Brunton Hydrogen Reactor Review & Rant
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
1,899 words · ~9 min read
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before I go further I need to say this even though I purchased it myself from
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B&H with the intention of publishing a review from a normal users perspective I
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was so appalled by the Brenton hydrogen reactor that I contacted them anyway and
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spoke to customer support and the product manager who assured me the
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design was fine and there might be something wrong with my unit he said
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he'd exchange my unit for a new one and since then I've waited over a month
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during which time I've sent four requests for the new unit they haven't
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replied and all I can do now is assume they don't think sending a new one will
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help so without further Ado here's my
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video The Cooler Master glacer 240l CPU
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Cooler delivers the convenience of an all-in-one and the performance of a
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custom water cooler click now to learn more welcome to my unboxing of a product
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that many people are curious about and no one seems to know much about not even
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the manufacturer the page about it linked from the Brunton homepage seems
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designed to give as little information as possible with only a promotional
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video uh designed to appeal to outdoorsy
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environmentalists I I mean I guess the video also shows using it in the snow
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and rain and stuff and says that you can abuse the product and they'll cover it
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under warranty so that's cool but I wish it also said to be careful because the
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exposed plugged in USB connectors in a
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wet environment that they show in the video are not a great idea and even if
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your hydrogen reactor is covered your phone or whatever else is PL into it is
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not we find more information on the page
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within the store of particular interest here is the fact that you can live swap
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the cells when one runs out for continuous power a very neat feature the
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benefits listed on the store are that it's environmentally responsible it
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recharges with water and a hydrolyzer and then outputs only water when in use
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it has no bulky batteries but a bulky reactor to carry and these things so I
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don't know no solar power to rely on and no natural discharge which is a definite
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issue with regular rechargeable batteries even an Loops this last
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selling point is a potentially important feature for something like an emergency
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preparedness kit so these are hydrocor
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they store hydrogen by absorbing the gas into reversible metal hydride this means
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solid state storage and less volatility compared to straight Compressed Gas you
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can even take up to two of them on an airplane with you in terms of size
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they're about equivalent to 4 to five AA batteries with the optional hydrolyzer
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accessory they can be recharged up to 100 times I was actually looking for
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extra information about the hydroc cores and I came across Horizon's website they
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seem to be the actual manufacturer of a similar product called the mini Pac and
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similar hydrogen cartridges called Hydro sticks which Brunton has refined uh
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branded and brought to Market a fairly common occurrence unfortunately because
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it's not a straight Rel label the odm's website really didn't help me as much as
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I hop hoped and ended up just being yet another source of conflicting
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information on the phone when I asked Brenton directly I was told a hydrocore
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is about equivalent to a 4,000 milliamp battery bank but good luck finding that
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information anywhere public on the Brunton site and product box instead
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they rate it in iPhone recharges derp
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okay so it's rated at six iPhone recharges but then Horizon site says two
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iPhone recharges which is more in line with the 4,000 mamps that I was told on
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the phone then they've got ablea battery
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equivalencies that are used on both websites instead of standardized
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measurements these also frustrated me as I continued to dig on the Brunton box it
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claims that a hydroc core is equal to 15
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plus AA batteries but Horizon's Hydro stick has both 14 and 10 battery
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equivalencies on the exact same page literally 6 in from each other lastly
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and this is important Brenton claims Hydra course will handle a 2 amp output
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and Horizon rates their Hydro sticks at 0.4 amps I was assured on the phone that
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the higher amperage output is one of the benefits Over the Horizon design of the
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Brunton one and you just press this button on the top to kick it into high
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gear to enable 2 amp output at the end of it all I really wasn't sure how to
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interpret everything but one Theory I had at first was that Brunton could be
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using the more refined hydr stick Pro
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that was teased on her Horizon's Facebook page months ago but then never
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released under their own name after testing I'm not so sure but for now
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let's move on to using it I didn't realize this when buying it but it's
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actually basically useless without the $250 recharge station the two included
