| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Pat's Product Review: The Power Pot
Living in the country, is really great, but there are a few problems that one can expect. One is loss of electrical power – especially in the winter months, where I live – in Western Oregon. We have a lot of rain, and it causes trees to fall across power lines, knocking out power, and we lose our power at times, for days. I have a back-up generator, and I use it to keep my refrigerator and freezer cold, so I don’t lose any foods. I don’t have a need to watch tv all the time, or surf the ‘net, so I don’t use my back-up generator power for that. However, I do like to keep my cell phone charged, as does my wife, and daughter who lives next door. I hate to waste a lot of precious gas running the generator to charge-up some cell phones, so this can be a problem.
I was recently sent a review sample Power Pot. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure what the Power Pot was, until I read the instructions. I though it might have been a strange-looking camp cup for cooking soup or heating water. Well, it does heat water, but not the way you think. The Power Pot can be filled with water, and placed over a small fire – and you don’t need a large fire – once the water heats up you can connect your cell phone to the power cord from the Power Pot, and charge you cell phone. What? Yes, you simply boil water, and you can charge your cell phone, rechargeable batteries, GPS systems, lights and more. You can charge a wide variety of of USB devices with up to 5W of power. This is all possible though Thermo-Electric Generator (TEG) technology.
Let’s back up a little bit, why would anyone want to haul around a little pot in their backpack or BOB, out in the wilderness? Well, there’s good reason to haul the Power Pot. Suppose you are traveling and get stuck on a back road in the winter, and you can’t get out? You cell phone battery goes dead, and you can’t reach anyone. I’ve heard this story numerous times on the tv news – someone gets lost or stranded, and try calling for help, and their cell phone battery dies just when they need it the most. Not a good thing! You can even pack the Power Pot in your glove box or the trunk of your car, and you won’t know it’s there, until you need it the most. You can carry fuel, or something like a small camp stove, and once you gather fuel, you can get a fire going, and add water to the Power Pot, and once it starts boiling, plug you cell phone into the heat resistant power cord – and in no time, you’ll have your mobile devices charged and ready to go.
One of the main things you need to be aware of is that, you can NOT run the Power Pot without water in the cup, if you do, you’ll ruin the TEG junctions, rendering it irreparably “dead.”.
Source:
