We Don’t Recommend FuelRods
FuelRod kiosks can be found at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, airports, and other locations. The service offers reusable, portable charging to fuel or charge your phone on the go, and then swap for a fresh battery. In this FuelRod review, we’ll cover whether the “unlimited” service is worth the money and effort.
While the headline is pretty blunt, there is more nuance to the question of whether you should buy a FuelRod while visiting Walt Disney World or Disneyland. As such, we’ll address their cost v. convenience, and weigh the pros and cons. Note that this FuelRoad review is entirely our subjective assessment of how FuelRods work (or don’t) for us. You may disagree entirely, finding a lot of value in FuelRods–and that’s fine.
For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, FuelRods are portable chargers that can be purchased in Walt Disney World parks and used to (partially) recharge your iPhone or other device on the go. You can then swap for a new battery pack at FuelRod kiosks once you’ve exhausted one. In a nutshell, our view is that FuelRods are pretty great…for people who have never heard of Amazon.com…
The general concept of these portable chargers is great for Walt Disney World. Using just the My Disney Experience app alone is a big drain that people underestimate as is browsing brilliant Disney blogs to figure out where you should eat. Suffice to say, it’s easy for your battery to die early in the day. Rechargeable battery packs have existed for some time (so to that end FuelRod is hardly revolutionary), and are one of the recommended staples on our What to Pack for Disney List.
The ‘twist’ with FuelRods is that when you’re done using them, you can trade out your depleted FuelRod for a fully-charged one at the many kiosks throughout Walt Disney World and Disneyland. The appeal is thus the ‘unlimited’ charge the FuelRods offer by virtue of swapping them out. When put that way, it’s easy to see the appeal of FuelRods.
Before we get going, there are a few interesting wrinkles to FuelRod policies. Two years ago, FuelRod planned to end the unlimited free swaps of FuelRods at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. That resulted in a ton of outrage among Disney fans and angry comments directed towards FuelRod via social media.
Even more notably, fans filed a class action lawsuit against the company. After several months of negotiation, that class action lawsuit was resolved with FuelRod creating a Founders status for people who has previously purchased FuelRods as early adopters. The FuelRod Founders status allowed eligible users to continue receiving free lifetime swaps. This was verified at the kiosks with a scannable QR code or imputing an email address, which then allowed FuelRod Founders to swap their existing FuelRods for free, even at kiosks that charge to swap.
We have to give big props to FuelRod here. Even though we aren’t huge fans of the product nor do we recommend it for most people, we still think FuelRod provides a valuable service for some guests. In short, FuelRod existing but charging a fee is better than the company going bankrupt and ceasing to exist at all.
As we’ve noted, FuelRod is a good option of last resort and we’re thus happy it’ll continue to exist at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. On top of that, FuelRod’s customer service team was diligent and conciliatory throughout this, offering refunds to disgruntled customers, and FuelRod stated that they’ve been forced to implement a swap fee to “maintain standards customers expect & ensure viability of the company.”
November 2021 Update: That’s not the end of the pay-to-swap saga! Sometime in the last few months, most (all?) FuelRod kiosks stopped verifying Founders status via email or QR code. We honestly don’t know when since we don’t use FuelRods.
We just happened to notice at one of the kiosks last month, and then started checking around to see if our friends (a couple of whom could be described as FuelRod advocates) whether they’ve had to pay for swaps recently. All responded that they have not. At this point, it would thus appear that swaps are free for all, rather than $3 each. This is great news for anyone who finds themselves in a pinch and ends up needing a FuelRod.
This couldn’t have happened at a better time, as the new Genie+ and Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World and Disneyland are serious battery drains. While it’s theoretically possible to go an entire day using the Genie service without recharging, it’s very difficult. Many guests will be unprepared for this, and find themselves needing a spare battery during their days in the park.
Genie uses much more battery life than its predecessors, FastPass+ at Walt Disney World and MaxPass at Disneyland. On top of that, there are certain features, like the itinerary builder and PhotoPass AR lenses, that really kill a phone’s battery. Just ~30 minutes of playing around with the augmented reality filters took my battery down significantly. Just something to keep in mind if you’re visiting soon and don’t have a backup battery packed!
For many guests, the argument in favor of the FuelRod is the same as the Disney Dining Plan: convenience. However, like the argument in favor of the Disney Dining Plan, I’d counter that it’s the illusion of convenience, rather than actual convenience. And, like the Dining Plan, you’re paying extra for that illusion.
