Hi I’ve seen the recent announcement of more Powerhouse and the Solix brand launch. I’d thought I’d give a non-marketing more engineering response as a suggestion with specific value-add ideas which would make Anker products better and so likely sell more successfully. I’ve made these suggestions below but I’m collating again here.
This is my current stored Lithium power
I’ve accumulated over a 7 year period.
- Powercore 6700 (2017 still working!)
- Powercore 10000 PD Slim x2
- Powercore 10000 PD
- Powercore 20000 PD x2
- Powercore 26800 x2 (one of them from 2016 still working!)
- A UPS with 100Wh and surge protector to protect the TV etc
In addition rechargeable Bolder lights accumulated over a similar period
Lc40 original x2, LC40 current x3, LC90, LC130 x2
These are placed in rooms where people would be stationary (living room, bedroom) and by each home exit (to grab on way out if in a hurry, but more usually to grab for walking dog in winter)
In addition I have Eufy stick-on AAA powered lights
These are mostly rested over door frames as then glue can’t fail, some are glued on but placed nearer to ground so they’d fall a shorter distance.
Collectively this represents a highly redundant and automatic way to handle power outages. One Powercore may fail but all of them? Highly unlikely. One of the Bolder flashlights may fail but all of them? Unlikely. One of the Eufy lights may fail, but all of them? Unlikely.
I can spread these around (and indeed do) so any physical damage is unlikely to impact all of them, e.g. a ground floor may be flooded but upstairs not.
If one of these were to fail in 18 month warranty (some have) it’s either a simple post back then replacement comes or if photo evidence proves a serious fault a replacement sent out and I locally discard the failed unit. As such it’s very “postage-light” each item is letter-box size or fit in the Amazon Locker etc type drop-off locations.
So it’s going to be pretty difficult to be without power and light. I have similar redundancy for cooking, heating, water, transport. None of these are expensive (e.g cooking is a camping stove I’ve had for 40 years).
So now let’s look at your Powerhouse product design paradigms:
- you’re emphasising long-life cells, which is good but that doesn’t mean all cells will last that length.
- your products are not self-serviceable, if a part were to fail you have to send the whole unit back, challenging given the amount of Lithium and courier’s reluctance to handle.
- there’s no apparent internal redundancy.
Take for example this announced product
There’s a 3 year warranty and mention of reliable cells.
But:
- how many cells have to fail before the unit is dead? 1, 2, 3… ?
- the more cells (larger Powerhouse) the more chance a cell will fail, so larger more expensive Powerhouse will fail earlier surely?
- a simple fewer-cells Powercore may only have a 18 month warranty but their very simplicity is part of that I’m averaging years more than warranty, but your complex many-cells products are highly likely to fail soon after 3 years, so factoring expected life the Powercore redundant paradigm is also better value.
- my Powercore (top photo) I’ve had a couple fail in warranty, but most are working years outside of warranty, some now 7 years old. How long will your design last after 3 years warranty? My Bolder flashlights, I’ve had 1 die in warranty and got sent a replacement, 2 died outside of warranty but their working parts I’m keeping to swap over to make the other flashlights work.
- You’re clearly into moving parts (the pull-up light) so you know moving parts add failure, and yet you don’t have pull-out modular battery packs - why? My UPS has it.
- why can’t we self-service?
- why do we have to return whole unit and not just the failed component? The UPS I owned if the battery fails outside of warranty I can buy another.
- surely you’re not being Green at all as the whole unit, both working and failed parts is then useless. While in the redundant modular approach that day is vastly delayed.
Suggestion:
- engage here with the community of folks with varied background, collectively knowing more than Anker
- design a redundant architecture with modular self-service returnable / disposable sub-components to reduce the environment impact (shipping, landfill).
e.g. what if 2 cells in each 8 cells could fail before the 8 cell unit was dead, and so you’ve lose some capacity but not capability, and only when all sets of 8 cells dead is unit dead.
Happy to help. Not just me, I can’t think of everything - neither can Anker - but a Community collectively would and could given a chance.
Until you do, your green credentials are looking very low. You’ve just announced a whole lot more landfill just outside of warranty. You’re not specific about what happens in warranty so they end up in landfill too?