Ozito or Einhell USB Power Bank - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Shock
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2025, 09:44:33 am
content: Recently I've been looking at a repairable or upgradable solution for long lasting USB power banks both in capacity and work life.My usage case so far is travelling with remote isolated work but I need with that some form of secondary off-grid energy storage solution that is very portable, fairly inexpensive WaH/cost but something that isn't totally buying into a Chinese nightmare, become unavailable in the future or fail without being repairable. Possibly upgradable on top sounds like a nice bonus.At the same time I needed to update my power tools and so wondered if I could kill two birds with one stone and buy into an ecosystem that is low cost but gives me lighting, fans (cooling), power tools, USB power and battery powered soldering (I currently use a butane powered iron).So looking around I found the various brands, Milwaukee, Makita, Bosch, Dewalt, Ryobi etc but those gave me heart palpitations looking at the battery costs. I'm green focused and paying literally hundreds for a disposable (but at least recyclable) battery like that every so many years seems so wasteful. I can fortunately repack, but the upfront cost was horrendous.While dreaming of the high capacity batteries to run a circular saw reliably I stumbled on the prices of the Ozito (Einhell in Germany) brand. Sold here in Australia at Bunnings and as Einhell in the EU. Last time I checked Ozito was fairly low tier but I noticed some good reviews on some of their tools (not all) and most importantly no glaring complaints. They come with a 5 year warranty here and 3 years on the batteries which is quite reasonable.So even still about $40 AUD for a 18V 2aH battery and $69 AUD for an 18V 4aH battery didn't really excite me. It means I'm looking at mid hundred to two hundred investment starting point per setup tool.That was until I checked out the sales, Bunnings seems to aggressively market Ozito against other low brands around May and when a new model is released they offer low cost kits which can include a battery and charger.Best of all they are replacing their brushed tools with newer updated brushless designs (thanks Einhell) and since these are fairly new have had a series of low cost deals. Including for batteries 4aH on sale 3 for $100 and a 2.5aH battery and charger for only $20 (amongst others).The tool discounts were substantial and many were 50-75% off meaning I was roughly able to come away with a fleet of modern low cost tools and some serious battery capacity (many days worth) for around $500 AUD.

author: Shock
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2025, 09:45:36 am
content: Ozito/Einhell sell a $20 AUD USB adaptor for their batteries, at that price it's well worth it just to get the enclosure. It seems to have a limited charging rate but they will likely update it or I can retrofit something into it.Aftermarket chinese sellers do several types of power supplies, gadgets and led lights that fit the packs directly. Though I'm mostly interested in re-purposing their cheaper enclosure to break out the connection. Of course I could run lighting from USB but my thoughts are if I needed something larger adapt 40VDC constant current lighting to 36V (dual battery).These are seemingly easy packs to get into others have covered this before but I'll include Julian's video below. Most importantly easy to retrofit new cells into when these become end of life and hopefully get an even longer second run.The best cost capacity (Ozito at least) is on the 4aH deal unless you buy and resell the chargers from the 2.5aH charger pack which effectively make them about a $5 AUD for a 2.5aH battery pack.There's a strong temptation from some to besmirch cheaper tool brands but at this price if I've a failure I can warranty it as new and either offload it at cost or get a refund. I'm also earning while using the tools and the screw, wood, pipe, panel often gives zero care to what tool did the job. Fans and lighting can be setup to have days of runtime.For soldering there are a few projects already but I'll probably use a variable input battery powered station and run it direct off 18V, USB would seem counter intuitive until the newer stations are designed.If you go down this path, chargers are very easy to get as they throw them into kits. In fact I virtually have one for every battery at this point which means I can charge every battery I intend to use within 90mins. Now I could do this as well with lab gear but the one click lock to charge is way easier when I have mains power. It's not intended to replace a large power station or off grid batteries but more reduce their use to refrigeration as well as providing redundancy and offline storage.There is some talk of the same controller being used across several models, but there are also different cells used on different packs.Quotehttps://youtube.com/watch?v=pi3EVvdaPuw

author: Shock
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2025, 11:39:27 am
content: TLDR:Dual purpose cheap energy storage for offgrid and mobile remote work.Oh and I'm interested in others thoughts and what you have repurposed power tool battery packs for, or anything pertaining to off grid working.Obviously I can throw money at it and solve any problem but mobile and portable fans and lighting is a real bitch to setup and move in itself and lugging generators and power stations around doesn't do it for me either (but they have their place).

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2025, 03:40:44 pm
content: On the other side of the world I'd say Parkside for hobbyist power tools, but Einhell is around equivalent.

author: Shock
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2025, 06:39:22 am
content: A quick observation Parkside battery packs seem built to a lower cost. But I'm mostly concerned with price and longevity. The little charger flipping hack brings down 20650 cells to around 0.50e, $1 AUD each (with a controller and enclosure).I've not heard any complaints of high failures so I'll assume they are made to spec in China. But anyway still an early game, tools are holding up well.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2025, 09:27:57 am
content: Check out theOzito thread in the Whirlpool forums, or at least the tail end, people will often post when Bunnings is selling stuff on special. According to older posts there Bunnings will drop their prices by around 50% when Aldi do a sale on their cordless tools in order to price-match, so you can buy new batteries at half of retail if you wait around a bit.The batteries are surprisingly good quality, they haveall the intelligence in the batteryrather than dumb batteries like Dewalt (I think) use so the battery pack more or less takes care of itself.

author: Shock
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 07, 2025, 02:03:58 am
content: Hope mine aren't potted heavily like that, what a complete bitch to work on. I'm going to tear down a few and look.Yeah I think Dewalts a dumb battery, only a couple of tiny PCBs which are probably the pin/temp breakouts and fuel gauge.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 08, 2025, 12:52:34 am
content: Quote from: Shock on August 07, 2025, 02:03:58 amThe older ones weren't potted, it's only the newer ones that have been... I'm not sure if I'd say they're potted but more engoopified (c.f. enshittified). I'm guessing it's to make the electronics more resistant to vibrations from the tools.Yup, DeWalt despite their premium prices are dumb batteries, which means things like those USB powerbank adapter things can destroy them - Big Clive did a video on them recently.

author: Shock
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 08, 2025, 03:03:45 am
content: I opened them up and yes they are soft gooped. Not ideal, would have preferred just a clear conformal coating, but could be worse.That whirlpool thread is huge, thanks.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 09, 2025, 02:42:13 am
content: Quote from: Shock on August 08, 2025, 03:03:45 amYou definitely don't need the whole thing, just the occasional notice people will post about specials on right now... although it's been awhile since I saw one of those, so maybe interest has died down a bit.