The problems with FuelRods are two-fold. First, the $30 price is very high for a battery pack of this capacity and quality. Second, the aforementioned capacity is poor by modern battery pack standards. (Although this has improved in the last couple of years, it’s still nowhere what you’d get from something from Amazon for $30. Nor is the charging as fast.)
Let’s talk a bit more about FuelRod’s capacity relative to its competitors. Unlike virtually every other battery pack on the market, FuelRod does not indicate its charge capacity. (Which alone should set off red flags.) Scant information is available, but it looks like it can charge an iPhone about halfway, which would put its capacity at under 3,000 mAh.
Let’s give it the benefit of the doubt and say the FuelRod has 4,000 mAh capacity. This Anker charger offers 5,200 mAh for ~$22. Over double the capacity in a similarly-sized charger for half the cost. For under $30, you can get this Anker charger with 10,000 mAh capacity and high speed charging (this is the charger we currently use as of 2021–it’s great). That’s enough to charge multiple devices, and do so far faster than FuelRod.
We have recommended alternatives on our packing list that offer larger capacity, lower cost, and faster charging than FuelRod. Some of these chargers will not only get you through an entire day in the parks–they’ll charge your entire family’s devices for the day.
By battery pack standards in the year 2021, FuelRod is antiquated. Unfortunately, they’re boxed into that (literally) due to the design of the dispensing machines that require maintaining the same style and size of battery pack today as 5 years ago when they debuted. Suffice to say, a lot has changed in backup battery technology in the last 5 years.
To be fair to FuelRod, the case could be made that there’s a certain convenience in never having to charge a battery pack–just being able to swap out the existing pack ad infinitum. Or that it can be a lifesaver if you forget your charger, cables, etc. True, it does offer appeal in both scenarios. There’s absolutely no arguing about FuelRod being useful if you’ve forgotten your charger/cables.
However, the case for general convenience in everyday scenarios is tougher to make. When I get back to the hotel at the end of a long day, I hate having to plug everything in before getting ready for bed. The thing is, I have to do that regardless with my camera, phone, etc. Plugging in one additional item is (literally) a <30 second commitment that hardly poses an insurmountable obstacle between me and a good night’s sleep.
Moreover, this argument is only even plausible in a world where FuelRod kiosks are ubiquitous. Such a world does not exist, nor will it ever exist. FuelRod’s business model relies upon spontaneous purchases from consumers who either don’t do the research or don’t have a viable alternative. Outside of airports, theme parks, and similar ‘vacuums’, they will lose to competitors. (For the same reason that no one in their right mind would pay $14 for a cheeseburger at Cosmic Ray’s if it were located in their hometown.)
If you’re primarily concerned about using FuelRods at the airport, Walt Disney World, or Disneyland–that’s great. FuelRod probably has you covered. For Disney regulars or Annual Passholders, there is value in FuelRod. Again, we’re not saying this is a totally useless service or product.
Ultimately, the only people for whom I can see FuelRod holding appeal once they get past the initial idea of convenience is those who have never heard of rechargeable batteries before stumbling upon the FuelRod kiosk while in the parks. Yes, these people do exist. We see countless guests sitting in corners charging their phones in random outlets during the course of their vacations.
For those people (or people who simply forget to pack their portable chargers), the FuelRod presents a good spontaneous purchase, as the cost (in time) of sitting in a random corner everyday during a pricey Walt Disney World vacation far outweighs even the $30 cost of a FuelRod. However, if you’re reading this FuelRod review in advance of a trip to the park and have the opportunity to order a higher capacity battery pack from Amazon, that’s your better option.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
What do you think of FuelRods? Will you continue to use FuelRods if they end free unlimited swaps and start charging for them? Are you a FuelRod Founder? Do you agree or disagree with our FuelRod review? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I actually don’t trust fuelrod. The concept is great. Being able to swap out a depleted battery for a new one on the go is a convenience that most smartphone users will need. However, the product they offer to deliver that service is inferior quality compared to what’s on the market. I currently consistently carry multiple battery packs at various mah levels for this very reason. I have one large battery pack of 30,000 mah that stays in a dedicated pocket in my backpack (which has a usb cable built in), except when I need to charge it. This battery pack has two usb ports. I use that large battery to charge multiple smaller battery packs on the go two at a time (I carry four small battery packs of around 3,000-4,000 mah each). Each of the smaller battery packs are about the physical size of a fuelrod, if not smaller. When the first two are charged, I unplug them from the large battery and plug the other two in. When those are charged, I unplug them and can store all four until I need them (It usually takes about two hours to fully charge each pair). Then, when I actually need the battery packs to charge my phone, I deplete one at a time and then start another charge cycle once I have depleted two so I am using the 30,000 mah battery to its full capacity. It usually takes a couple hours to deplete one of the smaller battery packs, so I have plenty of juice to get me through a day or two before needing to charge the large battery pack. Since I always carry my backpack, this is extremely viable and a heck of a lot more convenient than fuelrod, since all of my battery packs are there with me and fully charged when needed, so I don’t have to go searching for a kiosk.
