Beating the $H!T out of battery banks!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
3,109 words · ~15 min read
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So, for today's video, we're going to be doing a durable battery bank death
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match. So, we've got the Unifund U821, an Amazon Basics, which is just going to
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be our control group because that's not actually a durable battery bank. a chiro
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tough, a pos power active, and a jar of
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tank. What I'm going to do is drop them from a certain height, then dunk them
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underwater at a certain height, and then increase the height and or depth,
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depending on what test we're doing, back to back to back to back until we have
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one survivor, or possibly more than one because I don't know how deep and how
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high I can get, but I'm expecting it'll come down to one survivor. So, let's
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begin.
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So, the first depth test is just going to be on this first step. We're not
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going that deep. The Amazon Basics is probably going to die. The rest of them
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are probably going to live. Let's try it out. I am making all this, making sure
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all the seals are fairly tight before I put them in.
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The jar of seal is a little bit more finicky than some of the other ones.
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This one like floats. So, when you're looking at IP ratings, that's done for a
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half an hour at X depth, depending on the IP rating that you have. I'm not
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going to leave these underwater for half an hour because honestly, if you drop it
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in the water, you should get it within that time. And if you can't get it
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within half an hour, it's probably going to be under the water for a lot longer than half an hour. And we're not going
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to make this like a 6 day battery bank death match. So, leave it under the
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water for like 5 minutes at a time and then it's probably fine. Also, because
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I'm trying to put them on the same surface, I'm not just dropping them into the water. That might happen later, but
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for this first step thing, I put them in one by one. So, if I have it be a little
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bit longer, like five something minutes, and not just a dunk, then it's a higher
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chance that everything is more equal. Okay, so I'm going to take them out of the water now. Gather them up. Now, I
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don't want to get water like in the USB
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thing while I'm charging it. So, the Amazon Basics is going to be a
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little rough, but the other one should be okay. Uh, we moved on to Dennis's
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iPhone. Sorry, Dennis. We'll probably be fine. Let's start off with the Chiro.
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So, there's a little bit of moisture under the water seal for the Chiro, but
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I don't see any moisture like in the USB ports or anything like that. So, we'll
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see. Yeah, so that one works. Move on to the Unifund. A little bit of moisture,
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but not much. And this could be from when I open it. Moisture kind of goes
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in. Yeah, that one works. Jar of tank.
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This one doesn't have any moisture inside. That one works fine. Moving on
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to the foss power. That one works fine.
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Amazon Basics. Let's see. Does it live
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on? RIP Amazon Basics. It's dead. So, it
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made it through the drop test, but the second it hit water, this guy was out.
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We did see bubbles come from it right when we dunked it. So, Oh, yeah.
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We're pretty sure that was done. And then there were four. Let's drop them
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from higher up. Okay, so the next drop test is actually going to be rather simple. I'm just going to hold them up
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and then drop them. This is about 7 and 1/2 ft. So, here we go.
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The jar ran away a little bit. I'm not that surprised because there's this
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really kind of intense rubber on the
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sides that probably makes it bounce a whole bunch. So, the jar almost ran into
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the water. It almost had an advanced test.
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Okay, starting with the FOS power.
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Works fine. Now, the Unifund, it's it's
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little cover thing actually came off when it dropped. I secured all the
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covers before we dropped them. So, that's just something to note.
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The unicorn is dead. So, it wasn't just the cover coming off. The UniFi actually
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isn't working anymore. If you look at it, I'm going to press the power button.
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I'm repeatedly pressing the power button. The lights are not shining. I
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tried in this USB port. And press the power button. The phone
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doesn't react at all. So, yes, the unifund is out of the race. That's
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actually earlier than I expected. So, RIP Unifund. So, if you look at the
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unifund, there's a there's a chip on like quite a few of the corners. As you
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can see, it impacted very very hard with the ground. All of the remaining battery
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banks have at least some form of rubbery material on the outside. The Chiro, the
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Fos Power, and the Jarve all have a rubbery like it material that's going to
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take impacts. The Unifund does not. It does have that hard shell. So, yeah, I
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think that might be what killed it. All right, Jarve is the next one. This one almost ran away on us and has the most
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rubbery material around it. So, I'm assuming it's fine.
