Rayovac PS73-4BT6 7-Hour Power Back Up

I saw this product one day at the store and thought I would pick it up for review. It, the Rayovac PS73-4BT6 7-Hour Power Back Up, filled a nice I had been looking for. I like the idea of small back up power chargers but not the ones with built in batteries that can’t be changed.  The big reason I liked this one was because It takes standard AA batteries. If I want rechargeable batteries I can just charge them and in a charger and put them in this unit. I feel AA batteries are perfect for backup power. They are relatively cheap and plentiful now to stock up on and in a collapse scenario I feel they would still be able to be found.  With that said lets get down to the review and see how this charger performs.

 

 

Features

• Includes one Apple 30 Pin and Micro USB cord, compatible with most USB powered devices, including the new iPhone5
• LED Fuel Gauge monitors power and charge status
• Powered by 4  AA batteries

The charger comes with four batteries already to go and USB cables for Android and IPhone. However not all batteries nor cables are crated equal. The batteries that it comes with had trouble charging my Galaxy SIII. It charged very very slowly and the batteries did not last long either. When I swapped out with better, Energizer batteries it performed much better. I also suspect that the cable it comes with is not optimal. I have a cable checker coming soon and will test that out.

Uses

Where I really see this shine is short camping trips and anytime you need to charge your phone and can’t get to a power source. I used it a few weeks at work to make sure my phone made it all day long. I would charge it while on lunch at work. The better energizer batteries made it a week whereas the rayovac ones made it only two days. I would not recommend skipping out on quality batteries. This is marketed as a cell phone charger but will charge most any device that charges via USB which is a lot of devices such as tablet and GPS units.

Drawbacks

I love AA’s but they are limited and only hold so much power. This is not an at home power solution. If I a at home and need backup power I have a back up battery bank that will charge a cell phone thousands of times.  I like to keep this in my car with batteries just in case I am stuck somewhere and need some power. In that capacity I have used this several times to get through a night with not charger. I do however have an idea of building my own to suit all my mobile backup power needs.

 

Do you have portable backup power? What do you use while on the go? Let me know in the comments