We purchased a Fuel Rod last week in Disney and were very pleased. After a few days the cable that came with the rod stopped working and my daughter emailed the company and they replied in a timely manner. We were told to go to our resorts Fuel Rod station and call when we were ready to exchange the rod. We called and was told to drop in the fuel rod and they released a whole new canister with cables remotely. I am actually charging it as I type and would definately recommend buying one.
If you are flying check what the maximum size battery pack you can take on board https://www.iata.org/whatwedo/cargo/dgr/Documents/passenger-lithium-battery.pdf . All good if you can drive to say DisneyWorld but if you have to fly then you will be restricted on the size you can take.
While maybe they could do with being a larger capacity they fill a need and not everyone remembers to charge their battery packs. And they save time waiting when in a park to recharge you phone or flat battery pack if you can even find an outlet to charge it from.
We wound up with a Fuel-Rod after my portable charger died during a trip. Our on-site options were a Fuel-Rod for $30 or a Disney-branded charger for more that did not come already charged up. We opted for the Fuel-Rod and were pleasantly surprised. The charger will charge my iPhone and my husband’s Android fully at least twice, and we usually get an almost full third charge before it goes out, which is about what I was getting out of my previous charger anyway. They have also added kiosks over time to make swapping them out a bit easier, and I have seen the kiosks pop-up in airports and a few other popular locations as well.
Hello,
I’m the person who always comes prepared: fully charged cell phone and personal size battery in my pack. Also, let me tell you how many times I’ve had to hand over my personal size battery to someone else in our group of seven people in the park because their phone was dying, four. Not that we all don’t swap our battlers around, we do, but sometimes a few of us end up with no charge on our phone by the end of the day; the 3 or 4 light weight batteries we brought empty. I’m hoping swapping out for fresh batteries will fix this for us. We headed to the park in September. I’ll follow up with everyone.
Regards,
Rose
Too much anger in this world from anonymous commenters and blogging blowhards.
Fuel Rod = good idea. Small price premium for convenience.
Removable batteries were the ultimate solution. Too bad the entire industry has banned them in order to build planned obsolescence into their products.
As someone who owns multiple battery packs with my largest being a 20,000 mAh I still recommend fuel rods.
Why? Because a 20,000 mAh battery is a pain to lug around in a theme park! It’s heavy, cumbersome, and doesn’t fit into my bag free park plans. The fuel rod fits right in my pocket and does what I need it to do when I need to do it.
It’s absurd to look at this as a solution to all of your charging needs for anyplace you go. Of course there aren’t stations in Yosemite! This isn’t the solution for backwoods travel, nor should it be. This is a solution for keeping your weight down and you mobile and able to continue enjoying your very expensive vacation without anchoring yourself to a wall outlet for an hour or two.
You also misrepresent capacity, which is 2600 mAh not the 1000 mAh that you claim here. It’s printed on the end cap of the thing for god’s sake…
Yes, there are very specific circumstances that you’d want to have this outside of the Disney bubble…you are absolutely correct that it’s worthless in a national park. However, at the parks it blends the ability to stay mobile with easy exchanges to keep your weight down and you moving through the attractions.
Can you get something similar for cheaper? Of course you can! If you are a heavy battery user (live streams, MDE, Reddit, Facebook, Pokémon Go, etc) you will still kill that lower capacity battery before fireworks time…at least with fuel rod you have an unlimited supply of spare power available only a few steps away.
It has a very specific use in a couple of very specific areas of the country. That doesn’t make it a bad product, just a special use one. I swear by mine when I’m in the parks and my 20,000 mAh when I’m not.
