Portable Power Stations - Actual Capacity?

Hi all. I have a Rockpals 520wh station and i've been testing it. It seems to me that the actual capacity is 67% of their listed .. somewhere around 350wh.

I'm running a Iceco JP40 fridge at 39F and I got 29 hours with it.

Power draw is 35w on eco mode. 3w at idle. Estimating a duty cycle of 33%. (35w)x(.33)=12w (rounded up). (12w)x(29hours)=350wh

Ok. That's less than advertised. So I charge the station with my watt meter connected and it reads 350wh after a full charge. But also impressed that my estimate was spot on lol

Right now I am running the fridge again on the station's AC power and its like 60% discharged and my watt meter reads 150wh.

My brother says these capacities are always over estimated. Is this true? Or should I warranty it?

 

Idk. But i'll give you a free bump!

 

I set the temperature higher from the initial.

1st run:
DC power, 30F, 29 hours

charged it up 0.35kwh

2nd run:
AC power, 39F, 31 hours.. it still had a little charge left
measured 0.29kwh draw with meter

I found videos on youtube of people testing jackery 500 and getting ALOT more time than this crap. I'm going to try warrantying it. If that doesn't work, then i'll try for a refund and get a jackery..

 

I say refund it! Seem a lot of people are happy about the jackery, plus they have a 15% sale atm!

 

I just emailed them asking for a refund. Looks like I got fooled by the youtube reviews! Probably all fake reviews sponsored by the company.

 

Also, no pass through charging. This means that I can't plug in a solar panel and run the fridge off the AC power. No worries, there's DC power, but wait, the DC power automatically shuts off after 6 hours!

 

Get you a jackery and call it a day. Mine 500 runs my jp50 on DC and have nothing but great experience with this setup.

 

An update: I wouldn't recommend Rockpals to anyone. Their customer service is non-existent and they don't make an attempt to speak english or provide technical support. Their technical support says "send picture", but its impossible to send picture of the power station shutting off after 6 hours. So I asked for a refund for their broken power station. After 3 days of pestering they send me a prepaid return label. I send it back and then I realize 3 weeks have passed without a refund. I email them and they send my refund minus $30. I said "hey, you said that you would give me a full refund for your power station that doesnt work right". They ignored my email. I will dispute the transaction through my credit card company.