I opened a 9,000,000mAh power bank from eBay to learn the truth - here's what I saw

4 weeks ago 18

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A power bank boasting a massive capacity of 9 million milliamp hours (mAh) that fits in the palm of your hand, all for just a little over $10, sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? Well, you know what they say.

A reader brought this listing to my attention, questioning the validity of such bold claims. Although I harbored significant doubts, I decided to investigate further. All in the name of science, of course.

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First, let's put that 9 million mAh claim into perspective. The $150 Anker PowerCore 24K has a capacity of 24,000 mAh, and it's quite a sizable power bank, weighing in at 1.3 pounds. To achieve a capacity of 9 million mAh, I'd need to spend over $35,000 on 375 PowerCore 24K power banks, and that's certainly not something I'd want to carry around -- nor would it fit in the palm of my hand.

So, I ordered one of these purportedly massive-capacity power banks and waited a few days for delivery.

Here's what I received:

I don't think this is a 9,000,000 mAh power bank!

Surprisingly, the packaging lacked any bold claims about the promised, yet unrealistic, capacity. Additionally, the plethora of typos on the package didn't inspire confidence in the product.

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The power bank's dead state on arrival also didn't improve my first impressions. Even worse, despite my attempts to charge it, nothing worked. It was completely unresponsive out of the box.

Maybe I could fall back on the "warranty." I doubt it.

It was time to roll the dice and take it apart to see what was inside. At this point, my money was on even more disappointment. Since I was prying into a power bank, I didn't want to use my trusty metal spudger, so instead, I turned to a safer plastic tool.

Then, to both my surprise and shock, the power bank blinked into life for a few seconds while I was poking inside it.

Poking inside the power bank brought it to life, even if only for a few seconds.

After a little bit of force -- sometimes an unreasonable amount -- the case popped open and I could see what the problem was. One of the battery wires was disconnected. Not only did this account for why it wasn't working, but it also presented a danger of short-circuiting and even fire.

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Well that's why it didn't work. The red wire was just floating about!

I took a closer look at the batteries.

They were all no-name 18650 lithium-ion cells, and I measured their capacity to be about 2,000 mAh. I suspect these may be old "recycled" cells or possibly seconds, as I'd expect the capacity of even a cheap 18,650 cell to be about 2,300 mAh.

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This means the entire pack had a capacity of 6,000 mAh, a far cry from the 9,000,000 mAh that it advertised.

These 18650 cells are likely to be old "recycled" cells or seconds.

Now, to be honest, this is ultimately what I was expecting.

Exaggerated claims dupe buyers into buying poor-quality power banks made from cheap, poorly assembled parts. If you're looking for a cheap power bank, I'd say throw an extra ten bucks into the purchase and get yourself this Baseus 10000mAh for $20.

That way, you're getting a good quality power bank that delivers what it promises, will give you several years of service, and won't be a potential fire hazard.

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