Not A Fan of Fuel Rod, But .....

[Princess_Lisa]

Does anyone know if the Fuel Rods have an adapter for S8? This phone has some funky new kind of android adapter, not like the standard one. Kind of annoying.

Also, how long does it take to charge your phone? Do you have to leave it connected most of the time? Sorry if these are stupid questions. I've never used a battery pack power source for any phone before.

I believe the S8 uses USB-C, so the short answer is no. As far as how long, it takes a while. I leave mine connected the entire time. It is not too large, so it isn't that big of a deal to leave it connected.

 

[FortForever]

I believe the S8 uses USB-C, so the short answer is no. As far as how long, it takes a while. I leave mine connected the entire time. It is not too large, so it isn't that big of a deal to leave it connected.

Thanks, I didn't even know what the connector was called. Now I do.

I use my phone all day long at Disney, both for photos, FP, deciding where to eat, etc. My old phone only ran out of battery at the end of a 12 hour, or longer, day. I probably shouldn't have let the AT&T lady talk me into these new phones for everyone. They don't hold a charge like my Droid Turbo did, and don't fit the standard Android adapters.

The fuel rod kind of looks like a AA battery. Is it about that size?

 

[KittyKitty]

The fuel rods appear to be merely 18650 cells and what we also don't know is if they were ever subjected to an overcharge or over-discharge state. The built in BMS should be robust enough to detect a VCO on charge/discharge (or thermal runaway), but the damage done from even a single cycle can cause excessive dendrite growth on the anode/cathode and even the best separators are vulnerable.

me

 

[hertamaniac]

View attachment 265341 me

Nice!

 

[LYSE]

Seems be to enough locations all aroud..ill just stick with my own though not sure why swapping things is appealing when you could have one last you all day

Thanks, I didn't even know what the connector was called. Now I do.

I use my phone all day long at Disney, both for photos, FP, deciding where to eat, etc. My old phone only ran out of battery at the end of a 12 hour, or longer, day. I probably shouldn't have let the AT&T lady talk me into these new phones for everyone. They don't hold a charge like my Droid Turbo did, and don't fit the standard Android adapters.

The fuel rod kind of looks like a AA battery. Is it about that size?

USB type C is the future so don't sweat it...it would be like complaining about the old connector when it first came out.

The good news is that you can just bring your cable that came with the s8 charger and use that on any portable charger since the end that goes into your phone is C but the other end is A (normal full sized usb end)...or you can use any adapters you like (like the ones that come with the phone) the s8 fast charging probably wont work but charging at a reduced speed shouldn't be a problem.

If you choose not to go fuel rod you can buy portable chargers that have type C so you can use a type c to type c cable and get faster charging.

 

[tnolan]

You can get usb-C adapters at Amazon for less than $10 a set of 2, then simply put one inbetween your phone and the charging cord of the Fuel Rod, that should do it. They look like theyr'e about an inch long each.

 

[Robo]

1. Does anyone know if the Fuel Rods have an adapter for S8? This phone has some funky new kind of android adapter, not like the standard one. Kind of annoying.

2. Also, how long does it take to charge your phone? Do you have to leave it connected most of the time? Sorry if these are stupid questions. I've never used a battery pack power source for any phone before.

1. A Fuel Rod does not come with the "USB-Type C" cord cable, but if you have the USB charger cord that you normally use with the phone, just bring it with you.
2. With these low-current type of chargers, they can take awhile to charge a phone.
If the phone battery is very low, you may want to just leave the Fuel Rod connected.

 

[FortForever]

...or you can use any adapters you like (like the ones that come with the phone)

Okay, so you just saved me some $$$, thank you! I was looking at adapters and reading reviews. Deciding it was too risky to get generic ones, so decided on Samsung brand only. Actually had them in my Amazon cart for the entire family! This post popped up and I went and got my box, sure enough ... Adapter!! Woo Hoo!

ETA: Two adapters! I didn't even know these are in there. Now hopefully the rest of the family has theirs. Likely so since they are way more into these new phones than I am.

 

[Minsc]

The fuel rod kind of looks like a AA battery. Is it about that size?

Take a look at my pictures on the previous page. I used a tube of chapstick for comparison. For the sake of Redditors, I should have used a banana, but I didn't have one handy at the time.

 

[FortForever]

Take a look at my pictures on the previous page. I used a tube of chapstick for comparison. For the sake of Redditors, I should have used a banana, but I didn't have one handy at the time.

Thank you so much! Perfect comparison photos. Seems like Fuel Rods are the way to go for Disney. I'll go ahead and order some so we will have for our October trip.

