Had anyone ever had a solar power power-bank? Are they good?

[Mrcricket]

I was thinking about buying one.

How long do they take to charge and how long do they generally last?

How is usage generally different from the regular power banks which we charge via mains?

 

[Archer]

They are identical in use to a normal power bank, ie you can still charge via mains since most people probably won't like waiting 50+ hours to recharge via solar only. I've seen some huge ones 40,000mAh that would take 100 hours to recharge on solar for example. Of course there are also units with fold out panels, but you're still looking at 20+ hours for a full recharge from solar (vs roughly 6 hours from the wall with a fast charger) on a 25000mAh unit

 

[saor]

They're probably better suited to hiking / camping etc.

 

[3WA]

I had a very early PowerMonkey. In practice, I never used the powerbank with the solar panel. I used to charge the powerbank from the mains, and sometimes plug my phone directly into the solar panel and tie the panel to my backpack.

 

[Park@82]

The ones with just one little panel on the back are a waste of money. It would take forever to charge via a small panel. And batteries don't like heat...

I would rather get 'n power bank and some portable solar charger panels with a USB port (20w or so) seperatly, that way you can replace the power bank when it goes bad in future.