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And it is completely fine. Immediately started working. And last, but hopefully
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not least, is the Churro. Well, I guess quite technically not
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least at this point, but anyways, trying the Churro.
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Churro works fine. We're down to three. All of them have proper rubbery shock
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absorption and all of them are water resistant. So, just observing some
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damage here on the FOS Power. You can see like a little bit of a bite in right
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there, but it doesn't really matter as that has nothing to do with the actual
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durability or the water resistance of the unit as it's all kind of contained
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within here, which still seems still has some moisture from the last uh
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submersion test, but seems completely fine in terms of integrity. So, that guy
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seems to be doing okay. The Chiro did land on the button bit. I've kind of
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cleaned it off and it seems fine, but there's no visual damage. And other than
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that, it actually seems to be completely okay. I would be hardressed to say that
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that this had been dropped at all if you just handed it to me randomly. The Jarve
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on the other hand, once we popped it open, we did notice that there was some
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dents on that raised part on the inside, and I'm kind of wondering, you can see
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where it landed on the the rubbery part on the outside. I am wondering if that
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is going to compromise its integrity. So, we're going into the water test.
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Jarve, can you hold on? One important note about the Jarve tank is that its
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seal can actually be a little bit tricky. So, when you're putting it in,
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you need to make sure that you've pressed down everywhere cuz it doesn't
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like to sit naturally on its own, including where the hinge is. So, you got to make sure you go all the way
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along the back. And then, you might be able to notice it's still a little bit
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puffy. And that's because the seals on the inside haven't even gone in yet. So,
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you need to push this area down as well and make sure that everything goes in.
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That's because when I take it off, you can see these plugs for the USB ports.
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Those don't even naturally go in. So, you have to make sure that they go in as
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well and seal everything else off or else you're going to lose like all of
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your water resistance. So, our first water dunk test was at about 3 4 in.
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Now, we're going to about like 3 and 3/4 to 4 ft. None of this is exact. We're
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not measuring any of it. We're basing it off of like my height, so don't worry too much about it. Here we go.
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I'm sure that was sexy. Anyways, we now have our batteries.
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I need to try them out.
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The chiro has some moisture just like last time, but again, just like last
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time, not in the USB port. That's probably because it has the extension
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under the top. Plug it in.
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No response immediately. Yep. No lights at all.
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to your dad. That's unfortunate. Okay,
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moving on to the FOS power. Popping its
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top. A little bit of moisture just like last time, but not near the USB port.
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I think that 4 and 1/2 ft for 5 minutes was the great bringer of death. Floss
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power is dead as well. Moving on to the jar of tank. It is the most expensive,
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but it also might be the last one left. Oh, there's water under the seal. Even
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though I was very sure that I did it properly, although that might have been
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because of the damage that happened when it was dropped from 7 1/2 ft. This one's
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dead, too. That would be kind of what Oh,
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the jar tank survives. Instantly worked.
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Still shows full power. We're going to have a special remaining test for the
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jar tank, but as far as I'm concerned, it wins. We're just going to see how
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much it can take at this point. All right, it is our last remaining battery
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bank. I'm now going to throw it at that rock wall, let it hit the wall, fall
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into the water, and then see if it survives after that.
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Okay, so it's a little bit unfortunate that a few of the other ones didn't survive because while the jar tank is
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still alive, it's also really hard to see cuz it's all black. So, if you did
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happen to drop it somewhere, like underwater, and it was even the
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slightest bit murky, it would be really hard to find.
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Okay, so I found it. It didn't come that far off the wall, probably cuz it
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glanced downwards afterwards. It's probably about 6 ft underwater. We're
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going to leave it for 5 minutes. If it does survive this, we'll do some other
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tests after that. See if it survives those as well. But if it survives this,
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I'll be pretty impressed because after the impact, it is very likely that that
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water seal came off. So, we'll see how it does. Okay, so it's been about 5
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minutes. I'm going to go grab it now. See if it survived. I kind of don't think so, but it did.
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The water seal's completely off.
