Review: Sanyo Eneloop Pedal Juice1

One of the most annoying things about playing live is power. As a guitarist, we usually have so many devices to plug in, requiring different power supplies or batteries that we are prone to many problems. You could run your devices off battery and hope you haven’t forgotten to change an old 9V out (FYI Tube Screamers literally start screaming when they are going flat – found that out the hard way), or you can run everything off mains power and hope you can avoid the dreaded ground loop.

Sanyo, who make arguable the best batteries in the world have realised there is a sizable niche for high capacity batteries in the world of musicians, and have released the Eneloop Pedal Juice Rechargeable 9v Power Supply. This is a small, stompbox sized device designed to bridge the gap between battery power and mains power.

The idea is a simple one. Charge up the Pedal Juice, plug your gear into it and have the benefits of mains but with the portability and ground loop free-ness of battery. Sanyo claim that the Pedal Juice can power a single 9v pedal for 50 hours on one charge, and that is quite a feat. So I decided to test it out.

Following the instructions, I charged the device for four hours. This is where I had my first problem with the device. The unit I was shipped only contained a US adapter. I’m sure this is just because of the test unit I received and that retail boxes will have region specific adapters, but it was a little annoying. Thankfully I had a great multi region adapter handy that I could use.

The next problem is not really a fault with the unit itself but a standards issue. The Pedal Juice comes with a nice daisy chain power cable that lets you plug in five devices. However I have a few pedals that require a different jack. Again, I have adapters for this issue, but it would have been nice to seen this taken into account in the boxed unit.

Apart from these issues, things went smoothly. I plugged everything in and hooked up all my pedals. For the record, I connected an MXR Phase 90, Ibanez Digital Delay, Tech 21 XXL, Behringer Tremolo and Behringer Tuner. The first thing you notice is there is no line noise, the ground loop is gone. I also found that even in a loop free environment, my pedals effects sounded a little crisper, which I think is due to the constant nature of the power coming over direct DC power rather than drawing from a 9V battery.

With the five pedals on the entire time I let the unit run out of juice. I was surprised how long I actually got. With Sanyo claiming 50 hours for one 9V device, I got a surprising 12 hours with all five pedals attached. That is quit a good effort.

If there is one thing I wish it did, it would be to support 12V devices. Although it claims to handle multi effects, in reality a lot of those types of devices required more than the 9V supplied by the Pedal Juice. I don’t have any around I can test it with so I can’t be sure if it would be up to the task.

All things considered, I think this is a great product. Once I am playing live again with a full rig, this will definitely be taking a spot on my pedal board.

I would like to thank Sanyo for supplying me with this unit to test.