 Before I go further, I need to say this. Even though I purchased it myself from B&H with the intention of publishing a review from a normal user's perspective, I was so appalled by the Brenton Hydrogen Reactor that I contacted them anyway, and spoke to customer support and the product manager who assured me the design was fine, and there might be something wrong with my unit. He said he'd exchange my unit for a new one, and since then I've waited over a month, during which time I've sent four requests for the new unit. They haven't replied, and all I can do now is assume they don't think sending a new one will help, so without further ado, here's my video. The Cooler Master Glacier 240L CPU Cooler delivers the convenience of an all-in-one, and the performance of a custom water cooler. Click now to learn more. Welcome to my unboxing of a product that many people are curious about, and no one seems to know much about, not even the manufacturer. The page about it, linked from the Brenton homepage, seems designed to give as little information as possible, with only a promotional video designed to appeal to outdoorsy environmentalists. I mean, I guess the video also shows using it in the snow and rain and stuff, and says that you can abuse the product and they'll cover it under warranty, so that's cool, but I wish it also said to be careful, because the exposed, plugged-in USB connectors in a wet environment that they show in the video are not a great idea, and even if your hydrogen reactor is covered, your phone or whatever else is plugged into it is not. We find more information on the page within the store. Of particular interest here is the fact that you can live swap the cells when one runs out for continuous power, a very neat feature. The benefits listed on the store are that it's environmentally responsible, it recharges with water and a hydrolyzer, and then outputs only water when in use, it has no bulky batteries, but a bulky reactor to carry and these things, so I don't know, no solar power to rely on, and no natural discharge, which is a definite issue with regular rechargeable batteries, even enaloops. This last selling point is a potentially important feature for something like an emergency preparedness kit. So these are hydrocores. They store hydrogen by absorbing the gas into reversible metal hydride. This means solid state storage and less volatility compared to straight compressed gas. You can even take up to two of them on an airplane with you. In terms of size, they're about equivalent to four to five AA batteries, with the optional hydrolyzer accessory that can be recharged up to a hundred times. I was actually looking for extra information about the hydrocores, and I came across Horizon's website. They seem to be the actual manufacturer of a similar product called the MiniPak, and similar hydrogen cartridges called HydroStix, which Brunton has refined, branded, and brought to market, a fairly common occurrence. Unfortunately, because it's not a straight relabel, the ODM's website really didn't help me as much as I hoped, and ended up just being yet another source of conflicting information. On the phone, when I asked Brunton directly, I was told a hydrocore is about equivalent to a 4000 mAh battery bank, but good luck finding that information anywhere public. On the Brunton site and product box, instead, they rate it in iPhone recharges. Derp. Okay, so it's rated at six iPhone recharges, but then Horizon's site says two iPhone recharges, which is more in line with the 4000 mAh that I was told on the phone. Then, they've got AA battery equivalencies that are used on both websites instead of standardized measurements. These also frustrated me as I continued to dig. On the Brunton box, it claims that a hydrocore is equal to 15 plus AA batteries, but Horizon's HydroStix has both 14 and 10 battery equivalencies on the exact same page, literally six inches from each other. Lastly, and this is important, Brunton claims hydrocores will handle a 2 amp output, and Horizon rates their HydroStix at 0.4 amps. I was assured on the phone that the higher amperage output is one of the benefits over the Horizon design of the Brunton one, and you just press this button on the top to kick it into high gear to enable 2 amp output. At the end of it all, I really wasn't sure how to interpret everything, but one theory I had at first was that Brunton could be using the more refined HydroStix Pro that was teased on Horizon's Facebook page months ago, but then never released under their own name. After testing, I'm not so sure, but for now, let's move on to using it. I didn't realize this when buying it, but it's actually basically useless without the $250 recharge station. The two included hydrocores will be empty after anywhere from 4 to 12 iPhone cell phone charges, and then you can either buy more of them for 20 bucks a pop if you can even find them. I couldn't find anywhere to buy them, or get a recharge station for $250. I