Best Powerbank for Garmin Edge 820

Hi guys.
I’m new to this, so I apologise if this subject has already been done to death.

I’m looking to buy an Anker powerbank that will keep my Garmin 820 operational for a full days cycle trip (up to 12 hours). My Garmin ran out of juice on a recent trip which surprisingly enough resulted in me getting lost… VERY LOST!!!

I’ve looked through the range of Anker products and to be honest I find the “techy stuff” a little confusing.
My main requirements are:

  • Is it compatible with Garmin Edge?

  • Speed of charge - on average I usually take around 30 minutes for lunch along with a few fifteen minute pit stops throughout the day. This doesn’t give a powerbank much time to do its job, so speed is of the essence.

  • Size/weight - I want to keep the mass to a minimum, whilst still delivering a fast charge. (I carry enough weight around the mid-rift without adding additional unnecessary weight!!!)

  • Capacity - The powerbank must hold enough juice to give the Garmin one full charge

The ones that I’m thinking of purchasing are:

  • Astro E1 6700 - Small and light but will it do the job?
  • powerbank Speed 10000 - Is it fast?
  • Powerbank+ 10050 - What’s the difference between this and the Powerbank Speed??

Would any of the other Anker Powerbanks be more suitable for my requirements?
Also, I’m not in a rush as the temperature in Yorkshire has now dropped to below freezing and will probably remain like that for the next few months (resulting in the bike remaining indoors!!), so if there are any new products due out in the new year that would better suit my requirements, then I’d be happy to wait… (I’m starting to bore myself now!)

Any advice will be greatfully received, all I know is that I definitely want an Anker product. I’ve already purchased one on their car charges and 3 lightning cables and their quality is second to none.

Thanks
Aidy

Hi and welcome to the community!

A quick search comes up with details of the charging port shows it is USB and “standard wall outlet or a USB port on your computer” implies nothing special so a lower-end charging type.

It doesn’t say how big is the internal battery but “12 hr., typical usage

So to work out the size of an Anker Powercore we have to calculate it from how long you want it to work.

The information says it will work for 12 hours and you said you wanted it to work up to 12 hours so you’re talking a fully charge device is just about able to meet your needs and you need relatively little say to double its life. If we knew how big was the internal battery we’d be looking for something of the same size, but we don’t have that information.

One way to do this is a buy a meter, now as your first investment. You can get a meter which accumulates how much current went into the device from empty to full and then you know what size battery to get. Buying a meter is in general a good thing to own for lots of reasons.

If you don’t want to buy a meter and measure, then its pure guesswork. Seeing as you are already close to a full day, implies you need something small. The 6700 you mention would be probably sufficient.

The Speed 10000 is overkill, the information above says it does not support Qualcomm Quickcharge so unless you also want to charge something which has QC like a Samsung phone then you’re paying over the odds. The Powerbank+ is also overkill for the same reason. The non-QC level up is simply called the Powercore 10000.

So unless you want to also recharge other things like a mobile phone on your bike as well then its a choice between the Astro 6700 and the Powercore 10000. How many recharges of the Garmin they do - we can only guess.

As the Garmin is looking physically fairly small, that tells me it probably has a small battery and my gut is the 6700 is going to be 1 to 1.5 recharges so give 12 to 18 hours of use (above the 12 hours of the builtin battery). A meter could tell us more precisely.

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Going off past garmin users, friends who bike a lot, I would go with the powercore fusion. It’s 5k capacity and has its own plug built in so can be plugged in when needed. This would mean you only need a small cable to go from this unit to your garmin and not have to worry about carrying anything additional. It would also allow you to use the garmin with the back light as needed and still have juice to last all day and then some

@Aidy67 is in UK. Fusion is USA only but is 100-240V 50-60Hz so would work in UK via socket adapter.

My apologies, didn’t realize @Aidy67 was in the UK

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No problem I didnt look myself til you said Fusion.

The same problem of device running low on long day, I solve myself via a hub and light combo, I make about 3W if light is off which is enough to basically never go flat anything

Hi guys.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me it really has been helpful.

I’ll be going with the Astro E1 6700, which seems to tick all of the boxes, whilst keeping things simple for me. The Garmin ran out of juice towards the end of the day (I still managed to get very lost in a very short period of time, which considerably extended my day in the saddle! lol), so I probably only need a 50% top up on the Garmin. It sounds like the Astro is more than capable of delivering this.

Once again, thanks guys, you’ve been great. :+1:

2 Likes

Update…

The Astro E1 6700 arrived yesterday, so after charging it up, today became “test day”.
The Garmin 820 was totally exhausted and the Astro was fully charged.

After 1 hour the Garmin had charged to 64% and all 4 lights remained illuminated on the Astro.
After 90 minutes the Garmin had changed to 88% and all 4 lights on the Astro were still illuminated.
After 2 hours the Garmin was fully charged and the Astro still had all 4 lights illuminated… amazing!

The Astro E1 6700 is a brilliant little powerbank that is perfect for any cyclist who’s touring or just wants to spend the occasional long day in the saddle. It’s easy to carry, only weighs around 120g and has the capacity to charge your Garmin multiple times.

Anker products never disappoint.
Highly recommended.
:+1:

3 Likes

So now we know probably the Powercore+ Mini 3400 would have been probably good enough too and is half the energy but more than half the size. Yes, the 6700 is a powerful small device.

Now you basically sized the Garmin is about 1600mAh (6700/4) you should add that information to a Garmin forum so they know the next time. In the Anker range the 5000 Slim is also an option.

The Mini+ weakness is only 1A output and 1A input but it the smallest, and likely sufficient, the 5000 Slim is 2A input and 2A output, same as the 6700 and shaped thinner which is more beneficial to phones problem, the 6700 has advantage is seems to be lower cost than the 5000 Slim and is more energy stored.

I also am new to the Forum, and have a similar question. I need a powerbank for bikepacking, where the trip could last 5-10 days. I would be charging a Garmin Edge 530, iphone and various other devices. I would like to get a powerbank close to the 26.8k mAh cap for airline travel. I contacted Garmin tech support, but no one there could tell me whether the power input was below the 50 mA level cited for the regular PowerCore. Do I need to restrict to the Anker PowerCore Essential that provides trickle charge capability, or would the regular PowerCore work?

Thanks in advance for your input!

Nearly all the newer Powercore have trickle charge now. They mention it if they have it.

Trickle charge is rarely needed, and has small benefit, as it solves the issue of a device dropping its power needs when nearly fully charged so you gain only a little. One way for you to know this is buy a USB meter and measure it yourself. It probably drops to a low input when its >85% full, all trickle charge is let it to get to 100% full without keep pressing the power button. It’s most useful in tiny battery devices.

If you can tell me:

  • how big the battery in the Garmin is (Watt Hours ideally)
  • how long it takes to fully recharge the Garmin.
    I can then probably do a crude calculation.