Chhito Charge: An experience renting a power bank in Nepal!

I was just scrolling through Instagram like always and an ad popped up, that really caught my attention. It was from “Chhito Charge” — a Nepali start-up that allows you to rent a power bank. Yes, a power bank! It was quite odd, but it also made a lot of sense. It was new, it was unique, and I went ahead and tried it! Here, I will be sharing with you my experience of renting a power bank in Nepal!

Chhito Charge Overview

The Modality

The funda of Chhito Charge is pretty simple and their slogan explains it well enough “Scan. Rent. Go.”. You go to one of their stations which holds a bunch of power banks, scan their QR to rent one, take the power bank with you, and drop it back at a nearby station. It can be the same station or different, it doesn't matter.

You do need the Chhito Charge app on your smartphone though, which is available in both Android and iOS. The app appears to be geo-restricted, so you might not be able to find the app in the Play Store if you have a foreign Gmail.

• Download App (Android | iOS)

Let's try it!

Signing up

The whole idea of renting a power bank was quite intriguing. So, I decided to go ahead and try this service of theirs. Firstly, I installed the app on my phone, and I was not very impressed. When I was signing up for their platform, both the font and the space where I was filling the detail up were white and I had trouble seeing what I was typing.

But that is not a major hiccup by any means. Providing only your phone number is enough to get into their platform, so it's not like I was typing a lot anyway.

Into the app

After I signed up, I was redirected to the home screen which was supposed to display a map, and it was not loading. However, that could just be a “me problem”, maybe it loads on other devices. Then I pressed on the search bar, and it showed me all the stations that were near my location. Nice! Apparently, Chhito Charge is available at over 200 spots, which is a really good number. However, I cannot tell how well-spread they are since the app's map did not load. Nonetheless, the network seems to be extensive. Then I ran into another issue... when I tried to navigate to the nearest location through the app, it gave me a different location. For instance, the Big O Cafe in Jhamsikhel was the closest station to me, but when I pressed navigate, it took me to Satdobato Chowk which is like four kilometres away! This seems to be a bug though, because when I tried a different location, it worked fine. It's a hit or miss, but nothing that cannot be solved with some fine-tuning. Also, I could just type in the name of the restaurant on Google Maps by myself. So, it's not like there isn't a workaround. Since the whole business of Chhito Charge is in the starting phase and this is not a major turnoff, it gets a pass.

To the station!

So far so good! I then went to the location to rent a power bank for myself. Now, this was a weird experience for me because I have two battery banks of my own — one of which is a whopping 50,000 mAh! So, yeah! (Please don't ask me why I have two of them, and why I have one with such a massive capacity. I just do. ?) I reached the location that was bustling with people who were enjoying their food, and there I stood... to rent a power bank. The Chhito Charge station was placed on a counter and could hold a total of eight units, two of which were already rented. Looks like the idea of renting a power bank is already gaining a good momentum. I tried pulling a power bank out of the station without paying *ahem* for science, but the thing did not even budge. They are locked into the station unless you make a payment that is.

The Chhito Charge station displayed a little QR code on the top-right corner, which I scanned through the app. Then the app displayed me the rates, which are as follows:

Rental Package	Rental Fee
1 Day	NPR 100
3 Day	NPR 300
1 Month	NPR 1,000

Renting a power bank

I chose the 1-day pack obviously, then I was presented with a QR on my app screen for the payment. It was a FonePay QR, which is the most popular online payment medium in Nepal. Hence, you can pay the rental fee from different mobile banking apps as well as digital wallets. That's nice, but the whole payment process was a bit... half-baked.

Firstly, I had to download or screenshot the QR. Then open the payment medium of choice, and upload the QR there. Speaking from my own experience, a lot of people do not actually know that you can upload the QR into whatever app you are using and make a payment. This could be a setback for such individuals to try this brilliant service out. Anyhoo, I was trying to make the payment, and eSewa refused to read the QR a few times. Mind you I was standing inside a full restaurant, trying to make a payment, and it wasn't going through... rough. Finally, the payment went through and a Chhito Charge power bank — literally popped out — of the station after a few seconds. It's basically a power bank vending machine! ?✨ [Side Note: I was so mesmerised by the battery bank popping out and wanted to get a video of it. So, I pushed it back into the station, and “accidentally” returned it. I had to redo the whole process and pay another 100 rupees. But it's alright. *cries in the corner*]

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Chhito Charge Power Bank

Now, let's talk hardware! The power bank is an eye-catching orange colour with “Chhito Charge” written on it. My immediate thought — “Wow, a custom branding... Nice!”. The build quality of the product isn't great, it's a bit too plasticky for my liking. But it's understandable since the battery bank will be passed around a lot and wear out with time, so having cheap-to-replace units makes total sense.

While that may be true, the power bank comes with three in-built cords: a USB-C, a lightning port, and a micro USB. That should cover almost all the smartphones in the world. Talking about the capacity, it is a 5,000 mAh cell or an equivalent of 18.5Wh. That's on the lower end for a power bank but should provide you with enough juice to nearly or fully charge a smartphone, once. It has a micro USB port as well so that you can charge it yourself — which you will definitely have to do if you have rented the power bank for multiple days. Other than that, the Chhito Charge power bank does not have anything fancy going on like fast or wireless charging for that matter — just a standard 10W output. It's just enough to get you by.

Testing the power bank

Once I got my power bank, I plugged it in and played Pokémon GO on my way back. It is quite a demanding game with the constant GPS access and internet connection it requires. I was at 29% when I started charging my phone and rested at about 48-ish per cent by the time I got home. I reckon I walked for about... 20 minutes. So, nearly 20% of juice without fast charging while playing a game the whole time is a very good result in my opinion. I am thoroughly impressed!

Some Concerns and Complaints

The returning process is pretty simple too. You do not have to go to the same station, so you can hop in at whatever station is nearest to you at the moment and slide the power bank back in. But what if someone does not? Not everyone has good intentions and a 5,000 mAh battery bank for a plate of Momo's worth is way too good of a deal. What then? I questioned the restaurant staff about it and they did not have an exact answer too. They just told me that Chhito Charge has a record of it and that's it. The only logical explanation I could come up with is that since I provided my phone number when registering myself, the company would call me and ask me to return their property. I did not want to hoard the power bank, and possibly hinder someone who actually needs it. So, I placed it back the following day. But my concern lies there. Moving on, I have already shared the hurdles I faced during the whole process. So those are my complaints. To summarise:

1. White font on top of white input box during sign-up
2. The home screen map not loading
3. Bug with navigation feature
4. The payment process

These are all preliminary issues and nothing here is a dealbreaker, really. I would suggest smoothening the payment process foremost. The app already has a “My Wallet” section, so I assume you will be able to load money into the app in the future. However, displaying the FonePay QR on the Chhito Charge station itself would be a much easier and faster fix in my opinion. Apart from that, it's a great and recommendable service! ?

Chhito Charge: Conclusion

All in all, Chhito Charge is a wonderful concept and service that will come in handy for a lot of people. Its implications and impact are nearly limitless. However, there needs to be a quality check as a similar service has failed in the past. How many of us remember the charging stations at public places that had all sorts of ports? Where are they now? Very few of them are still functioning and most faded into the background because they were not maintained properly. Hence, the Chhito Charge team should look at that scenario, learn from it, and adapt as time goes on. They carry a huge potential, and we are rooting for them!

• Meanwhile, check this video out where we unbox and review cool gadgets we found online: