We are considering an external battery for our iPhones this summer. Charging is a challenge for us since we are on an island with no power.

Options are --

1) a solar charger without a battery attached.

2) a back up external battery only.

3) both

I am reading the reviews for EasyAcc and Anker...both are high mamp output now. But the negative reviews of dead on arrival, and total failure, or only getting one or a few charges before failure of the battery pack are very discouraging...there are so many who report this, and it seems odd to me that both companies have so many failures.

Now we use a car battery charger, with a 12V DC plug with an adapter but charging this monster is at least 12 hrs for about 4 to 5 charges total to the phone. And it is getting old, and not as efficient as before.

So now after reviewing the options, our son sent us... it appears to be difficult to choose. I am tending toward a solar unit..which would need some way to keep the phone cool from the sun so it won't fry (as they tend to do in heat).

Does anyone here have any suggestions? We should order anything we decide on within a week, so it can be tested out before we leave in July. Thanks in advance...

I would try a solar charger or one of each type.. pick ones with high ratings , I see Amazon has quite a few with high ratings.
But if one fails yous till have the other one..


For the solar I'd just place a little box or something over the phone part and leave the charger exposed to the sun..or put phone in box and cut a hole for the cord to go thru..

In my old VW Bus I have a "battery minder". It is a solar powered 12V trickle charger that I plug into the cig lighter. It keeps my auxiliary battery topped up when I am camping. I put the solar panel on the roof, or on the dashboard, and leave it.

I can then plug my phone into another 12V outlet in the van and keep it charged.

I dunno. Just a thought.

We have to park our cars in a public area...and I'd think that someone would steal the solar panel eventually.
We leave our boat at a marina and take the boat out to the island. This is not us being close to the car in case of rain, etc either. We are 1.5miles out in Lake Huron and getting in may not be possible due to high waves and wind.

Because we don't have tablets, etc we won't be watching TV, and doing much downloading. I found last summer that coming here for 1 hr a day drained my battery in 1-2 days...depending on phone usage etc. 4G use on internet is very draining.

So I am thinking that doing the solar only this summer may be enough for us. Then as time passes, and if we do upgrade to a tablet someday, I'll need more power and then the batteries may be improved enough to risk a back up reserve one.
I was really shocked to see so many angry people. One highly rated brand Joos Orange, with a built in batt, had 3 negative reviews in May of 2014... and the reviews go back to 2010, with the company itself replacing cords, etc, on so many postings!
Seems even now the old defective units are still being sold on Amazon, and we just don't want that hassle in boonies. There are enough things to have to deal with up there! sigh.

So a fast solar panel may be it for this season after all!

Would a generator be out of the question?

We have a small generator (2500w )...it is noisy and disruptive and difficult to run in bad weather. But we did use it a little last summer in a pinch. Then you have to go into the marina anyway to buy more GAS, for it. So solar seems like a better idea. It is just I would like a storage battery --but those take up to 8 hrs or more to recharge as well...and the batteries don't come with an AC adapter and you have to buy that extra...and it just becomes a bigger pain..if you get my drift?

We used mostly the car battery charger, but that is getting old and not working well anymore. (over 10 yrs old).

We go up there to get away from air pollution, fumes, and noise, so the generator, even though in a little enclosure, is still a return to "nasty" civilization.

Sometimes I get so discouraged. sigh... Maybe I will just take all 8 weeks off here and not use it on the net at all except for emergency purchases... today that seems like the best option.

Photo attachment included showing distance to mainland, and the scenic potential there.

Great pic!

One of my "Green" friends has this and loves it.

http://store.sunwarriorinc.com/?acc=...cc509a6f75849b

Im not sure how long you will be away from power (few hours/day vs weeks on end)

I frequently find myself away from power for 1-3 days at a time. For me a halo brand charger/battery works great. About the size of a fat lipstick, I charge it via wall socket or the laptop USB port. It holds its charge for weeks on end if not used. Charges my iphone 100% fairly quickly; for times I cant wait I just connect the halo device to my iphone and talk/email uninterrupted. Will charge tablet too. I get about 4-5 full phone charges on my device before I must recharge the device again (admit that I tend to re-charge it when it gets to about 1/3 capacity since I never know where I will be any given day)

They make different sizes/capacity. They aren't expensive. In the disaster sector I work in most of us use these type of compact devices. Some use one or two lipstick style, some go for the "deck of cards" size. We just throw them in our backpack/fanny pack or pockets. Also great for power outages during storms at home when the entire family calls to check in on us and ends up yapping lol

try QVC, radiochack, best buy or (my favorite) monoprice dot com
here is a quick link-
http://www.qvc.com/Electronics.categ...305_qvc%20halo

Perhaps 8 weeks, this year we will be up there. I have stayed as long as 3 mons in the past (with no phone back then). (no running water or electricity, and only a small generator for emergency power).

Before getting the smart phone, I ran our inexpensive Nokia brick type off an Energizer 2 AA travel batt, and also off the Car Charger, which we bought at WalMart.

But the smart phone iPhone 4S is 4G and eats the battery quickly if I come on here to read, answer posts or moderate anything. We did buy a couple of needed large things on Amazon last summer off the phone and had them delivered up there. That was very handy. (it is a full day travel to Sault Ste. Marie US...in order to get anything substantial. The local grocery is adequate but does not have a large selection of food...not even much cat food-- as it is mostly a dog town).
This is only our 2nd summer with the smart phone.

We like the idea of a solar charger. Last year we planned on getting a solar thing and maybe a backup battery, but after reading the reviews on Amazon...I am horrified at how many failures and poor manufacturing quality I am seeing there.
There are even engineers claiming to have tested these items and found the wattages are misrepresented etc.

I was hoping someone here has used solar recharging for electronics, and has a recommendation for us.
So far we are leaning towards this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FABKX7E/...I1WWLCD5PSHUAZ

Perhaps a storage battery will be done later if at all?
Or nothing at this time, and we will charge in our cars like last year (which is not everyday)? Endure the stinky generator (if it works that is), for some charging at night if we turn on lights instead of our LED lanterns. We both have iPhones 4S...but only I have the higher featured internet gigabytes in my plan.

So last season was only 4 wk stay...since hubby was still working. He is now retired, so we can stay longer, and that makes solar look more helpful.

Well, this is an update on our solar charger...

We bought the ReVive folding 14w charger from Amazon that is on the link in the post above this.

We have charged an iPhone 4S twice ... the last charge went from 35% to 100% in an hour and 10 minutes. That is just wonderful IMO. LOL

Putting a pad over the phone with air circulation enabled of the phone, the temp reached 100 F in that time. Next charge we will try a cold flat rock...(from the freezer) with a towel over it, and see if that helps to protect the phone. I've read that 113 F is the upper tolerable limit for this phone.

We did not get a storage battery yet. If this continues to work so easily we may not need one.

I had to charge my phone every 2-3 days, using 4G to get on the internet, last summer. This solar charger is working well so far and is about as fast as the car battery jump battery we used to use.

This charger folds up and is quite small, but a bit heavy IMO. We won't be hiking with it though.

Thanks to everyone here on this thread for their ideas and input!