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So, uh that's probably rip jar. Oh my
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god, the lights are still on. What? It
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might still work. So, it survived that craziness. Now, I'm going to try
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smashing into the ground a few times. See if it survives that. If it still
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lives, we'll try some more crazy water stuff. But here we go.
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Lights are still on,
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although they're like flashing. The second you plug the phone in, the light
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stops flashing and it charges just fine. The drive tank is still alive. So, at
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this point, the seal for the water is like completely non-functioning, and the
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battery is slightly bent, but it's still working. I think we're getting into like
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a little bit dangerous category here.
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I think it's dead. I think it's finally dead. So, just surveying the damage
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here. This corner where I threw it down on is pretty beat up. Like, it's
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actually lifted. If you look on the inside, I can like almost peel back this
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corner of like the sticker that's on it or whatever. I don't think it's alive
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anymore. I'm pretty sure it's definitely conquered at this point. But I dropped
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it from 5 ft. I dropped it from 7 1/2 ft. It was underwater at about 3 in. It
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was underwater about 4 ft. It was underwater against a wall really hard
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with its water seal coming off. And then at 6 ft for about 5 minutes and then I
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smashed into the ground. It kept working even though it was bent. And then I
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smashed it into the ground two more times to the point where it's like
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cracking and it finally died. I think
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that's pretty solid in my opinion. So, it's a few days later and in a
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completely different location, but I did want to cover a few things and I'm going
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to cover them starting in order of which battery bank died. So, starting with the
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Amazon basics, it didn't claim anything in its title in terms of durability and
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it's cheap and it's an Amazon basics product so it's probably just going to
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work. That was its that was its selling point, not its durability. So, I'm not
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surprised that it died almost immediately when it touched water, but I
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was pretty impressed that it survived the first drop. The next one to die was
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the Unifund U821. This one totes in its title that it is
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waterproof, which is not true. It has an
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IP rating of IP66, which doesn't even mean that it's immersion rated. It means
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that it is rated for at least three minutes of 100 lers per minute with a
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pressure of 100 kPa and a distance of 3 meters of like a water jet being shot at
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it. Not immersive, just like a water gun. And it died from a drop that none
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of the other battery banks died from, which was a little bit disappointing cuz
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it wasn't really that bad, but oh my goodness is it cheap when it's on sale.
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And it's basically always on sale. So there you go. Next up was a tie between
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the Foss Power Active and the Chiro Tough. Starting with the Foss power, it
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claims that it is waterproof, shockproof, and dustproof in the title
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for the product. One of those is true, not two of them, and that is that it is
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dust proof, which is not very hard to do. Its water resistance rating is IP67,
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which is 3 ft or 1 m for half an hour. It died outside of this rating, being at
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slightly over 4T underwater. So, I guess it did pretty well in that regard, but
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it did lie about its capabilities in the title. The Chiro advertised itself
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properly by saying in the title that it is waterresistant, shockresistant, and
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dustproof, which is true. It is also IP66 rated, which is the same as the
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Unifund, but did survive underwater for a little while and didn't die until we
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had it slightly over 4T underwater. So, props to Chiro. Then there's the Jarve
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Tank, which also lied in its title. No,
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it is not waterproof, and no, it is not shockproof. It does have an IP rating of
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67 with the cap closed and 65 with the
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cap open, which is similar to the shooting water at it thing, but just not
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quite as aggressive. It took shocks like a boss with me smashing against a wall
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and then repeatedly smashing against the ground. And it managed saltwater even
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with very, very good levels well beyond its actual rating with the cap off over
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6 ft underwater and managing completely fine. Very impressive. Just disappointed
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that it lied in its title. I'm going to personally stick with the Chiro tough.
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And yes, they were a sponsor of ours way in the past. I know some people are
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going to point that out, but they were not a sponsor of this video at all. We
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bought the Chiro Tough that we used in this video. And the reason why I'm
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choosing them is not because they were a sponsor, but because they were the only
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ones that didn't lie in the Amazon product title for their item. And I
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Who are you going to go with? Let me know in the comments down below or on Twitter at luke_lfr.
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