I purchased a Pyle PCO875 Power Sequencer simply to make a video about it, because I didn’t believe all of its claims.

Though it does appear to be a somewhat-competently made power sequencer, the manufacturer’s statements about power conditioning, surge protection, spike suppression, filtering and so forth are all false.

In the video I covered the Amazon listing’s specs for the device, but the specs are much the same on Pyle’s own website so it was no mistake in importing it over to Amazon. I’ll some screenshots here for posterity, because hopefully they’ll eventually correct their “mistakes”, and I want to have a record of what statements they were making at the time this video was created:

I did manage to throw 2650W-ish (around 24 Amps) through the device without it bursting into flames, and I’d say it would be fine at its 13A rating (or 2000W rating; They don’t make that clear at all). However, its lack of over-current protection (nope, not even a fuse or circuit breaker to be found) means that it could easily be called upon to conduct 20A or 2400W when plugged into an average commercial or home branch circuit. It would get a little warm under that condition, but my unit handled it OK.

A small manufacturing defect like a bad solder joint? That could have rendered my test to be much more exciting.

Just to be clear, there is absolutely nothing in the way of power conditioning, filtering, surge/spike suppression, EMI protection (except I guess the steel case?) or anything of the sort inside this device. The mains input connects directly to a pair of “bus bars” in the form of PCB traces, and those buses connect to the relays which then connect to the outlets. (In the case of the “always on” front receptacles it’s the same deal except no relays — they connect directly to the mains.)

There isn’t so much as a ferrite ring choke on the supply cord.

From a protection standpoint, you’d probably be better off with a cheap power strip, because at least those usually have over-current protection in the form of a wee push button breaker.

If this object were sold merely as a power sequencer with a USB port, I wouldn’t be nearly so hard on it, but even ignoring the marketing materials it did have some failings of its own:

• No strain relief on the plug.
• A mains power cord falsely labelled as being 6.2mm2 (~10 AWG), when in fact it was more like 4mm2 (~12 AWG).
• Close clearances between live/neutral and live/ground (i.e. the chassis) of around 2-3mm throughout.
• 18AWG wiring to the front receptacles that, while practically functional, is undersized.
• International multi-plug style receptacles which are inherently unsafe.*
• A USB port that is borderline useless.

*I didn’t talk about it in detail in the video, but that type of universal receptacle is dangerous. Full stop. I’m pretty sure they don’t meet North American or British standards, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re outside of regulations in other countries as well.

They’ll easily accept a 1/8″ phone plug or the tip of an RCA plug into the live pin of the socket, as well as even generously-sized screwdrivers. IMHO this is particularly hazardous in a rack. I’ve had the experience of working in the ass-end of dark and densely packed racks, and it’s all too easy to miss and hit the wrong hole with the wrong thing. Usually it’s only as bad as hooking a video output to another output or some such, but on a bad day without enough coffee, who knows?

Anyways, I’m not saying don’t buy the thing. If it’s suitable for your purposes given all the information here, who am I to stop you? It held up better than expected in testing, and at least the case is bonded to ground and made of thicker steel than I expected in case the worst happens.

I do wish Pyle would represent this product’s features (or lack thereof) accurately in its product description and marketing materials, however.

A look at some possibly-fake random “NiMH” AA cells from AliExpress, comparing them to Panasonic Eneloop cells.

From my somewhat limited testing, these little green guys had an actual capacity of about 342mAh, which is less than 10% of their claimed specification of 3800mAh (which is probably impossible anyhow for AA-sized NiMH cells.

The part about them perhaps not being real NiMH cells? That’s not the weirdest thing. Unlike most of my AliExpress purchases, these shipped from The Netherlands, despite the seller being called Shenzhen DeKang International Trade.

Air in a Can

This is a follow-up of sorts to my Bullsh*t Product: Boost Oxygen video. If you don’t know what that is and you’re too lazy to click the link (is that click-baiting or just click-dicking?), Boost O2 sells oxygen in a can for various phony baloney health benefits.

I mentioned in the video that Boost wasn’t the only company shilling this sort of thing, and indeed I was right: News stories about Vitality Air have been making the rounds on social media in the last few days. And the stories are on relatively legitimate websites like CNBC, Fortune, and CNN.

Fortunately the stories have primarily been about how clever a business model it is to sell cans of air to dying Chinese people, and have not been about the “health benefits” of sucking down air or O2 from a can.

Are they Serious?

According to the story in Fortune, Vitality Air got its start selling Ziploc bags of air on eBay for 99 cents as a novelty.

A space emperor inhales from his can of Perri-air, circa long ago.

Eventually the founders of the company moved up to compressed air in cans (along with compressed O2) with a direct-to-customer sales strategy. They changed from a “novelty” company to a “kinda sort health” company, business has picked up, and Vitality Air can’t ship this stuff out fast enough. And it’s becoming popular in the Chinese market.

As I long belabored in my Boost Oxygen video, cans of Oxygen (let alone regular air) like the ones sold by Vitality Air, Boost Oxygen, Oxygen4Energy, and Oxygen Plus are completely useless. They won’t help a beleaguered middle class Chinese guy as he hacks his way towards an agonizing and cancerous death.

Their Pitch

Vitality Air looks like they cribbed their pitch directly from Boost Oxygen. Or maybe it was the other way around; I really have no idea, but I’m pretty sure that Boost came first. Either it’s a case of the one ripping off the other, or (more likely) there’s only so much to say about supplemental oxygen that a lawyer will let you put on a website.

Here’s what they have to say for themselves, taken right from their homepage:

The human body, and all living organisms alike cannot function at its best without a regular supply of high quality air/oxygen. The human body can easily live without food and water for weeks, and without sleep for around 7 days, however the effects of lack of oxygen can happen within minutes!

