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Reviews > Electronic Devices > Chargers > Brunton Revolt 4000 USB > Test Report by Kurt PapkeBrunton Revolt 4000
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Name: | Kurt Papke |
Age: | 61 |
Gender: | Male |
Height: | 6' 4" (193 cm) |
Weight: | 220 lbs (99 kg) |
Email address: | kwpapke at gmail dot com |
City, State, Country: | Tucson, Arizona USA |
The Brunton Revolt 4000 is a ruggedized portable power
supply/charger for mobile electronic devices. The "4000" in
the name refers to its charge capacity of 4000mAh, a measure of
how much current the device can supply for a given period of
time. The following photo shows the details of the charger
in close-up:
Manufacturer: | Brunton,
Inc. |
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Manufacturer website: | http://www.brunton.com |
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Model: |
Revolt
4000 |
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Year of manufacture: | 2014-2015 |
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MSRP: |
$49.99
USD |
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Color tested: |
Black Also available: yellow, orange, mint green, olive green |
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Materials: |
Silicone
shell for shock protection Vibram ® base for non-skid on surfaces Battery is a lithium polymer |
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Size: |
7.6 x
7.6 x 3.3 cm (manufacturer) 7.6 x 7.6 x 2.7 cm (measured) 3 x 3 x 1 in (measured) |
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Weight: |
139
g (manufacturer) 166 g (measured) 5.9 oz (measured) |
Features not called out on the manufacturer's website but obvious
by observation:
The charger comes with a full page of instructions for use.
The instructions were clear and easy to follow, and I appreciated
the illustration pointing out the features for clarity.
I pressed the "B" button on the front, and all the LED's lit up indicating that the battery was fully charged. It is impossible to tell when it was last charged, but at least it kept its charge during shipping. I then plugged in the three devices that I typically take on backpacking trips, and it just so happens each of them has one of the unique connectors:
My iPhone, Kindle and iPod all indicated they were plugged into a
charger, all though the latter two were fully charged. I
unplugged those two leaving the iPod connected. After a few
minutes the charge LED's went out, and the iPod indicated it was
no longer being charged. I tried pressing the "B" button a
few times to re-initiate charging, and each time the behavior was
the same: it charged for a few minutes, then shut down. This
is a bit worrisome.
Next I tried plugging the charger into my laptop to make sure its
charge was topped off:
Note that the cable is reversed for this operation, the micro-USB
plugs into the charger, the full-sized USB into the computer.
Date |
Location |
Trail |
Distance |
Altitude |
Weather |
Devices Charged |
April 27 |
Saguaro National Park (West Unit - Tucson
Mountains) near Tucson, Arizona |
Sweetwater |
7 miles (11.3 km) |
2800-3900 ft (850-1190 m) |
Sunny, 75 F (24 C) |
iPhone |
May 5-7 |
Superstition Mountains near Phoenix, Arizona |
Superstitions
Loop |
19.1 miles (30.7 km) |
4300-5280 ft (1310-1610 m) |
Cloudy to sunny, 42-73 F (6-23 C) |
Kindle |
May 22-23 |
Saguaro National Park (East Unit - Rincon Mountains) near Tucson, Arizona | Quilter |
21.6 miles (34.8 km) |
3100-5500 ft (945-1675 m) |
Sunny, 32-70 F (0-21 C) |
iPhone |
During the latter part of March I spent 3 weeks with my sister in
Florida. Neither hiking nor camping involved, but lots of
time in airplanes, at the beach and walks around town.
I used the Revolt extensively during this trip to charge my iPod,
iPhone and Kindle. I discovered that my iPod Nano (2nd
generation) would only recharge through the Apple-supplied cable,
but not with the Brunton 3-in-1. I don't know why, but the
results were very repeatable. The good news is the USB
charging port on the Revolt is completely compatible with the
Apple cable, so it did work.
When I was prepping for the hike I noticed my iPhone battery was
nearly depleted, and I intended to do some serious photography and
videography along the way, so I threw the Revolt in my
backpack. Good thing - taking videos depletes the phone
battery pretty quickly, and by the time I arrived at my turnaround
point it was approaching zero, so I plugged the phone into the
Revolt.
This worked great. On the hike back to the trailhead
whenever I stopped to take a photograph or shoot some video I just
unplugged the phone from the charger, then plugged it back in
again when I replaced the phone in my pack. I was able to
complete the shots I hoped to get, and when I returned to my car
my iPhone had more of a charge than when I left!
