Group Buy (Closed): Jackery Explorer Portable Power Stations and SolarSaga Solar Panels

Tested the 500 at home with an ARB 50qt. Fridge was pretty much empty (only a few cans) and temp was set to 29F. Pre-cooled using my wall outlet before plugging the Jackery in via 12v.

Got 48 hours with the display showing 4% battery life. Not bad in my opinion. I’m sure it will vary with hotter temps and/or filling the fridge to capacity, but overall pretty happy with results.

 

Yep. I would think that is pretty good as well.

It shouldn't have to work as hard when full, so that should hopefully improve results. What was the ambient temperature outside?

 

Around 70-76F

 

I’m solar charging mine new with both panels on a cloudy muggy day. Getting anywhere from 7-11watts charging. Was at 38% now 50%

 

Just ordered mine 500 w

 

Oh
And panels are out in a bad location on deck

 

My current setup is an old model Dometic cfx 35, a Dometic fridge slide, a Jackery 240, and a Jackery Solasaga 100 panel. I was really happy with this setup a few days ago when I finally got my panels. Then I came across this product last night during one of my youtube rabbit holes. It looks promising and it solves the problem I wanted to solve in one package for less money. I like that you can have multiple batteries and the batteries plug right into the side of the fridge. No need for the solar panel if I could have multiple batteries pre-charged and can charge them while I'm driving. No cables running from the battery to the fridge so it's easier to move around and you don't have to keep it in the bed of the truck. It even has wheels which would remove the need of me having a fridge slide since it's only purpose is not to drag the fridge across the bed to get it on my tailgate. It gives you the flexibility of easily moving the fridge to a different locations without to much fuss. What do you guys think?


https://youtu.be/s-cx__GCqsk


https://www.acopower.com/products/hy-x40a

 

I will watch that video tomorrow to see.

I just checked in tonight to say that my 1000 came charged at 38% and took 4 hours and 40 minutes to fully charge from the wall. What I found interesting is that it was pulling (according to the display) around 160W most of the time, but that dropped down to 0-20W for the last 1%. In fairness, it could have dropped sooner than the last 1%, but that's when I noticed it.

So it went from 38% to ~98% in 4 hours. Then another 40 minutes or so to get the last little bit in there.

Starting my ICECO JP40 at an ambient temperature of 77*, it took 58 minutes to reach 32 degrees on AC power (DC is more efficient). There was still 95% battery remaining. At this point, I turned the temp up to 39* and added a powerade.

After 6 hours, I had 80% remaining.

 

How did it go? I'm pretty much running the same test now.

2 100W panels on a cloudy day. There was no blue in the sky whey I started at 10:30am and I was getting about 30W. By 11am, and some very small patches of blue, I was getting 42W and had gone from 38% to 40%. I have not checked it the last 3o minutes.

 

Just an update here. I was pretty impressed at first, but was not impressed this morning when I went out to check on it. Ambient temp was around 70 degrees this morning. The unit was in my truck in the garage (which is usually hotter than ambient, surprisingly). So we'll say the ambient temp ranged from 70 to 80 degrees.

I put the powerade in the fridge and loaded the fridge and jackery into the backseat of my double cab for my wife to take our daughter to soccer. So it was parked in the sun for roughly 2 hours and I'm sure the cab heated up some during that time, but probably not enough to make a significant impact.

This morning, after only 21 hours, the

$1,649 Jackery Explorer 1000 , 1002Wh Capacity with 2xSolarSaga 100W Solar Panels, 3x1000W AC Outlets, Portable Power Station Ideal for Home Backup, Emergency, RV Outdoor Camping Black, Orange

Jackery Explorer 1000 was back down to 39% and the fridge was holding steady at 37 degrees. In fairness to the Jackery, I was running the fridge on AC power and the fridge was on "MAX" instead of "ECO" mode. While the side of the fridge was not pressed up against the back of the seat, it was close. It's possible that this restricted airflow and made the compressor work harder.

The next test will be similar conditions on DC power.

The above results aren't bad, but I'm not as thrilled as I was hoping. I'm sure a loaded fridge that was pre-chilled would last a LOT longer. Especially as ambient temp continues to decrease.

 

Yep on the AC vs DC power and MAX/ECO modes. I reported similar results on my 500.

Where is your fridge stored in the back? My fridge is in back seat passenger side. I fold up the bottom seat and wedge the fridge in there. Seems to get good airflow by doing it this way.

 

That was the first time that I had put it in the truck, so I just put it on top of the cushion. Next time, I'll put the seat down and give it the flat plastic on the back of the seat.

Also, worthy of note, The

$1,649 Jackery Explorer 1000 , 1002Wh Capacity with 2xSolarSaga 100W Solar Panels, 3x1000W AC Outlets, Portable Power Station Ideal for Home Backup, Emergency, RV Outdoor Camping Black, Orange

Jackery Explorer 1000 takes up pretty much the entire floorboard of the back seat and the AC power ports are low enough that the plug sticks under the passenger seat. The back seat floorboad is rather small, so it's a pretty favorable-sized footprint.

 

I made it to 20 minutes on the video. Obviously, that won't be for everybody, but seems like a solid option. I like that it has the LG compressor as opposed to a no-name brand. Getting 24 hours off a single battery is pretty good. The batteries used for that fridge are about the same size as the Jackery 160, which is not part of this Group Buy.

If I were to get that fridge, I'd probably look at a different solar panel (but that's just me).

 

I ended up with 57% but didn’t watch it got busy with other things

 

I'm at 2 hours 45 minutes and up to 63%, but clouds have dissipated quite a bit and I'm seeing a decent amount of blue sky. Still lots of clouds though. I seem to be ranging between 30 and 135W. I think the highest I saw was 139W.

The 135W seems really good since I read somewhere that about 60W is all that you should reasonably expect from a 100W panel. That's close to 70W per panel!

 

I’m sure it would’ve done better had I placed the panels appropriately. But I’m going to charge it for free

 

Some pics of it with my Iceco JP40 running.

Something of note, or possible concern, that I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed. It seems like the DC plug doesn't hold in "securely." Its still powering the fridge, but seems like it could come loose without much force. Anyone who's used this in the truck able to chime in?

Well, I tried to capture it from the first to the second picture, but it doesn't look much different in the pictures. It feels significant though to the touch.

 

Just went out to check on it and the fridge was off. Pushed the plug in and wedged it up against the wall to hold the plug in firmly and the fridge temp read 32* though it is set to 39.

So not sure if the display on the fridge had just gone out or if the plug lost connection. I think it was the plug losing connection, but I don't want that to be the answer. Either way, the fridge was below the set temp, so I really don't know.

Hoping someone else can chime in.

 

Same exact results with my jp50 plug. And I stay paranoid about it and have my son getting as anal as me double and triple checking while in route to destination.

 

It's the latter...IMHO.