Maplins portable power station

[Reggie]

not sure if its still on, but maplins were doing a sale on items such as heated gloves, heated insoles, heated body warmer

[acey]

You've spoiled my day - I just got one of these the other week from Woolworths for £30 and thought that was a good deal. £20 is a steal. I got mine to power a 12V hair-dryer - you really do need a 17Ah battery for that. In theory you'd expect to get one hour of 17A from a 17Ah battery - the dryer is actually 15A so you'd think you'd get even more than an hour - but in reality you get a lot less, especially when running at high current. I haven't tested it yet but would expect to get half an hour at most (assuming I don't run anything else) though even twenty minutes should be more than enough to cover a full observing session.

Andrew

[Starjumper]

Thanks guys, 1 is winging its way to me now as I type this.

Cheers

John

[ChrisEdu]

I've got 2 coming, plus an electric blanket!

[Starjumper]

Ordered 1 yesterday afternoon and it arrived today, thats what I call good service.

John

[Reggie]

It's running down quicker because of the high amp draw from the dryer. If you were only drawing 2a it would probably give you 8.5hrs worth of leccy.

[Nostromo]

Guys, I have had no luck with these things I think it's because the batteries sit on the shelf for too long and de-condition too much to hold a decent charge when they mark them down for clearance. Maybe it's been the cold too. I have a power tank which went totally dead after about 4 sessions and I recharged it each time. I rekon an old car battery or 17ah leisure battery is a better bet... I'm going to take my power tank apart and add a higher spec battery because the housing is good but they skimp on the battery Nick

(modified to due my awful spelling L:)

[ChrisEdu]

My order from Maplins arrived the next day, too! Great service! The powerpacks seem pretty decent, especially for the money! My two came in the box that they were obviously shipped in originally (along with their product display boxes). I was glad to find a pressure guage for the compressor, althought, I thought the light was a bit puny. I tried the electric blanket but was far from impressed within the time that I had it on. I was expecting heat like I get from my heat car seats (Mercedes) but it just seemed to give a very low, warm kind of feeling. Franly, I'd have got hotter if I'd peed myself!

[acey]

I tried the electric blanket but was far from impressed within the time that I had it on.

Anything involving heating from a 12V source is going to be underwhelming. The 12V hairdryers are great for de-misting but hopeless for drying hair. And in-car kettles take ages to make the water tepid. It's all pretty basic physics - you can only store so much energy in a power pack, and heating elements burn up loads of energy. You might be able to use the electric blanket as a scope warmer as an alternative to a hair-dryer de-mister. As for keeping warm, I find several layers of thermals to be the best solution.

[ChrisEdu]

I had 6 layers on yesterday when I went outside! Brrr!