores and there's not a single one available in the whole state of AZ :( Their records showed they had some in stock last week...so close. The website doesn't have them on clearance, just full price which is $80 more.

www.woot.com currently has the Black & Decker 20W battery pack 2 pack for $19.99 shipped.

No joy at my local HD. It's a fairly new store and they checked and they have never stocked them since it opened.

I saw these on the table when I was there this weekend. They weren't priced, so I moved along.

They are on Woot right now, 2 for 15.00 (It is a woot off so they will not last long.

They are on Woot right now, 2 for 15.00 (It is a woot off so they will not last long. Earlier was the ten watt; now it is is the 20W, 2 for 14.99 +5.00 shipping

They are on Woot right now, 2 for 15.00 (It is a woot off so they will not last long.


I was wondering if these were the same item Scott was discussing.

I was wondering if these were the same item Scott was discussing.

Close. The 20W ones I got at HD had 2 amp-hour cells, this only has 1.2 amp-hours. Also, it only says it'll output 250 mA on the USB ports, the HD one outputs 350 mA.

As of last night, the Home Depot in SGF (Springfield, MO) has a few of each, so all of you banjo-twanging mega-church-going Show-Me state residents are in luck. :)

(stereotypes only meant in jest, folks!) :D

For those who don't want to go to a HD to buy these, wOOt has the 20A model on right now. It is a 2-pack for $15 + $5 shipping. Not as good a deal, but way cheaper than me renting a car to drive to a HD to buy it.

They were out at my Home Depot, too. :( But thanks for the tip ScottC!

They are on Woot right now, 2 for 15.00 (It is a woot off so they will not last long.

FWIW - it looks like the April Fool's joke for the Woot off today is that they're going to keep posting this battery pack over and over, so you have all day to buy.

Plus you can get a BoC during the April Fool's woot-off it seems. But yes, mostly battery packs so you do have all day it seems.

I did a test on the 100W unit this afternoon. It provided enough power to run my laptop (Dell Latitude D620) via my iGo power supply for 36 minutes.

ScottC...

Don't understand what you meant. But I can do math. :) All I know is power supply for a laptop has to be at least 75W (or more or something?). How does that translate into the 39 Watt-hours you just referenced to?
...

75W rating for the A/C charger is only size of the pipe. Battery for it is the grid so it will run any amount of hours you want.;)

The computer is running at something less than the A/C adapter rating. Usually the CPU alone can burn 25W by itself. The other electronics in the laptop may take another 25W. So that 39Wh battery will run the laptop for 30-40 minutes or so. A typical laptop battery have 50-75Wh rating.

Does this mean that ScottC will be posting something about Roombas tomorrow? ;)

No kinds at my Home Depot :(

None found in 5 different HD stores in the greater PDX area...

RFTraveler... :(

Here are the item numbers from my receipt, in case they can lookup the stock: 10W is 885911028622 - 100W is 885911028646
THANKS for these numbers! I'd gone into the Tustin, CA store (don't bother going, SNA folks- I got the last ones) and didn't see anything like it on the store floor and they couldn't find it when checking in the computer. I went back armed with the above item numbers, and they were able to determine only then that they'd had one apiece and both were way up high on a shelf that customers coudn't get to.

Another satisfied customer :D

Thanks ScottC!
I found the 10W units on the point of sale rack up front by the cash registers. Couldn't find a 100W :(

Is it me, or do these seem to take forever to recharge (red light stops blinking) no matter how little you used it? Maybe 'cause they're new and the batteries haven't "set" yet? (FWIW, I let 'em all recharge (I have 10/20/100W units) overnight when I first got 'em, so I know they're full.)

Is it me, or do these seem to take forever to recharge (red light stops blinking) no matter how little you used it? Maybe 'cause they're new and the batteries haven't "set" yet? (FWIW, I let 'em all recharge (I have 10/20/100W units) overnight when I first got 'em, so I know they're full.)

On the site where I saw the cell info, they said the chargers were sized such that a full charge would take ~7-8 hours, at least for the 100W one.

Yabbut after the initial first full-charge of the 20W unit, I used it for 10 mins (to run a wall-wart phone charger) and it needed another multi-hr charge for the red light to stop blinking. Maybe the circuitry just starts the shot-clock from the beginning each time?

Little more money; but I think a little more versatile

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