I didn't anticipate that the Revolt charger would be useful on
day hikes, but I underestimated its usefulness.
From the Rogers Trough trailhead I combined the
Rogers Canyon, Frog Tank, and Reavis Ranch trails to make a good
loop hike. I charged only my Kindle on this trip, as shown
in the photo at left.
I really enjoyed being able to charge the device while I
hiked. I just plugged it in while breaking camp in the
morning, packed up the connected devices in a plastic bag, and
threw it in the elastic front pocket of my pack where the cable
connections would not get jostled. When I completed my hike
at the end of the day it was ready to go. I didn't charge
the Kindle in the evening because I often read in the evenings,
and will pick it back up and read more if I awake in the middle of
the night.
Charging seemed to use only a fraction of the battery power,
though my Kindle was not completely discharged.
This trip was an overnight backpack into the Rincon Mountains of
Saguaro National Park, camping at the Grass Shack
campground. I used my iPhone for photography, videography,
and for the first time as my GPS. With iOS 8.3 the GPS chip
now stays active in Airplane Mode, which extends the battery life
to the point that I can think about leaving my GPS at home, and
this trip was my first attempt to substitute my iPhone for my
GPS. This allows me to save the weight of my dedicated GPS
unit, but depletes my iPhone battery much more quickly, making a
charger like the Revolt essential.
After I arrived at my campsite and set up my shelter, I prepared
to recharge my iPhone to assure that I had a full charge for the
following day. The photo above depicts, left to right: the
Revolt showing fully charged in my campsite, my iPhone state
before charging, my iPhone state after charging just under 2 hours
later. The Revolt charging light was continuing to flash
despite my phone indicating that its battery was at 100%, so I'm
not sure exactly how long it took to charge from just over a
one-half full state. I had my iPhone powered down while
charging to minimize battery use, so I was not able to consult the
screen to determine the charge state. Upon completion the
Revolt showed 4/5 of the charge capacity LED's lit.
Date |
Location |
Trail |
Distance |
Altitude |
Weather |
Devices Charged |
July 11-13, 2015 |
Mogollon Rim in the Tonto National Forest |
Highline |
30.4 miles (49 km) |
5500-6900 ft (1675-2100 m) |
Partly cloudy to sunny, low temperature 58 F
(14.5 C), high about 85 F (29.5 C) |
iPod |
July 24-26, 2015 |
Chiricahua Mountains in the Coronado National
Forest |
Chiricahua
Crest Trail |
15 miles (24 km) |
8468-9795 ft (2581-2986 m) |
Sun, rain, sleet, we had it all. Lows
around 50 F (10 C), highs around 75 F (24 C) |
iPhone |
This was a two night trip to a trail that I had never explored
before. I only hiked about a third of this historic National
Recreation Trail, so this leaves me something to go back for.
I only used the Revolt to charge my dying iPod, and now I can
only get about 2 hours of play out of it before the battery dies,
which means I need to charge it daily on the trail because I
listen to it every night.
This was a three-day two-night backpacking trip, though we camped
at the trail head the first night. I made extensive use of
my iPhone on this trip, taking 162 photos and videos, and GPS
tracking the route on day two. On the evening of day one my
phone had about 66% of charge remaining, so I recharged it
overnight which seemed to hardly put a dent in the Revolt's charge
display. On day two my GPS tracking app (not the same app I
used on the Quilter Trail) completely depleted my iPhone battery
in about 3 hours, so I immediately plugged it into the Revolt and
brought it back up to 100%. This pretty much drained the
Revolt dry.
Since my last trip, my old iPod has pretty much died and will no
longer hold a charge. It stayed home on this trip, and I
used my iPhone to listen to podcasts, making me even more
dependent on my iPhone and keeping it charged.
I am preparing for a 6-day hike through the Sisters Wilderness of
Oregon in a few weeks. As I prepare for the trip I have some
concerns about the Revolt having enough capacity to last me for
that length of time. I'll need to conserve battery power to
make sure I can still take photos and videos on day 6, as well as
contact our ride at the trail head.
Overall I am a satisfied user of the Brunton Revolt 4000. I
intend to continue to use it on future backpacking trips until
such time that a charger with substantially higher capacity and
equal or less weight is available.
My iPhone 6 (with case) weighs 5.9 oz (166 g), almost exactly the
same as the Brunton Revolt 4000. Since I can get 1.5 phone
charges from the Revolt, I am still better off carrying the
charger than I am a backup phone.
Thanks to BackpackGearTest.org and Brunton for the opportunity to
contribute to this test.