Hi all,
I am adding this as a multiple product review showing how I use Anker products in my life. I thought it would be neat to see multiple products in action and talk about how fitting them together can make for a better experience for many people - in this case a team of 12 recycling volunteers covering a 15,000 attendee music festival - the Red Ants Pants Music Festival in White Sulphur Springs MT:
The Products
First of all, I arrive at the festival with a backpack of fully charged banks and a variety of cables:
I brought all of the following:
Power Banks
PowerCore Elite 20000
PowerCore Speed 20000 PD
PowerCore Fusion 5000
PowerCore 5000
Astro E1
Cables
Powerline + USB C to USB C 6ft
2 Powerline + Micro 6ft
2 Micro to USB C Adapters
3 Powerline Micros
Anker USB-C to Lightning Cable
Powerline USB C to USB C
3 Apple lightning Cables
Flashlights (Torches)
Bolder LC 40 (This one is by far my favorite)
Bolder LC 90
Old Bolder LC 40
Sound
2 Soundcore Icons (Stereo Paired, of course)
Solar
2 Anker 21w PowerPort Solar foldable panels
The Setup
In order to gather recyclables during a 15,000 person event (This was a lighter year - I have run this program for four years and have seen as many as 19,000 people attend), you have to place bins strategically in front of every trash can. You also have to have them labelled well and in easy reach. So the first thing to do is get up early on the first day and start putting out bins:
We put out a total of about 40 bins throughout the venue and campground. This venue map shows with x’s and squares where the different types of bins are:
Of course, you need music for this! Check out the Soundcore Icons hanging in the truck:
Although I have already given a thorough review of this speaker, this is the first time I have really used the stereo pairing for a long period of time.
Our goal with this event is to be loud and visible, so everyone knows we are recycling, and the Icons REALLY helped with that. Even two small speakers hanging on the truck cab were able to capture the attention of everyone we passed. They were also loud enough to sing along with (even all 12 of us) and high enough quality to hear the music we were listening to clearly at a distance. This is important because it’s a music festival where aficionados gather!
The Concerts
With bins all set up, it was time to watch the music.
Patty Griffin was the headliner, but my favorites from the weekend were The East Pointers, Dustbowl Revival, The Steel Wheels, Colter Wall, and Claire Hunter. Here’s Dustbowl in action:
It’s also important to remember to be charged when the sun is going down so you can take pics like these:
I always carry the Astro E1 and the PowerCore 5000 with me because people run out of battery around this time! They are small and portable, so I can hand them to someone when they ask. I also carry a lightning, a usb a to C, and a micro so I have everyone covered. I double up on the micro and usb c by using the usb-c adapter with the powerline + micro. It’s a really great solution.
The Night
One thing I can say about the Bolder LC series is that…they are BRIGHT. This can be a bad thing, because you can disturb people in campsites if you have a ridiculously bright flashlight. Fortunately, the Bolder series has three settings for brightness so you can ease off the light if you need to. I even had one person ask me what I was doing when I was going to the bathroom because my flashlight was so bright.
Another time, someone lost her sunglasses, which were on her head while dancing. When she figured out they were gone, I pulled out the LC 40 (which was conveniently located in my pocket due to its compact size) and shined the light on the ground where we were dancing. Because the light was so bright, someone noticed it and came to us and said “Are you looking for sunglasses? I just found some.” Of course, they were the ones we were looking for!
I also use the bolders to light the cooking tent and sleeping tent at night. Just prop them up so they point at the roof of the canopy or tent and they provide a nice even light across the whole area. It also helped some of our volunteers find our campsite in the dark because we were so well lit!
Finally, because of the solar panels and the rechargeable batteries in the New Bolder LC40 and LC90, I start every night knowing my lights are fully charged. I just plug them in during the day and I am good to go for the next night. No need to carry spare disposable AA or AAAs!
The Morning
After a day of hard work and hard fun, it’s tempting to sleep in, but we had to clear the festival grounds of recycling before everyone gets there at 11am! Of course, everyone is out of charge on everything, so it’s time to bring out the PowerCores! The PowerCore Elite 20000 is crucial here for two reasons:
- It has THREE powerIQ ports, so you can charge lots of people at once.
- It has two micro inputs, so it charges from the solar panel faster than any of my other batteries.
You can see that the PowerCore Elite 20000 and the PowerCore Speed PD 20000 are both employing all of their ports in this pic. We also have a PowerCore 5000 and an Astro E1 in there.
Also, we didn’t really need to recharge the Icons (they have a very long playtime), but it’s good to top off. This pic demonstrates why I LOVE the Grommets in this panel:
After some breakfast and coffee, with our phones and watches and speakers all fully charged, we are ready to face the day ahead. We plug in the PowerCore battery banks to the solar panels and secure them to a bin or chair, and head off to collect.
Collection
This is main thing we are here to do. Basically, we drive the truck through the venue and collect all the recyclables from the bins. It looks like this (notice the Soundcore Icon hanging from my truck handle keeping us pumped up):
We get at least two truckloads like this from the venue each day:
We then pile them and bail them for transport. The total haul is around 2,000 lb (~907 kg) of recycling.
It’s hot, dry, and thirsty work, but music helps ALOT. That’s where we couldn’t do it without the Icons. At the end of collection, you can be sure happiness is an empty truck.
And…Repeat!
Then everything starts over again since this is a three-day festival! That’s why the solar panels are so important. We don’t leave the grounds all weekend (for the core team of five it’s a Thursday-Sunday commitment) and we need to stay charged to communicate and to take all of these photos. As the coordinator for the whole team, it’s my job to keep everyone happy and this is a part of that process. This is a key part of what I do, and I couldn’t do it without a full set of Anker products.
Conclusion
So…what do you think of reviews for multiple product applications instead of just a single unboxing video? I think it’s a lot neater to see how people are using these products over the long haul. My first Anker product was the PowerPort Solar in the photo above and I’ve had it for about three years. It’s still a vital part of my camping set. It even endured a short rainstorm this weekend and simply continued charging. I can’t recommend it enough. Anyway, thanks for reading and let me know what you think of this review style in the comments!
And thank you for all the eye candy aka pics.
I have been using BT speakers in it for years.