Medis 24/7 fuel-cell power pack Video

Medis 24/7 fuel-cell power pack Video Transcript

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>> Hi I'm Elsa Wenzel senior associate editor with CNET. What can you do if you're on the road and your phone runs out of juice? You could power up with a portable charger that gets energy from the sun, wind, or even a hand crank - or you could check out the Medis 24/7 power pack. It's the first portable fuel-cell power supply for consumers. It comes in 2 flavors, this 1 watt pack or the 4 watt extreme edition for charging more powerful toys like iPhones. Getting started is simple; first you peel of the tape, you squeeze the pack so that it clamps down into a smaller form, and then you shake it which sets off a chemical reaction inside. Once you shake it, just pop in this connector and get the right adaptor and you're ready to plug it in and charge it within about 15 seconds. Some people might consider this off grid charger a green device. Other fuel-cell technologies use methanol, but Medis uses a mineral that can be reused as an ingredient even in detergents. The packaging also uses recycled PET plastic. When you're done, you can mail it back to the company. The power pack costs between 30 to 40 dollars, that's supposed to be enough for 30 hours of talk time on a phone. Replacement packs are 20 dollars. That's not really cheap compared to other devices on the market, but this could come in handy during an emergency and it would fit right into your car's glove compartment. Plus you can take it on a plane, no problem. The power pack is more powerful than inexpensive hand crank gadgets that can boost the dwindling power on a cell phone, and unlike with some solar devices there's no wait time to power up the charger. You're also not at the mercy of the weather to get it going. I'm Elsa Wenzel and this is the Medis 24/7 fuel-cell power pack. [ music ]