Product Review: BlitzWolf 6 port USB charger

Sometimes when I really like a product I also do product reviews which are not strictly Internet-of-Things or DIY related. This review belongs into this category. It is about the BlitzWolf Power3S 50W 6-port USB Charger.

Do you know this? You are traveling with your family, staying in a hotel room and you just don’t have enough chargers of outlets to charge all the wonderful gadgets that your life depends on? Well, your life doesn’t really depend on the gadgets but you and your family surely behave like it! You might even be prepared and you did bring a power adapter for that strange plug type of the country you are. But you just have ONE adapter and only one night per 24h to charge them all!

For a situation like this I bought the BlitzWolf Power3S 50W 6-port USB Charger. First the specs: as the name implies the charger has 6 USB ports of which each can pull 2.4A. The charger can be used with an input ranging from 100-240V and 50 or 60Hz which makes it suitable to most if not all countries. With the specified 50W it should have enough power to charge a little army of devices in parallel.

Home Test

First I installed the device at home to charge various devices in parallel, like a Samsung 10″ tablet, Samsung smart phone, iPhone 6S, a Kindle and various battery backs by Xiaomi. The device did really well and it didn’t even hot (just warm), which I would expect for a load like this. Even at home this charger has the big advantage that you don’t have to fill your multiple socket outlet with USB chargers or wait in line until one device is fully charged. You just plug one wire into mains power and that’s it. It seems (but I have not tested this scientifically) that all the devices were charged with the fast charge mode if they were capable of it. If I had one wish free to improve it I would add some anti-slip nobs at the bottom of the device to keep it in place more easily.

Field Test

As I mentioned at the beginning of the review the main reason to buy this charger was traveling with the family to save weight and troubles during a stay in a hotel. I was recently lucky enough to have an extended trip with my family to Portugal and Brazil. Portugal uses the EU plug with 240V and 50Hz so this was not much different from my home in Switzerland. The EU plugs and the plugs in Switzerland are “pin compatible” so I didn’t really expect any problems there. And we really didn’t have any problems: we could charge our two smartphones and the tablet as well as the Xiaomi battery backs without any problems. My wife even had the idea to use the lids which cover the plugs as a stand for her smart phone.

Brazil with its various kinds of plugs and power systems was the more interesting field for a test. I use this website as a reference for the plug names. I have seen here either the type A plug (or American type) or a mix between types A and C (EU type). While I had ordered the charger with a EU type cable I only could use the mixed plugs but there it worked without problems. The charger also had no problems with the 120V offered by these outlets.

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During the trip I had another idea: if I would travel to country where my EU cord wouldn’t work I probably would order one specifically for the country I plan to travel to. Since the plug on the charger is standardized and used by many devices chances even are that you already own such a cable. If you don’t have one, you can order one here.

Summary

The price between $20-30 is certainly not exactly cheap but I have to say for travelling as well for usage at home the little device has really been worth its money. For travelling you save yourself the hustle to cary with you many wall warts and to fight over outlets in the hotels. At home it just helps to you to be more organized and saves you outlets for other devices and possibly from using a multiple socket outlet for mains power.

Where to buy?

If you are a frequent reader of this blog you probably already know that I get most of my low price gadgets from Banggood. If it is not urgent they ship for free to many countries and they have an excellent customer support should you not be happy with the product.