Tag: battery

Posted on

Man Fixes $4500 “Failed” Toyota Hybrid Battery with $20 in Cleaning Products.

This is an incredible story. People often complain about the costly battery repairs on hybrids and EVs. Redditor Scoodidabop is quoted $4500 to replace the battery in a Toyota Camery Hybrid, as the car’s management system says the battery is failing.

toyota camry hybrid failed batteryTurns out he’s an electrician, so he removes the pack from the car and tests each individual cell. ALL of them check out. No problems.

Turns out a bunch of little copper connectors had corrosion. That corrosion was preventing the battery from operating normally. $20 worth of cleaning products later, his battery is functioning normally.

totyota camery hybrid battery

The frustrating aspect of this story is the notion that car manufacturers charge individuals to replace the entire battery pack, when individual cells sell for around $50. Let alone cases like this where there really wasn’t any need to pay almost $5000 to gut the car and replace the battery. It seems very wasteful considering how many rare elements go into producing EV battery packs.

You can read through the whole process on Scoodidabop’s IMGUR gallery.

Posted on

Review: Signal Edge+ 4000mAh Battery and Smartphone/Tablet Stand

I love it when one gadget can fulfill two duties. Signal won a CES 2015 award for their new portable battery and device stand, so let’s take a look at how it works!

Shop the Edge+ on Amazon.
More info on Signal products.

Posted on

CTIA 2014 First Look – Ventev Powercell 10000+ Portable Battery

I like BIG POWER! Portable batteries are great accessories, and Ventev has a feature on their new Powercell 10000+ that I REALLY like!

Shop Ventev products on Amazon.
More info on Ventev products.

Posted on

Apple Admits to Potential Battery Issues with iPhone 5

iphone-5It was a pretty common complaint in my circle of friends, that the iPhone 5 battery life just wasn’t as good as the iPhone 4S.

A common theory of the day was that the dual radio solution found with Apple’s first LTE enabled phone wasn’t as well optimized as the 3G only iPhone 4S. It was sort of true for early 4G Android phones, maybe Apple fell prey to the same teething pains?

Announced yesterday, Apple is acknowledging that the iPhone 5 might have had some manufacturing issues:

Apple has determined that a very small percentage of iPhone 5 devices may suddenly experience shorter battery life or need to be charged more frequently. The affected iPhone 5 devices were sold between September 2012 and January 2013 and fall within a limited serial number range.

If your iPhone 5 is experiencing these symptoms and meets the eligibility requirements noted below, Apple will replace your iPhone 5 battery, free of charge.

This specific issue is apparently not affecting 4S or 5S owners.

As we rapidly approach the release of the iPhone 6, it’s not terrifically helpful for iPhone 5 owners dealing with this problem, as they’re likely nearing the end of a two year contract anyway, just in time to buy Apple’s latest and greatest…

Better late than never I suppose. Hit the link below if you think your phone might be affected, and Apple might replace that battery for you.

iPhone 5 Battery Replacement Program

Posted on

Review: Nokia’s DC-19 – 3200mAh Portable Battery Charger

Battery life is a classic struggle on our tiny pocketable computers. Sure we call them “phones”, but we live our lives out of them now, and the more we use them, the faster they die. The DC-19 is an upgrade over the older DC-16, featuring higher a capacity cell in a smaller form factor. Let’s take a look at Nokia’s newest portable battery charger.

Shop the DC-19 on Amazon.

Posted on

App Review: Battery Performance by Dev-Software

Screenshot_4Have you ever wondered how your phone is handling  it’s battery life? The folks over at Dev-Software may just have the answer you are looking for.  Battery Performance has a wonderful app that you should check out!

Battery Performance has a really slick UI that is both eye pleasing and functional. This app is all about the visual performance of your phone’s battery, showcasing a number of ways to see what your battery is up to such as live tiles, logs, statistics, life cycle and much more. Once the app is downloaded to your Windows Phone it will take a few seconds to gather your data. I was pretty impressed with this app’s straightforward delivery of information and fluid UI.

078    075 Continue reading “App Review: Battery Performance by Dev-Software”

Posted on

Gadget Review: Ravpower Lipstick Charger and Flashlight

002

Today this little gadget came in, so let me introduce you to the RAVPower Luster Mini 3000mAh Lipstick Charger.  The RAVPower weighs in at a mere 3oz so it is very light in your pockets or messenger bag.  It even comes with a clip, a very shiny chrome clip so you can put it in your shirt pocket on pants pocket. These little yet very functional gadget measures 4.6 X 0.9 X 0.9 so you can pretty much say it is very compact.  The RAVPower Lipstick Charger comes in a few choices of color such as black, pink, silver and a champagne color.

This is what comes in the box:

  • 1 – RAVPower  Luster Mini 3000mAh Lipstick Charger
  • 1 – USB to Micro USB cable
  • 1 – User Manual

The RAVPower is going to be one of your best friends when you are out and about and don’t have access to your wall charger. One of the very useful features of this lipstick charger is that it doubles as a flashlight and lights up with an intense 8 lumens! Drop your keys in the dark car? Grab your RAVPower lipstick charger and let the light shine to find your keys amongst those butterfinger wrappers under your seat!  When you use the flashlight, the RAVPower has 3 modes: high, low and strobe. This would come in handy if you are a bicyclist and your headlight happens to go out, you could easily use this as a backup light so you will not get a ticket from the local Police. Continue reading “Gadget Review: Ravpower Lipstick Charger and Flashlight”

Posted on

Real World Battery Test: The LG G2 – 47 hours to “Critically Low”

lg g2 battery critically low run time test 47 hours somegadgetguyThis is the longest it has ever taken me to run a battery test.

Run time is a difficult feature to test. Benchmarking usually means throwing high usage scenarios at a device to see how long it can last under “worst case” usage. The phone runs hot, which means it runs somewhat less efficiently, and you end up with a number that you can share. If you test all phones the same way you can somewhat compare how all phones perform when they run hot.

The problem with real world testing is it takes longer, and your testing isn’t going to be consistent. Maybe I took more calls on my HTC one than I did during my Galaxy S4 during a similar 24 hour period. Maybe I gamed longer on the iPhone than I did on the Moto X. Basically I’m saying you should take the following with a small grain of salt… Continue reading “Real World Battery Test: The LG G2 – 47 hours to “Critically Low””

Proudly powered by WordPress