[GTALUG] (off topic) What power bank should I avoid?

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 03:01:42PM -0400, Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote:
> In my experience there are a lots of Chinese "brands" but few have much
> longevity. Anker is one of the few that have stuck around, Ravpower is
> another that has been OK for me, they have a reputation to maintain. A
> number of other longtime brands such as "tronsmart" are common in places
> like AliExpress and Gearbest but not Amazon. In fact you;d be surprised how
> many different accessories are made by Xiaomi, mainly known globally for
> phones but in the Chinese market they have a massive product like that is
> exportable (in fact there are Xiaomi stores in malls across China with the
> whole range).
> 
> The bought-on-Chinese-sites gear often offers better value and similar
> reliability to what Amazon carries, with the trade-off of (sometimes MUCH)
> slower delivery time (1-2 months is typical). OTOH, stuff valued under $50
> or so is almost never stopped by customs which means no HST is assessed.
> 
> Unless it's a name with a few years on it (like one of the above), consider
> any Chinese "brand" you get to be warranty-free, by the time you can make a
> claim the brand will be dissolved and restarted under a new name. To some
> (including occasionally me) it's been worth the risk and I've yet to be
> seriously let down. Only one device of many I've bough this way -- an Anker
> 6-port USB wall charger I've head for years -- has underperformed over
> time.  (like Lennart's experience, some USB ports broke before the
> electronics did).

I have a 6 port anker charger that I have used quite a while.  Never had
an issue.  Only a power bank (which was not anker) had usb ports break.
I think it was a monoprice, but it might actually have been one I bought
at costco.  Hard to remember. :)

-- 
Len SOrensen