UKC

After some advice on the above two solar set-ups.

Basically I'm after a panel/battery combination which I can use to charge my phone, SLR and some 12V stuff. It would also be nice if I could charge a laptop, but I appreciate this requires expense way beyond my desire. As such I've narrowed down my options to the GZ Nomad 13 and Sherpa Battery, or the Powermonkey Extreme. Now it seems to me that the panel on the GZ is better (i.e. double the size) whilst the PM battery is both bigger in terms of capacity and significantly cheaper.

So, anyone have any reviews of either system? Anyone know if it would be possible to combine the GZ panel with the Powermonkey battery? (I'm not averse to a little soldering if required).

Thanks for any help you can offer.

In reply to ianstevens:

I've only got the Nomad 7, with the plus10 charger, but certainly at the low-power end of the scale, quality of panel is the limiting factor. The goal zero kit in this category is a no-brainer - much of the competition has been completely useless.

I wouldn't be too worried about battery size, but then I'm only using mine for small items - phone, camera batteries, kindle, Nintendo DS (I have kids). I've avoided larger tablets and laptops because I haven't seen any more usefulness in them to outweigh the extra effort.

But I am thinking of getting a 13w panel - or maybe another 7 and, like you, cobbling them together - so I'd be interested in hearing from the techie people.

Martin

In reply to ianstevens:

I've just got the Goal Zero Sherpa 50 power pack and Nomad 7 panel ahead of a big remote trip. First impressions are that it's well made, powers my DLSR, laptop, kindle and phone (not all at the same time), charges reasonably quickly all things considered and doesn't weigh a ton (it's heavy enough but on snow mobiles, I'm not too worried).

Drop me an email if you've more questions.

I've not heard good things about power monkey - unreliable and less built quality.

In reply to ianstevens:

My power monkey just stopped working on a sunny trip to Lundy. It was very sunny. I think that it had had an earlier problem too involving connecting devices, some charging and others not. Still got it still not working.

In reply to timmsy:

Cheers. Had seen some Amazon reviews to this end, but good to hear it from someone who actually uses it "outdoors" rather than at a festival, where everything gets instantly broken.

Andrew - I'll drop you an email re: charging the laptop. As you had probably guessed I'm heading off to remote climes next summer.

In reply to ianstevens:

I have both, the power monkey is an older verison and i dont think it works any more the battery doesnt really seem to charge.

I think its the Nomad 7, with the plus10 charger (its packed for a trip so cant check at the moment)

I really like it plus it recharges AA batteries therefore you could have more than just the set it is supplied with charged before a trip, I mostly charge plugged into a wall socket and the usb before a trip, I've had limited success in the welsh sun here in august but this may be due to the exposure time (i think your looking at all day in sunlight to charge)

Id go with nomad

In reply to minus273degrees:

Defiantly the way I'm going to go. Seems to be worth the extra expense.

Cheers gang.

In reply to minus273degrees:

My experience is that the 4aa's can't charge much with one load. Even when i used a proper NiMH charger to charge the AA's first. It quites really quickly when charging my tablet and not much charges for my phone either.