I have been using this setup all summer with pretty good success. Only difference is I have the 140W panels. I paid $450 from Walmart which at the time was easily the best price. I am a new ham and when I bought this, I was planning to use it for POTA activations. I didn't know what I was doing for sure! I have learned. Anyway, if you have the AC on, it is an RFI volcano and is unusable radio wise. DC is fine. I use it for powering my CPAP machine while tent camping primarily. I can go two nights with zero recharging easy. I use the solar panel all the time and use that while activating with a Buddipole Solar Controller. Works great although never get 140W out. Overall, I would buy it again and find great use of the package for my needs.
It looks like a pretty decent little unit. I know when you add up all the things in this generator and with one 100 watt panel, it would cost about $500. plus a case and wiring to build something with comparable, but with higher charge capacity and the same AH. The down side to me is it only has 50AH capacity and can only use one 100 watt panel. Maybe I'm a cheap ham, but for $700, I can build something myself that would not only have a higher charge capacity, but more AH in a battery as well. For what you get in one unit, I guess the price is not all that out of line. It is plug and play. Thanks for showing us this unit. At it's price point, just not enough juice for the squeeze, for me anyway. I'm not totally cheap, but for that money, I would do it myself and have far more capacity. Not everyone wants to build or has the ability to build their own, so for those people, it may be worth the $$$. I have about 4 different solar charging systems from small to mid-large size I have built myself. I also have back up pieces for each. For me it's not just about portable power today, but having power when the SHTF and new resources are scarce. The other up side to building your own is that is if any one part of the system failed, it would be easy to replace that part of it. In these all in one units, you pretty much have to send it in for repair. In these times with supply chain problems getting worse every day, that is a huge consideration. Thanks for the review Chuck. Your channel is always watched.
Thanks John yea some people don't want to build and it's good for that. I will build one myself also to power bigger things like my fridge for camping.
$569.99 with 20% off at checkout is one hell of a good deal. Especially with the foldable solar panel. $40 more for a 140 watt panel. Too bad I bought a Bluetti 600 watts w/o a panel during Prime Days.
I just bought a Forza Technologies 700w Portable Power supply and it charges at >500 watts and will fully charge in 1.5 hours ....get this with ONE POWER CHORD
When it hits 40% and dropping on the display, expect it to stop providing power soon! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xYsBt_Swt_M.html The good news is that it has battery management systems (BMS) to prevent deep discharge in that heavy usage scenario, so the display has power and claims it has 0% but you now know that you must charge it up soon. If you don't charge it soon, it may actually reach deep discharge state over a few days and may be useless / no longer able to charge up. Perhaps by 2025, new solid-state batteries for these home use products will be readily available, smaller size / same weight but a much greater run time :)
