Do you need a power bank for camping?

I’ll go over them here, including their pros and cons. For short camping trips, a lightweight power bank should be enough to keep your devices charged. For longer trips or photo gear, you’ll need a high-capacity power bank and ideally also a small solar panel for recharging it.

What are the disadvantages of a power bank?

You use the power bank to recharge the batteries. You’ll lose some capacity because of the conversion, so this is not an efficient solution. Another downside is that power banks might not provide enough juice for longer trips. They also won’t provide enough juice for high-power devices like photo gear.

Do you need a power bank for a rechargeable battery?

If some of your devices might still use AA or AAA batteries, then you’ll have to bring a power bank and spare batteries. Or you bring along a charger for your rechargeable batteries. You use the power bank to recharge the batteries. You’ll lose some capacity because of the conversion, so this is not an efficient solution.

Do you need a wall charger if you're on a trail?

Every time you get to town, you will need to hunt for outlets to get grid electricity into your devices. Charging fast means you can easily get in and out of town in a day. While on trail though, all your wall chargers are dead weight. Keeping them light and efficient is almost as important as their speed.

Should I keep my car running while charging devices?

You’ll need to keep the car running while charging devices. Otherwise you risk the car battery dying and not being able to start the car. It’s also really annoying to keep going to your car each time you want to charge devices. And you’ll only be able to charge USB devices — you won’t be able to run anything with high power needs such as a fan.

Are your wall chargers dead weight?

While on trail though, all your wall chargers are dead weight. Keeping them light and efficient is almost as important as their speed. To get a sense of how much charging bandwidth you need, add together the input charging rate of all the devices you will typically juice up in town.