Battery Power Pack - would this work for camping?

[Hydrangea]

On QVC, I saw the HALO Bolt AC DC Wireless Phone Charger & Car Jump Starter w/ Car Charger.  (Not sure if I can put a link here.)

They don't mention CPAPs.  But as I was watching about how it can power so many things, I was wondering if it could be used for powering a CPAP for a night or two. 

Would you mind googling it, taking a look at it, and letting me know what you think?

[jaswilliams]

It was very difficult to work out it Contains a

44,400mWh lithium-polymer battery which I assume is rated at 7.5volts

I ran the numbers through various converters to get a capacity of 5.9ah


Based on the resmed battery guide to run a Resmed Autoset 10 at a pressure of 10 no humidifier and no heated house uses 12 ah for an 8 hour night so it is unlikely you will get a full night out of it.


I might have got the maths wrong I don’t know...

[Sleep2Snore]

I doubt if it would even run that long, their claims are way out there.
You can get better power banks, but you would need an inverter as well for mains and it would need a step up to run 24v or 12vDC directly.
It will charge phones etc, but most of it is all marketing hype.
So jaswilliams is right, it is unlikely to last long enough for a nap.
They show it lighting a lamp on a demo, but it is low energy bulb they are using.
Don't fall for the sales hype.

[RayBee]

I agree with the assessments.

Again, using Resmed's battery chart, assuming electronics have 100% efficiency (far from reality), and in a perfect world, I figured about 1 hour, 40 minutes run time with no humidifier or heated hose. So, with slightly tired batteries and inefficiencies of all the electronics involved - maybe an hour and small change in the real world.

I have run numbers for others here on AB with regard to battery backup systems.  It seems that using an average (power consumption-wise) Resmed 10 series PAP machine, with heated hose and humidifiers running somewhere in the middle of their respective operating ranges, and pressures in the low to mid teens, you could get 8 hours of run-time with a 500Wh Portable Power Station.  And you would have little (25% +/-) reserve after that (not two nights though). And you could get away with as little as 250Wh (or even a tad less) if you used the machine sans heated hose and humidifier at moderate pressures.

There are many good uses for portable power stations too - camping with CPAP, running small (not too power hungry) appliances, charging cell phones, powering your garage door opener during a power outage.

Hope this helps. All the best.

[S.L. Ping Beauty]

@OP: Are you intending to use the proposed set-up for dry camping? That is, not in an RV?

I dry camp/ boondock off the grid (no shore power) in my truck camper. But it has two (2) group 27 RV house batteries and I use a ResMed DC power converter for my AirSense 10. I can go all night using no heated tube. I am frugal with my power usage for general lighting and turning the furnace fan if winter camping but do run my generator for an hour or two each day to "top off" the batteries.

Not sure if this helps, but it is how I camp off the grid.

[Hydrangea]

Thanks for all the responses. This forum is full of educated folks! I guess I'll keep looking for a battery, though.

S.L.PingBeauty - No, I'm not interested in camping. But somewhere I like to visit loses power often (sometimes for a day or two), and I'd like to have something handy for me to use to power my CPAP. My current solution is just to drive elsewhere, to somewhere with power, so I can sleep for the night. It's discouraging.

[OMyMyOHellYes]

if it's a fixed location you sould stash a battery there on a good maintenance charger. If not, and you have your car, a moderate SLA/AGM (sealed lead acid/absorbed glass mat) battery would be a great inexpensive solution. Without heated humogrification, depending on your unit and settings an 18 AH may suffice for a couple of nights (my 35 or 39 AH batters will go me for a week or better.)

[Blak Gibbs]

Not sure about HALO Bolt AC DC
But I had a chance to test Jackery Explorer 240 and PICOWE
That being said, you can safely use the Explorer 500 outdoors in optimal conditions and most of these restrictions have no effect on its value as an emergency power source.
Also mentioned in promotional material is the power bank’s potential to keep a CPAP machine running, but that is contradicted in the user manual:
Our product is not suitable to be used with equipment that relates to one’s own personal safety and relies heavily on electricity, such as medical devices...

