Hi everyone,

This is a quick review of the PowerGorilla Portable Lithium Polymer battery power station.

Portable electronic devices require electrical power, whether it is to power SW radio, radio scanners, digital TV receivers, cellular and satellite capable telephones, GPS equipment, portable computer, entertainment i.e games consoles and digital Camera and video equipment. Many of these power hungry devices usually have a limited internal power source, which may typically last only a few hours at best. A universal external battery would be extremely useful to extend the power operation times of all these devices especially in a power outage, which could even mean a bugout situation. With the current battery technology the lightest and most compact easily available technology is rechargable Lithium ion polymer. This brings us to the PowerGorilla by Powertraveller.


PowerGorilla powering a single Cell phone using the USB connection (rated at 1000mA at 5V). This would allow roughly 20 complete recharge cycles for the Motorola phone.


PowerGorilla powering a single Cell phone using the USB connection (rated at 1000mA at 5V) and also powering a Laura L36 portable digital TV using the main swtichable 16V, 19V and 24V DC output). This would allow more than 24 hrs continuous use for the Laura L36 Digital TV before the PowerGorilla needs recharging.

The specifications are quite impressive;

Battery Weight was 734 grams with the neoprene cover - 631 grams without the neoprene cover. Sounds heavy for portable use but this must be compared to alternative battery technology. A SLA cell for the same capacity of over 100 Watt Hours (equivalent to 40 RCR123's, which would weigh in around the same or 40 AA Eneloops @ 1080 gms) would typically weigh in around 2.5 to 2.6 Kg i.e. 4 times the weight.

Output Voltage;

5V USB 1000mA. This will allow any USB powered device to be recharged/powered etc.

A switchable output with 16V (@6,500mA maximum), 19V (@5,500mA maximum) and 24V (@4,200mA maximum) output designed for Laptop use but a wholes host of devices can be powered or recharged if the appropriate car cigarette adaptor is available for the device.

Input Voltage for recharging;

15 to 24 Volts requirement. The PowerGorilla comes with a mains charger which is suitable for all worldwide standards i.e a switch mode design which can take 100-240V @50/60 Hz and outputs DC voltage @16V 2300mA. Recharge time is stated at around 4-5 hrs.

A 10W Solar Charger is also avialable called the SolarGorilla and is specifically designed to be used in conjuction with the PowerGorilla. Charge times using the SolarGorilla, I would suspect will be around 12-14 hrs of constant sunshine using the SolarGorilla.

The PowerGorilla is also supplied with a whole host of different connectors called monkeynuts to power almost any portable electronic device.

The PowerGorilla looks to be resonably well made with the outer casing made from hard anodised aluminium. Care should be taken though as the PowerGorrila does not appear to be designed for rugged use or in unfavourable damp or wet conditions as the power connectors are essentially domestic types. If using the PowerGorilla outside then some form of drybag will be essential to protect it from the weather. But this is of course the same with most electronic devices which aren't specified to IPX7 and above.

While Lithium Ion and Lithium Polymer are the lighest and pack the most power for the size the tradeoff is the shortest life. As with anything there is a tradeoff so you have to choose here, do you need the smallest lightest and have to buy a new battery pack every three years or do you go with alightly larger devices which use AA's and replace them every 10 years.

16 Volts? Not 12?
24v?
Huh?

I have nothing that is rated 16V

I simply bought a bunch of 500VA APC computer battery backup power supplies when my local Staples office supply store was clearing them out. I paid $15.95 each (dirt cheap!) Of course they didn't come with all the "monkeynuts" power adapters that your unit has, but I don't need those - I have all the original AC chargers that came with all the gadgets I'd every want to charge. If I need 12v, I have a spare computer power supply that I can plug into the APC battery backup unit. I haven't looked to see that the battery voltage is inside the APC unit, but if it's 12v then I could just get it directly from there, avoiding the inefficiencies of converting 12v to 120AC and then back to 12v again. If I really need more power, I'll just remove all the backup battery supplies from my computers and my digital piano. I've got a good 1/2 dozen APC units available. If the APC internal batteries are 12v, it would be easy to jury-rig a car battery to power the thing if needed (we have lots of cars!) Or use the car battery with the inverter we have.

How much does this PowerGorilla thing cost? And what is it's power capacity? Judging by the size of it in the picture, it must have a pretty small internal battery. Your specs mention voltage and amperage capabilities, but specs are missing telling us how LONG it will be able to hold up it's output. "5v at 1000ma" is all well and good, but will that output level last for five minutes, or five hours?

The PowerGorilla was actually designed as a external battery for a wide selection of Laptop computers which will take these voltages of 16V ,19V and 24V. Most auto cigar adapters are designed to take voltages from 12V to 18V or higher to regulate the voltage down below 12V and require a few volts overhead. e.g. you will typically need 12V to regulate down to 9V or need 15V to regulate down to 12V.

So to power something like a Asus Eee rated at 9.5v, 2.315A you would still need something like this.
http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=161600
then set the output to the 16V on the PowerGorila.

The Regulator for the Laura Digital TV would take an input Voltage of 11V to 30V and switch mode the voltage down to 5V for the input. An old Palm IIIc cigar adapter would take a DC voltage from 10V to 33V for example.

Smaller handheld devices can be powered using the 5V USB connection.

Most 12v solar cells are typically 15.8V cell output.

for other voltages such as 1.5/3/4.5/5/6/7.5/9/12Vdc etc then a variable switching DC-DC voltage power adaptor may be required and connected to the cigarette adaptor in the same way as the Laura TV was connected.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=115314&&source=14&doy=21m11

This adaptor will take between 12V and 24V input.

According to the manufacturers the PowerGorilla is rated at 20,000mAhrs at 5V (100Whrs) so I would expect the USB at 5V for 1000mA to hold up for around 20hrs. I would expect it at a minumum for at least 15hrs. Again this will depend on a lot of factors such as the temperature and age of the battery as Eugene has indicated. Typically the Lithium Polymer will lose 20% capacity/year at 25C. This can be reduced to around 2-5%/year if the battery is stored in a cool location i,e in the Loft space during winter when not in use and in the Fridge during the summer when not in use.

The PowerGorilla cost me $178 at todays exchange rate or £120.

So you have to factor the cost of replacement batteries into the total cost of ownership. How much does a replacement battery cost.


This is why I standardize on AA's for things. Instead of buying the GPS with a lithium ion battery and needing its own charger I bought the one that needs two AA's. Same with the scanner, digicam, etc. Now I just swap out those batteries and put them into the AA charger thats shared between everything.

I haven't costed the replacement yet, I'll probably need to contact Powertraveller themselves to get the replacement cost.

AA cell solution is fine but the hassle of recharging them indidivually and reloading them into a carrier can be a pain. But for some applications the PowerGorrila is a very convenient solution.



PowerGorilla powering my GPS setup.

As you can see, it is a neat solution rather than AA carriers or heavyweight 12V SLA battery types. It also will allows a solar charger to be seemlessly attached to the outside of the GPS rucksack to charge the PowerGorilla Battery. So not only is it lighter and more reliable it also will allow virtually unlimited power to keep the GPS working during the day.

This PowerGorilla thing looks like a good solution if you must be mobile, especially with the solar recharging of it's battery. For home use, where you don't have to lug it around, I'm more inclined to stick with the super cheap computer UPS battery backup solution. There is nothing "lightweight" about a computer UPS, but they're inexpensive for their power output capabilities..

Its a great idea, but I just use my car to recharge things -- get car adapters for everything