Good perspective. I too have many higher capacity batteries. I also have 3 kids, their friends, and plenty of situations where the last person to use said higher capacity battery did not charge it. Of course comparing it on a strict mah basis makes it a bad deal. You know what else is a bad deal? Health insurance – that is, if you never get sick. The one time you DO get sick, you will wish you had insurance!
Having a swappable fully charged battery service like this is a life saver. I plan on getting one before our next WDW trip. And I am not Amazon-ignorant nor tech luddite; however, I can not always control the actions of others either.
We actually found a machine in our departure airport and could purchase one for $20. We also found a coupon code online which lowered the price by another dollar or two. (I found the code as we walked up to the machine.) We used our fuel rods everyday in the park. (Sometimes more than once.) We usually got a full charge off of one fuel rod. (Samsung Galaxy 7) They fit easily in backpacks or short pockets. You can also recharge them at home post trip for use in between being away for charging station. We have also found them in a few outlet centers in our area. We found them VERY useful. True we could have purchased something online to do the same, but it was easier to drop one battery and grab another.
http://amzn.to/2ul1atE
The ANKR USB charger with USB-C will charge the Apple 12 MacBook.
There are many good charging systems available. We wish you had called us to hear about our philosophy before “un”recommending a product from a small but growing U.S. company that is doing its best to provide a useful OPTION for travelers. The service FuelRod offers is the unique ability to get a charged battery on the go – complete with connectors for most smartphones & tablets – when you aren’t in a place to wait for one to arrive in the mail – along with the opportunity to swap that battery for a freshly charged one instantly anywhere you see a FuelRod kiosk. The Laws of Physics make our batteries comparable to any others of the same size and weight. If you’ve planned ahead and don’t mind carrying a small brick, that’s one option. We like to think that we can be there for you when you’re at 10% battery and you realize that you left your backup at home or didn’t get it fully charged. In any case, we appreciate your coverage of FuelRod and know from the great feedback we get from our customers that we’ve saved the day many times!
If this is actually the company, then I gotta say my opinion of y’all turned from apathy to a negative one lol.
Just going by the locations given by your website, I’d be screwed if I ever needed to rely on y’all for a back up power source even in a big city that’s a popular tourist destination. You can’t “be there for us” if you don’t have any kiosks there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ There is no advantage to your service unless you were ubiquitous even outside airports/theme parks, as Tom pointed out in his article. He also did point out the (very) few instances where it was a good option. Like yeah, if I ever somehow ended up in the scenario where I was at the parks and my phone was dying and that was the only option (and, y’know, my phone weren’t USB-C cable charging), then it’d be helpful.
But afterward I’d be left with a subpar portable battery I’d know very little about the specs of. (What does 8 hours talk time for a phone even mean? You realise most phones are different, right, especially comparing Android and iOS devices? Is that 8 hours on an iOS device? Android? Why /don’t/ you give capacity? How likely are the people who require a battery pack using their phone only for calls?) I’d still be carrying around a “small brick” at the end of the day? (Why even say “small brick,” like yours isn’t going to end up being something your customers have to carry too?) It’s not like it’s a rental service, you’re selling these things, they just happen to be swappable for a fully charged replacement on the go. If I had to end up with a portable charger, I’d rather one that’s new, well reviewed, and that I knew the capacity of. That I knew I could rely on for a specific decent length of time even outside places without your kiosks. That’s how you plan!
Also, laws of physics does not mean that all portable batteries of the same size have the same charge??? tf. What’s used inside the casing and how everything is put together is what matters. Yeah, size limits things, but it’s not like there aren’t going to be manufacturers shoving in less to do things on the cheap. Also, given that these kiosks are only located at, say, Disney/airports/high-footfall places, how many times have the batteries that people get been recharged over and over? That wears on battery life too. Unless every battery pack that gets swapped is replaced with a new one, then nah.
A better reply would have been “thanks for the critique, and we’re looking to expand the areas our services cover” or something like that. Instead of spouting things Tom already pointed out the flaws in, and info that just doesn’t make sense. Tom’s review was fair, reasonable, and logical, providing knowledge and helping his readers get better value for their money. Your reply sounds like you barely even read what he wrote before you went off with passive aggression.
Tom, sorry about the longwinded-ness, but something like this drives me nuts.