That’s almost an exact quote from Boost. And so I’ll inexactly repeat myself, too: We’re not living in an Oxygen-deficient environment. Neither are people in Beijing. So while you’re not wrong in those claims, they are completely irrelevant.

Our bodies require a regular supply of premium oxygen in order to function at its peak performance. By supplying our customers with fresh clean air as well as oxygen, we allow them to boost energy levels in a natural way, helps with hangovers, alertness, and working out!

“Premium oxygen”? What the shit is “premium oxygen”? Oxygen gas is specifically something that cannot come in varieties of “premiumness”. It’s either O2 or it ain’t.

And once again: For a healthy individual, supplemental oxygen does not provide any additional energy. A normal, healthy individual in a non-oxygen-deficient environment will have all 100% of their hemoglobin bound to oxygen. The best thing that they will accomplish by using supplemental O2 is to significantly increase the dollar (or yuan) cost of their exhalations.

Inhaling “fresh clean air” likewise will do absolutely nothing to increase energy.

And no, hangovers are not an illness that can be cured or improved by supplemental oxygen. (The placebo effect? That works wonders!)

As we continue to live in highly polluted areas, we are your solution to pollution!

YOU ARE NOT THE SOLUTION TO POLLUTION. If you want to argue this point, then answer these two questions: What is “tidal volume”, and how many liters of oxygen (or air) are in your cans?

For those of you that don’t know, tidal volume is the quantity of air that you inhale (and exhale) with each breath. Your own tidal volume will mostly depend upon your lung capacity and your level of activity. For example, a person with a lung capacity of 4 liters can inhale 4 liters of air (or oxygen) on each breath: That’s if they breathe in fully and deeply. At rest they will inhale and exhale a lower quantity of oxygen. Let’s say 1 liter.

If these cans of bullsh*t oxygen had a flow rate that matched the rate of a user’s inhalation (they don’t), and if their delivery mechanism allowed for a tight seal to the user’s face (they don’t), the user would get about 8 inhalations from one of their large 7.7 liter cans, at rest. At a cost of ten, twenty, or thirty dollars for each can, that’s a hell of a way to waste your money. A few extra lung-fulls of oxygen or clean air isn’t going to help you out in a toxic environment.

The reason that Vitality, Boost and all the others make grand claims such as “lasts up to 150 one second inhalations” is because the nozzles on the cans put out gas at such a low rate that barely any gas is emitted. So even if you believe the hype that oxygen or fresh mountain air is good for you, remember that you’re hardly getting any of it into your lungs on each breath.

Meaning that if you’re in a polluted environment and you’re sucking on one of these cans, you’ll be breathing something like 95% polluted air and 5% clean air (or oxygen) each time you inhale.

Oh, and that’s to say nothing for the oh-so-ironic environmental damage that results from shipping cans of air all around the globe.

Speaking of Irony…

I myself have been obsessively critical of FedEx on this very site. But S.co.tt is branded as some random jerk on the internet, not a snake-oil salesman trying to appear legit.

And so that’s why I don’t think it’s too hypocritical to share one of Vitality Air’s Twitter rants:

I’ll just leave that there. Take it for what you will.

If you have any experiences with Vitality Air’s products, good or bad, I’ve love to know about it in the comments!

I get it. At this point you’re probably thinking “What the hell is this guy’s problem? Two videos??“

It’s not like I’m obsessed with Boost Oxygen. In fact, I’ve already moved on to my next fecal-laden product. But when I was shooting the Boost video I decided to go over some of the incoherent ramblings of idiots reviews on Amazon and Sports Authority that I found while doing research on this product. (Yes, I did a modicum of actual research believe it or not.)

What is This Thing?

Hopefully you haven’t heard of Boost Oxygen. Hopefully you haven’t been tempted to plunk down your hard-earned cash on a useless tin can containing 95% pure nonsense.

Did I say “nonsense”? Sorry, I meant that’s it’s full of 95% pure oxygen. According to the manufacturer it’s the “source of life”, so you better go out and buy it now!

The manufacturer also loosely implies benefits to sports performance, general health and wellness, hangover recovery, and altitude sickness. That’s all bullsh*t, of course. Watch the video to find out why.

And Another Thing…

The video discusses two main reasons why this product is unadulterated B.S., but one thing I didn’t mention was the Food and Drug Administration.

You see, supplemental oxygen is used in medicine for all sorts of valid and useful reasons. In fact, it can save the life of someone if they’re ill. But medical oxygen requires a prescription, and Boost Oxygen, LLC is more than happy to point out that they can now sell oxygen in a convenient and practical manner — over the counter.

Yet they fail to mention that oxygen can be used to help you if you’re sick.

If they made a claim like that, then they would be selling a medical product and the FDA would be entirely up their ass about it. Instead, they can only make vague and unsubstantiated claims about the product’s benefits. The FDA exists for a good reason, and although they might be poorly funded and their enforcement powers may have been robustly castrated, they prevent companies like Boost Oxygen, LLC from promising life-saving effects that they can’t deliver. And that avoids killing the suckers that might buy it instead of their prescribed O2.

The bottom line here is this: Do your own research into any “health and wellness” product before you buy it. Hopefully that’s why you’re here, reading this post.

Don’t Forget the Links

I referenced some research papers, reviews, and websites in my video. You can find all of them here, which I’ll try to keep up to date when I get more information.

http://plr.io/1rb

And last of all, please let me know if I’ve made any mistakes or left anything out either in the comments below or on my YouTube video.

Apparently I was so distressed by the non-metal “metal” Defiant power strip from Home Depot that I made a video about it.

If you hate videos but love text, then mosey on over to my previous post about this travesty of a product, and follow my adventures getting pissed off about their HDX Whatever Something Light.