 

[Monykalyn]

I got a Fuel rod earlier this month on our trip. We have the "better" portable chargers as well, but that is noticeably heavier. What I liked about the rod is the small size, easy to plug in and carry with my phone, nice to swap out on the go. I would plug it in and charge overnight as well. The convenience was worth the cost for me. It would charge my phone (iphone 6) fairly quickly-but I would put it in low power mode as well. Would give a good boost pretty quick. Obviously the downside is the capacity to charge multiple phones from dead to full charge, but that isn't what I bought the rod for.
I have also used it at home-easy to charge at night and toss in my purse when I go out-because it is so small I can carry both the rod and phone in my hand when I go out, or lay on a table. Since I have several trips planned I do think it was/is a good purchase for me.

 

[HarperLeigh]

First time I used my Mophie, I couldn't figure out why it wasn't charging my phone. I didn't realize the Mophie had an "on" button. One of my friends had to point that out to me.

Mine doesn't have an on switch. You plug in the cord and it starts charging automatically.

 

[Princess_Lisa]

The fuel rod kind of looks like a AA battery. Is it about that size?

Same basic shape, but larger. I'd guess a little thinner than a C Battery with the proportions of a AA.

 

[hiroMYhero]

Take a look at my pictures on the previous page. I used a tube of chapstick for comparison. For the sake of Redditors, I should have used a banana, but I didn't have one handy at the time.

Actually, I'm amazed that this thread is almost 5 pages in length and no one has stated, "lipstick-sized charger" especially when that's how they are described on Amazon.

 

[SureAsLiz]

Okay, so you just saved me some $$$, thank you! I was looking at adapters and reading reviews. Deciding it was too risky to get generic ones, so decided on Samsung brand only. Actually had them in my Amazon cart for the entire family! This post popped up and I went and got my box, sure enough ... Adapter!! Woo Hoo!

ETA: Two adapters! I didn't even know these are in there. Now hopefully the rest of the family has theirs. Likely so since they are way more into these new phones than I am.

My S8 does not like using the fuel rod cord + adapter that came with the phone. I would get some error about an incomplete connection every time I plugged it in. The best I could hope for was a slower drain, but it never actually charged.

I now just use a cord that I bought from Amazon and have had no problems.

 

[chartle]

Actually, I'm amazed that this thread is almost 5 pages in length and no one has stated, "lipstick-sized charger" especially when that's how they are described on Amazon.

But what if you don't use Lipstick?

But if you want to see how big they are in real life look at any cylindrical 2,200 mAh or so charger that you may see checking out at Walmart or in any electronics section of any store. At Walmart they sell them for about $4.88 but they come with just a short micro usb and I doubt the actual rating of the battery is anywhere close to 2,200 mAh. Also you can't swap it out at your whim in areas that you would need to.

Wish they had something in NYC. We had to go to a Best Buy and buy a big brick to charge my wife's phone so she could catch more Pokemon. Barely got through the day with the amount of charge it had when we bought it.

Next trip we may go for this so we don't have to carry around a big brick and thats the convenience. Yes you can carry around your big Anker or Morphie brick because it has all this huge amount of capacity or you can buy a Fuel Rod and carry around a much smaller unit that has in effect unlimited capacity.

But here is a question, anyone ever go to a kiosk and find that they are out of charged ones or even ones to buy? I'm assuming that when you return a dead one it has a system to recharge it in the machine or is it much less sophisticated and every night they pick up the dead ones and reload it with fresh ones and then recharge them in some central location?

 

[elgerber]

And last stupid question, I can pick one up at my airport on the way down, for a lower price, as long as the machine is a Fuel Rod machine?

 

[LYSE]

And last stupid question, I can pick one up at my airport on the way down, for a lower price, as long as the machine is a Fuel Rod machine?

Doesn't matter where you get it.

Also, I see a lot of people here talk about the small size and that's a major factor...you guys know you can get similar size/weight chargers with 5x 10x the charging capacity for about $15-30 right?

 

[b2k1121]

Doesn't matter where you get it.

Also, I see a lot of people here talk about the small size and that's a major factor...you guys know you can get similar size/weight chargers with 5x 10x the charging capacity for about $15-30 right?

They are $10 cheaper outside of Disney property. Their main advantage over the ones you are referencing is that they can be swapped out for a new one whenever you want so you don't need to recharge them.

 

[LYSE]

They are $10 cheaper outside of Disney property. Their main advantage over the ones you are referencing is that they can be swapped out for a new one whenever you want so you don't need to recharge them.

Yeah but are you swapping them out more than 5 to 10 times a day? If not then buying your own is the way to go...saves you time tracking down the fuel rod machines...I just don't see it

At the end of the day your still re charging everything else right? I'm not sure how game changing it is to charge one less device at night.