This is the Block Tower Power Station from the team at Barebones, it’s a vintage-inspired lithium-ion power bank with a huge +100 Watt hour battery capacity meaning it can charge smartphones, laptops, iPads, flashlights, GPS units, and more when you’re off grid.
Heavy duty portable power units like this have become increasingly important in recent years, as many need to find a way to keep their devices charged when they’re camping, hiking, or on longer overlanding trips countless miles from the nearest power outlet.
The Barebones Block Tower Power Station is the largest battery unit offered by the company, with up to +100 Wh battery capacity making it ideal as a primary power source when you’re off grid.
Barebones: A History Speedrun
Barebones was founded by Robert Workman in 2012 as a philanthropic endeavor, the company’s first product was a state-of-the-art emergency shelter that was then provided in significant numbers to underprivileged communities and used extensively disaster recovery efforts around the world.
Perhaps most notably, 97 of these shelters were set up in Nepal and given electrical power via a GoalZero series of solar panel and battery system units. These shelters are used across the country as maternal health clinics for women in rural areas, providing them with professional midwives and vastly improved standards of care.
Barebones has since grown from only making shelters to making a wide range of gear and equipment, much of it intended for use in the great outdoors. They’re producing everything from fire pits and skillets to machetes, felling axes, bags, lanterns, knives, and more.
The Barebones Block Tower Power Station
The Barebones Block Tower Power Station is the largest battery unit offered by the company, with up to +100 Wh battery capacity making it ideal as a primary power source when you’re off grid. It can be recharged from regular power outlets as well as from correctly configured renewable sources like solar panels and portable wind turbines.
Up to five devices at a time can be charged by the Block Tower Power Station from the USB-C and USB-A ports, and through the units built-in wireless charging capability – ideal for compatible smartphones and audio devices like AirPods.
The unit has a dimmable, analog display showing battery level or Watts in/out, it has a leather carry handle on top, and importantly, it has replaceable internal batteries meaning you can swap them out when they degrade after many years of use.
Up to five devices at a time can be charged by the Block Tower Power Station from the USB-C and USB-A ports, and through the units built-in wireless charging capability – ideal for compatible smartphones and audio devices like AirPods.
The Block Tower Power Station has an aluminum body with an antique-style brass faceplate, as well as various leather and copper accents. The face has a pair of retro dials as well as your in-out and out ports for power.
The unit is now available from Barebones for $249.99 USD. It comes with free shipping and a two-year warranty. If you’d like to read more about it or get your own you can visit the store listing here.
Images courtesy of Barebones
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.