assumed that the reactor itself would come with that functionality for $150. Guess I should have done more research. So basically, at this point, a product that is supposed to reduce bulk compared to battery banks has me carrying fuel cells, a reactor, a recharge station, and then something to power the recharge station with if I'm going to be somewhere for longer than a couple of days. Brilliant. Anyway, you load the fuel cell in by screwing it in, wait for the light to stop flashing, then it's ready to rock. The purge valve does a self-test during the startup process. Don't be alarmed. It's just a little noise. It's not a big deal. In operation, the reactor gets warm to the touch, but not hot. The hydrocore fuel cell, on the other hand, does not. It stays cool to the touch. Noticeably damp air comes off the sidewall. It's operating, which makes sense because it does exhaust water, but there's no real visible steam, and it does kind of smell funny, but I wasn't sure if that was only because it's new or whether it will continue to do that throughout its lifetime. I mean, all that's fine and good, but as long as it charges your devices, then a device charger can be determined to be functional. Well, honestly, once it got going and booted up, it just plain didn't do that either. My HTC One picked up the power source but said it was insufficient for charging, and my iPad Mini has a nice little helpful not-charging icon in the top corner. So it sounds like that 0.4 amp rating on Horizon's site is probably closer to reality than the 2 amp one that Brunton's advertising on their site, in spite of the fact that right here on the side of the box it says 1 amp. So, I don't know. And in order to validate these results, since I didn't get another unit, I checked out reviews on their website. What few of those reviews aren't just pre-sales questions from people who don't actually own the thing with responses from Brunton employees that are then rated 5 stars, did seem to back this up. Mine doesn't charge a tablet or even a high-powered smartphone, and that seemed consistent with the experience that the only other verified owners I can find are having. I also really have to question the claim of reduced bulk and weight in their video compared to batteries. Two hydrocores in a reactor, you will need one of these for the other stuff to be useful at all, weigh altogether around 365 grams, or about the same as a 12,000 mAh battery pack from Intucircuit, which you can get for about 50 bucks on Amazon. In addition to that, they aren't much smaller, they're not as versatile in terms of output voltage and the devices they can power, and they don't have as much capacity compared to that Intucircuit solution. This whole apparatus also weighs about the same as two Patriot Fuel Plus 9,000 mAh portable battery banks. These are $72 each from Patriot, and they stomp all over the Brunton hydrogen reactor in terms of capacity. They have 2.5A outputs for faster charging, they're similar overall size, not to mention that with regular portable battery packs, there's no water vapor exhaust, you don't need to keep them in a particular orientation, there's no boot-up time, they have more output ports, I don't know if I mentioned that already, and they're easy to obtain at a local store, whereas more fuel cells will need to be ordered online if you can find them at all, and finally, they don't need an expensive charging station. So basically, unless you're an early adopter for fun, I don't recommend this product. Okay, it's green. And hydrocores are recyclable as tin, but it just doesn't make any sense. It's neat to see fuel cell technology being deployed for consumers. Even if the initial product offerings are unexceptional, expensive, and difficult to obtain. But for me to re-examine this technology in the future, functionality will have to be improved, and pricing will have to come down quite a bit. Speaking of pricing, from browsing Brunton's website, it looks like they are taking some pretty sweet profit on their products in general. Their equivalent to the IntuCircuit 12,000mAh charger is called the Impel 2, and comes with a rugged casing and costs $400. That is eight times as much for that rugged casing. You might as well just buy eight of the other one. So maybe what it'll take is another brand to bring fuel cell products to market, and we'll get a result that makes a bit more sense for the average consumer. Don't forget to like this video if you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it. Please do support Linus Tech Tips if you do feel the need. I've got a support link below the video that'll give you all kinds of options, anywhere from changing your Amazon bookmark link to our affiliate one so that we get a kickback, all the way up to contributing to us directly. We're going to be having like t-shirts soon and all that kind of stuff is great. And as always guys, don't forget to subscribe for more unboxings, reviews, and other computer videos.