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Product review - Medis 24-7 fuel cell Power Pack {Gadling}
Sep 2nd 2008 7:36PM Sorry one more thing:
"To me, the real potential is if you are going to be away from an outlet for a couple of days, perhaps camping or hiking. "
Why would the potential for the 20Wh 24/7 be better than a fully charged 20Wh Li+ battery pack for this scenario? People generally plan to go hiking.
Product review - Medis 24-7 fuel cell Power Pack {Gadling}
Sep 2nd 2008 7:28PM Scott, good review. I'm glad to see that you came to the same conclusion I did. Little or No value proposition for this thing. Also good to see your positive review of Li+ devices which make far more sense.
two questions:
When you used the 'low power device' and it took a couple of minutes to get a charging symbol. Is that all you let it do? Or did you try to make a call at the time. Seems to me that if this is ever going to be an emergency device, the dead cell phone should be plugged into a the 24/7 and then a call made. Se how long a call lasts after the charging symbol comes up.
"I first activated my 24-7 Power Pack three days ago, and since then I have charged 3 different devices 7 times."
Was this a total of 7 charges over 3 days? or was this a total of 21 charges over 3 days? I'm wondering because it is clear, from the rate of charge you are getting, that its just the battery (in the PMS) that is in fact charging the device and not the fuel cell directly which can only charge at 1 watt.
I would think that this would matter if you are actually trying to use the power pack on a long haul. you would kill the PMS battery and be left with nothing. Battery driven devices for far lass than a power pack + Extreme cable are available all over.
example: http://www.proporta.com/F02/PPF02P05.php?t_id=2763&t_mode=des
60 bucks, close to 20Wh, virtually free refills, hundreds of re-uses. Cant beat it (well perhaps you can with other Li+ devices :).
First commercially available fuel cell charger appears online {Gadling}
Aug 24th 2008 12:45PM "The only known tester who disapproves of the product is the anonymous poster tilyou dotes on who admits he only tested early versions of the product, not the version for sale nowadays."
:) yeah, thats me. To be clear, I don't dislike this product because it performed poorly in my testing. I dislike it because the claimed performance is worse than incumbent technology.
20 Watt-hours it simply not that spectacular (its not even good) for a unit that is as large as this device and as expensive. Want 20 watt hours? Simply get a rechargeable Li+ pack available almost anywhere, and then 'fill it up' for free before long trips. Same utility, lower cost after 2 or 3 fills, longer life.
The 1 watt output is even worse, it makes for very long charge times. The 2W system is still based on the 1 watt fuel cell, so it only provides high power for a short time.
Anyway, good luck with your testing. If you want a small pack filled with 6 Lithium AAs that provides more power, more energy and lower cost, I can make you one. :)
First commercially available fuel cell charger appears online {Gadling}
Aug 24th 2008 12:38PM Please do test it. I encourage you to test it in a way that is something more rigourous than "I plugged it in and the light came on". this form of testing has been done by other reviewers. Then they presume it work and that they can just parrot the claims of the company.
Then what happens is that 3 months after the 'green light test' they actually can use the product and it no longer provides energy.
http://www.treocentral.com/content/Stories/1397-1.htm
I have rigorously tested 3 of these things. Granted it was units from their preproduction line (which was the semi-automated one), but the claims for those units were the same as the claims for the new units. They have totally garbled their message whether or not they have changed anything in the device since this testing. Further I tested them in the most beneficial mode possible (maximizing power and best orientation).
I encourage you to read the results, copy the testing if you like. I have also evaluated their claims against incumbent technologies. Here is the link.
http://techskeptic.blogspot.com/2008/01/medis-finale.html
I hope this information is helpful. I'm a big fan of new technologies as long as they are actual improvements over older technologies and not simply the result of hype. This is not a Wright brothers story.
