About
BETTER RE, Upcycling Power Pack reusing smartphone batteries
$69,465
781
BETTER RE is…
- Universal: it works with any size or model of smartphone batteries.
- Sustainable: you can use it for a long time by replacing the batteries.
- Expandable: you can adjust the capacity at your need by adding the expansion packs.
- Stylish: its polished style and design will make you unique.
- Eco-friendly: it uses materials that cause minimal harm to the environment.
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Mobile devices are running out of battery all the time
As we increasingly use multiple smart devices, we find ourselves running short of batteries more than ever. In response, external battery packs have been developed, producing an innumerable amount of new lithium-ion batteries, at a huge cost of harming our environment.
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Batteries are sleeping in our desk drawers
As people change their smartphones frequently these days (average replacement cycle is 1.3 years!), tons of used batteries – still in good condition – end up either in trash cans or deep in desk drawers. Yet even after two years of usage, lithium-ion cells in those batteries have around 80% of efficiency remaining.
Then, why not use these sleeping, high-quality batteries to solve energy shortage?
With BETTER RE, you can catch two rabbits at the same time
– reuse your sleeping smartphone batteries, and charge your devices anytime, anywhere!
- 2014 Red Dot - Design Concept Award Winner
- 2014 Samsung Tomorrow Solution Contest - Grand Prize
- 2015 Spark - Concept Design Award Finalist
1. Clip a battery into place.
2. Turn the knob to fasten the clip.
3. Close the BETTER RE case, and you are done!
BETTER RE is ready to charge!
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How to clip your battery in
Check your battery’s type (Type A or B).
Move your battery side to side to place the electrodes in the right position.
Plus(+) with plus, and minus(-) with minus!
- How to check if your battery fits BETTER RE
Want to make sure your smartphone battery fits BETTER RE? It's easy!
1. Draw a 62.5mm x 78.8mm box on a piece of paper.
2. From the top right corner, measure 8.5mm to the left and mark a dot; this is where the first pin(+) exists.
3. Now mark the second pin(-), 5mm to the left from the first pin. And again, the third pin(+) is 5mm away to the left from the second one.
Then, we're done!
Put your battery on the drawing, with the right electrodes matched.
If your battery fits in the box, it will fit BETTER RE as well!
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LED indicator
If you click on the button at the top, LED lights will show you the charging status of BETTER RE and the smartphone battery in it.
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How to test your battery
1. Connect a 5-pin charger to BETTER RE's input port.
2. Clip the battery into place.
3. After 2 seconds, LED will show whether it is usable or not.
- All four LEDs shine: Pass! Now charge your device.
- Only one LED shines: Fail! Get another battery.
You might want to ask us, “What if my battery doesn’t fit?!”
- Small or big, just ANY battery of yours will be brought back to life in BETTER RE.
- The maximum size of the battery to fit in BETTER RE is 58.5*97.8*6.5(mm), which is the largest size currently in the market.
Universal battery charger + External battery pack!
BETTER RE will stay with you as long as you want.
- Common external power packs have limited lifespan, since the internal batteries cannot be replaced. Every time the batteries run out, the whole product is thrown away - harming the environment and lightening our purses.
- BETTER RE can be used Semi-permanently. It will stay with you as long as you have a battery to replace, just like refilling ink in fountain pens!
Batteries can come and go, but BETTER RE will be there for you.
- Add your own value by engraving a meaningful line on your BETTER RE.
Tired of carrying all those extra batteries every time you go out?
- Well, stop the hassle and simplify your charging needs with BETTER RE!
With the expansion packs, BETTER RE will take charge of your large-capacity devices. - Share BETTER RE with your friends, and charge multiple devices at once!
Expansion packs have USB output ports, letting you charge different devices separately.
- To adjust the capacity, stack up the expansion packs as many as you need!
Built-in small magnets will hold the packs together easy and firm.
- On normal days, carry the basic pack - simple and light.
When you have to stay outdoors for a while, bring your expansion packs.
Free yourself from those bulky stone bricks and still stay connected!
From start to finish, BETTER RE cares about our planet.
- By using 100% recyclable aluminum and walnut and maple hardwood, we minimized the potential harm likely to happen to the environment at the time of disposal of our product.
With BETTER RE, we hope to conserve our nature and future.
Never give up style for performance!
- BETTER RE will be presented to you in its simple yet polished style, completed by our Red Dot award-winning design.
Imagine how cool the aluminum would look, blending in with any of your mobile devices.
White, silver or black. Matte or brushed. Choose your best match!
- Naturally distinct grain of the wood part will make every one of you look unique and
special.
Get your one-and-only BETTER RE. Refuse to be the same!
Add one last detail to your style.
For every $10 you add to your pledge, we will send you used batteries with more than 80% of efficiency.(2800~3400 mAh)
With a battery tester of our own, we will sort out high-quality, workable batteries for you.
- Our ultimate goal is to make our world a better place with BETTER RE, by empowering everyone around the globe with easier access to energy. As a first step, we are developing a plastic model of BETTER RE to facilitate mass distribution at a lower price.
- By launching on Kickstarter, we wanted to form a positive brand value of BETTER RE. People often think that upcycling products are not as good as original and naturally have low expectation. We wanted to change this thought by creating a product that can work even better when it is reused. We had put great efforts in developing the design, and after several trials and errors, finally completed the finest design of BETTER RE with aluminum and wood.
Through a successful fundraising on Kickstarter,
we hope to share the value and meaning of BETTER RE with all of you
and get a boost to distribute our energy solutions around the world.
Risks and challenges
There’s a low possibility of our delivery being delayed. We are already searching for factories that can manufacture the mold and start mass production with speed. For precise control over the quality of our product, we are looking for domestic factories. We already have a list of excellent partners that are cooperating with Samsung Electronics and so on.
Usually, there are many limitations in international delivery of lithium-ion batteries, but we found out that we can ship them through FEDEX. We are negotiating on the shipping cost and can make a contract immediately, depending on the situation.
Smartphones with built-in batteries such as iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6 might threaten our business, but we are getting ready to realize compact large-capacity batteries by producing batteries of our own.
Batteries that don’t fit our product may come out, but we can promptly deal with it by changing the size. Since we make the body by extrusion molding, we can adjust the size easily. If batteries get smaller, we can cope with a smaller version of BETTER RE.
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Funding period
- (30 days)