Jackery

Again, if you’re in a situation with no power, being able to plug in a CPAP machine to the Explorer 500 power bank seems to me to be a much better option than going without altogether, but the mixed messaging is confusing.

I didn't connect them to a CPAP machine but I used them in my camping trip and a portable power station is a must have piece of gear in the outdoors.

[RayBee]

Not sure about HALO Bolt AC DC
But I had a chance to test Jackery Explorer 240 and PICOWE
That being said, you can safely use the Explorer 500 outdoors in optimal conditions and most of these restrictions have no effect on its value as an emergency power source.
Also mentioned in promotional material is the power bank’s potential to keep a CPAP machine running, but that is contradicted in the user manual:
Our product is not suitable to be used with equipment that relates to one’s own personal safety and relies heavily on electricity, such as medical devices...

Jackery

Again, if you’re in a situation with no power, being able to plug in a CPAP machine to the Explorer 500 power bank seems to me to be a much better option than going without altogether, but the mixed messaging is confusing.

I didn't connect them to a CPAP machine but I used them in my camping trip and a portable power station is a must have piece of gear in the outdoors.

First of all, reference the ResMed Battery Guide.  Hopefully your CPAP is listed.  If not, or you have a different brand, then you might have to make some assumptions, or find out some additional information about your xPAP machine.

The short answer to specific power supplies...
The HALO Bolt AC DC is rated at 58,830 MWh = 58.8 Watt-Hours, so No.  It may run a CPAP for 10 minutes to 30 minutes tops.
The Jackery Explorer 240 is rated at 240 Wh, so perhaps.  If you don't use the built-in humidifier or heated hose, then maybe.
The Picowe 250 is rated at 250 Wh, so basically the same as the Jackery, perhaps.
The Explorer 500 is a much better choice.  So, yes, as a minimum.

Here's what will get you in the ballpark of what you need.  Look at the ResMed Battery Guide and look up your xPAP machine and close to your operating conditions.  Now look at the right-most column "Current draw @ 12V DC (amps)".

The calculations we will be using is Volts x Amps x Hours = Watt-Hours (Wh).

So for an example, you have an AirSense 10 AutoSet, and you run an IPAP of 16 cm H2O, and you use the humidifier set to 4.  The chart says your current draw is 3.33 amps at 12V DC.  Now we can plug in the numbers.

Manipulating the formula above, we can solve for different things.  And using the example above...

240 Wh (Jackery Explorer 240) ÷ 12 volts (from the ResMed chart) ÷ 3.33 amps (from the ResMed chart) =  6 Hours of run-time.

and/or...

12 volts x 3.33 amps x 9 hours of sleep = 360 Wh required.

Now you have to realize that there are inefficiencies in these power supplies that are necessary to run the internal electronics and their power conversion processes.  And the batteries will degrade and lose capacity over time and with the number of charge/discharge power cycles.  So we must consider the price we pay for these inefficiencies.  You could probably figure 75% for these inefficiencies and longevity issues. So...

360 Wh ÷ 0.75 = 480 Wh.  So the Explorer 500 should serve the purpose of the 9-hour sleep-time example above for quite some time.

As for the manufacturer's disclaimer.  Their lawyers make them include it to release them of liability issues.

I hope this helps.

[jimc77]

I bought a battery and power converter last year about this time for a motorcycle camping trip. I wasn't willing to pay over $300 for my setup. With a bit of research, I found an 11,000mAh battery and a 24V power converter for $133 plus tax that worked very well for me. I used it with my ResMed S9 Elite. The battery lasted for 8 hours the first night and 8.5 hours the second night before the charge was depleted. I was very pleased with that performance. I did not use either the humidifier or the heated hose. The power converter also includes the DC electrical connector for the AirSense 10. I'll be getting an AirSense 10 next week. Here is the information for both the battery and the power converter:

Battery: TalentCell Rechargeable 12V/11000mAh 9V/14500mAh 5V/26400mAh DC Output Lithium ion Battery Pack for LED Strip and CCTV Camera, Portable Li-ion Power Bank with AC/DC Charger, Black
Power Converter: 24V Power Converter for Air 10/S9 Series and Freedom or C-100 CPAP Battery (Battery Not Included)