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Hydra cores will be empty after anywhere
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from 4 to 12 iPhone cell phone charges
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um and then you can either buy more of them for 20 bucks a pop if you can even
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find them I couldn't find anywhere to buy them or get a recharge station for
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$250 I assumed that the reactor itself
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would come with that functionality for $150 guess I should have done more
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research so basically at this point a
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product that is supposed to reduce bulk compared to battery Banks has me
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carrying fuel cells a reactor a recharge
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station and then something to power the recharge station with if I'm going to be
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somewhere for longer than a couple of days brilliant anyway you load the fuel
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cell in by screwing in wait for the light to stop flashing then it's ready
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to rock the purge valve does a self test during the startup process don't be
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alarmed it's just a little noise it's not a big deal in operation the reactor
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gets warm to the touch but not hot the hydrocore fuel cell on the other hand
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does not it stays cool to the touch noticeably damp air comes off the side
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while it's operating which makes sense because it does exhaust water but
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there's no real visible Steam and it does kind of smell funny but I wasn't
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sure if that was only because it's new or whether it will continue continue to
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do that uh throughout its lifetime I mean all that's fine and good but as
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long as it charges your devices then a device charger can be determined to be
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functional well honestly once it got
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going and booted up it just plain didn't do that either my HTC1 picked up the
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power source but said it was insufficient for charging and my iPad
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Mini has a nice little helpful not charging icon in the top corner so it
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sounds like that 4 amp rating on Horizon
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site is probably closer to reality than the 2 Amp one that Brenton's advertising
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on their site in spite of the fact that right here on the side of the box it
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says one amp so I don't know and when it
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in order to validate these results since I didn't get another unit I checked out
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reviews on their website what few of those reviews aren't just pre-sales
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questions from people who don't actually own the thing with responses from brunon
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employees that are then rated five stars did seem to back this up mine doesn't
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charge a tablet or even a high-powered smartphone and that seemed consistent
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with the experience that the only other verified owners I can find are having I
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also really have to question the claim of reduced bulk and weight in their
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video compared to batteries two hydroc cores in a reactor you will need one of
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these for the other stuff to be useful at all weigh alt together around 365 G
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or about the same as a 12,000 mAh
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battery pack from into circuit which you can get for about 50 bucks on Amazon in
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addition to that they aren't much smaller they're not as versatile in
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terms of output voltage and the devices they can power and they don't have as
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much capacity compared to that into Circuit Solution this whole apparatus
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also weighs about the same as two Patriot fuel plus 9,000 milliamp
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portable battery banks these are $72 each from Patriot and they stomp all
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over the Brunton hydrogen reactor in
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terms of capacity they have 2 and a half amp outputs for faster charging they're
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a similar overall size not to mention that with regular portable battery packs
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there's no water Vapor exhaust you don't need to keep them in a particular
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orientation there's no boot up time they have more output ports I don't know if I
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mentioned that already and they're easy to obtain at a local store whereas more
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fuel cells will need to be ordered online if you can find them at all and
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finally they don't need an expensive charging station so basically unless
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you're an early adopter for fun I don't recommend this product okay it's green
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and hydrocor are recyclable as tin but it just doesn't make any sense it's
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neat to see fuel cell technology being deployed for consumers even if the
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initial product offerings are unexceptional expensive and difficult to
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obtain but for me to reexamine this technology in the future functionality
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will have to be improved and pricing will have to come down quite a bit
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speaking of pricing from browsing Brenton's website it looks like they are
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taking some pretty sweet profit on their products in general they're equivalent
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to the into circuit 12,000 Milah charger is called the impel to and comes with a
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rugged casing and costs $400 that is eight times as much for
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that rugged casing you might as well just buy eight of the other one so maybe
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what it'll take is another brand to bring fuel cell products to Market and
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we'll get a result that makes a bit more sense for the average consumer don't
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