It’s kind of like cameras: the best one to have is the one that’s there when you need it. It’s great if you plan ahead and have every single thing you need, but the real world doesn’t always work out that way and you can’t exactly order from Amazon once you’ve hit the parks. FuelRods are priced no differently than a lot of compact batteries available in resort and cruise ship gift shops… with the added convenience of being able to swap for a fresh one and not having to drag around an extra pound of batteries all day long. In particular, I like to keep things light so I’ve been keeping a FuelRod in my small purse or pocket almost all the time and have a large battery with multiple USB outlets in my backpack when I go on longer travels where I don’t have to actually carry that backpack all day long. These FuelRods are a nice option to have and have been a real lifesaver for me on more than a few occasions. P.S. I got mine at the airport in Philly where they’re $20.
This thing saved me when I remembered my external battery but forgot all my charging cords while traveling coast to coast. The cord itself sold it as I needed a lightening, 30 pin (older iPad) and universal (to charge the external battery). Airport, Disney and hotel were charging each *individual* cord for $30+. The whole kit will live in my travel case from now on.
Bought a Trond phone charger from Amazon 3 years ago – 22.99 It charges 3 phones at once. Took it on our January WDW trip and in 5 days the Trond only needed charging once and there were several days when we had 3 phones being charged on the Trond at the same time. It’s the length of a samsung S5 and about 4 times as thick – a little heavy, but I carried it around in a child’s backpack and easy-peasy. Best charger I ever bought!
My daughter is doing the college program at MK and loves the convenience of using these. She bought it her first week and as much as she uses her phone waiting to start work or on break she likes being able to swap it out frequently.
Has there been any discussion of putting a small solar panel on one’s backpack (or stroller) to charge a pack during the day?
I love this Lumsing Portable Battery Pack https://www.amazon.com/Lumsing-13400mAh-Portable-Charger-SmartPhones/dp/B0147YIXLM/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1485865908&sr=8-12&keywords=lumsing. It charges two devices at a time. On our most recent visit with the heavy use of the MyDisneyExperience App, photos, 45 minutes of video recording, and playing Pokemon Go on two devices for hours it still had 1/4 charge left when we got back to our room after a 14 hour day. It’s a bit thick, and you need to click the button to begin actively charging (it won’t just start when you plug in your device). For the price of a Fuel Rod, you could purchase 2!!!
They are overpriced, and absolutely not a good value as a way to purchase a rechargeable battery. BUT… as the owner of many Anker portable chargers that I even brought with us to Disney, it was inevitably the one afternoon that my wife decided to go back to Poly to relax and I took the kids on to Animal Kingdom that my iPhone was just about to run out of power (But the portable charger was in my wife’s daypack). So, I found the FuelRod dispenser and sucked it up, bought a $5 crap charger for $30, but I had power. I have not used it since. It is a piece of junk. That said, as an emergency power source when you have no other options, it works and comes with the USB power adapter to connect to your phone. So it solves a problem guests repeatedly have and at least offers them a way to get some added benefit by permitting swapping them out instead of Disney charging $30 as a one time use. I just appreciate that the option was there when I needed it and that they are putting these in more and more locations. If not for me, for other guests who find themselves in the same pinch I was in that day – now they have an option.
When I visited in late October/early November, I (stupidly) forgot my external charger at home in Canada. One night at Epcot we were several craft beers deep and I realized my phone was close to dying. I panicked, certain some amazing event was going to transpire before the end of the night and I wouldn’t be able to take pictures. I asked several shops and kiosks if they carried chargers, and finally the FuelRod kiosk was pointed out for me. $30 later and I felt a lot better, although really nothing overly exciting happened that I absolutely needed pictures of.
I agree with pretty much all of what Tom said. I will say it did charge my phone quickly, and it charged my iPhone 5S about 1 1/2 times before it died. But otherwise, it is the same as any charger you can buy pretty much anywhere. The main reason I bought it was because I was rather drunk at the time and not making great financial decisions.
I have the Anker one that can charge two at once (per Tom’s recommendation on here a few years back) and LOVE it. It has saved many park days from the dread of being without a phone. It’s a little larger than the lipstick chargers, but is about the same size as an iphone 5 or 6 and not much heavier. totally worth it. Especially to be able to keep two phones charged all day. Simply recharge it while you sleep and you’re good to go for the next day!
We love our Anker lipstick sized chargers! $12.99 on Amazon and if I’m not mistaken, I bought it on your recommendation a couple of years ago. We liked it so much, we got another one for our last trip.
https://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerCore-Lipstick-Sized-Generation-Batteries/dp/B005X1Y7I2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1484709085&sr=8-2&keywords=anker+pocket+size+charger