Great specs and attractive for the intro price. Definitely a short list contender. Thanks for sharing. I am familiar with the UGreen PC peripheral products.
David, great review! I would just like to add that all reviewers should specifically call out that inverter boost modes should never be used with refrigerators. Paradoxically, lowered voltage overheats the compressor leading to early failure. Vendors are implementing this feature and selling it to people who may know little to nothing about its effect on switching power supplies and motor driven appliances. It’s a bad idea.
Totally agree! And thanks for specifically pointing that out. Most of the manuals I've see that talk about these 'boost' features do point out that it should only be used with a single, high-watt draw resistive load...so as long as you're following that, you typically wouldn't run into a problem on fridge...but they don't explicitly mentioned fridges. Regardless, I usually just keep that mode turned OFF because there are very few occasions where I'd ever really find the need to use it.
This is such useful info - thank you! I am researching a solar generator specifically to run my full size fridge and have not heard this before; it's going to be a life saver for me.
Thank you David for that excellent review of the UGREEN power station. I think this unit is a winner. It definitely goes on my list of consideration. As a note, your reviews are always fun and enjoyable and I do appreciate the awesome effort you put into your reviews; it doesn't get any better. Your channel is a staple of my watched RU-vid channels.
I just wanted to say thanks again for sharing this. It helped me make a decision and I got the 1200 plus their 200w solar panels during Prime Days last week. Between their own promo price and the Prime cut I saved $600 on the package! And I am so happy with it so far. Really nice looking kit, it charged to full in four hours of sun and ran my full sized fridge for 24 hours.
Enjoy your factual and entertaining reviews. Eco flow Delta 2 was on the top of my list but it’s reported noisy fans concerned me. Expandability isn’t something I need. Your thoughts between these two units. Keep these reviews coming!!
Both very solid choices. If you can save money by going with the UGREEN, and the savings is worth the difference in warranty coverage, then yeah this would be a great alternative.
@@ReeWrayOutdoors it's great to have so many options these days and for your reviews to make the choice. I re-watched your review on the Delta 2 and you said it has a 5 year warranty so are both warranties the same or am I confused? Also can you comment on the fan noise between the two units when they are charging at the maximum rate? On the Ugreen app can you change the charge rate like you can with Ecoflow. Thanks for the response.
Yeah, like I said in the video, UGREEN has been around for awhile and, like Anker, has made a name for themselves making high quality charging and USB peripherals. And also like Anker, they are just now bringing portable power stations to market, which is welcome addition since they have experience in mobile charging tech. It's common practice to get RU-vid reviews into the pipeline when you're releasing a new product. No conspiracy here...
They'll make, or keep, a name if they meet or exceed current expectations. It's a moving, rolling target... and I've never heard of them either. Best of luck etc., hoping for good things from them. 😃
Thanks for all the time you spend bringing us these detailed reviews. Now I need to add this on the list with the Ecoflow Delta 2 The Anker solix c1000 And the Bluetti ac180. All have a 5 year warranty. Does anyone have anything to say to help me decide? Thanks, be safe and aware all.
Hiya David thanks so much for all these great reviews! I still get a bit confused 🙈 I have a micro camper with the bare basics in it, no electrics yet. I got an alpicool 30l fridge, a tiny 400w heater powered by a 3 point UK plug and I have phones/ cameras to charge. I would probably use some USB LED lights at night and if possible watch movies on my laptop but not essential as I can use my phone. Its a small doblo van, I could put a fold up solar panel on the roof but wondering if I could put one inside the van maybe against the windscreen to keep it safe if I have a nap. That's probably about everything:) I would like to find an AC unit for my dog in the summer but so far the ones I've seen are all too bulky to work in the van with the space I have. Sorry about all the questions! If you had this set up and could only afford to lay out cash for a nice power station and solar panels once, which would you pick? I'd happily order off your recommendations :) I go off grid often for a few days at a time and being able to charge my phone/ have light is a safety must. thanks again for all the helpful content!
I was looking at Ecoflow & Bluetti but I like this better. I really like the USB-A ports with QC3.0 @22W each as compared to the 12W “dinosaur” ports on almost every other power station. Another big selling point is the UPS. Ecoflow UPS switchover is 30 ms which will cause many computer-like items to reset. 20 ms on this one is fast enough that most anything other than a rack server will ride out the outage without reboot.
I wish I had a 'sacrificial rack server' to test that on! Oddly, my desktop tower PC's seem to be more tolerant of more modest UPS switchover speeds than my old laptop with the battery removed. Go figure...
Wow this actually looks better than Bluetti in a sense. Bluetti just introduced their AC60 and it was rather a disappointment. Besides the ability to add on batteries and waterproofing, I think this device is better than the AC60. I do wish the carrying handle was foldable for space savings but that’s just a minor issue.
I'd imagine so, as long as the combination of the 2 doesn't exceed the rated input voltage. But I must admit that I' haven't had the chance to play with wind...yet. Something I'm definitely planning on.
I don't know why uGreen put XT60 jacks on their panels. If you had two 200w UGreen panels connected to the one XT60 jack with the Y-connector, what is the maximum watts I could get? Is there a better way to connect these two panels to get more wattage? Thanks. ALSO: So the input and output wattage shown on the display is not Net or one subtracted from the other. What you see is exactly what's going in and what's going out? Thx. UPDATE: I found another video testing two uGreen 200w panels combined into this unit which was only 233w total.
The experiment of linking the heaters and draining the unit to trigger the shutoff was intriguing. It got me thinking about the consequences of leaving the heaters connected even after the unit has been drained to shutoff. Does the unit switch off the 115vac receptacle and charge the cells back to 100% then switch on the 115vac receptacle?
No if it is allowed to discharge to empty, the AC inverter is shutdown and would have to be turned back on manually. Most portable power stations are designed this way, in contrast with non-portable AIO systems which typically allow for that scenario.
Hi David, thank you for your review! Have you tested if the device will stop charging via Auto/DC when the voltage drops in order to not overdraw the auto's battery when the car is not running. And then resume when the car is running and the voltage goes back up to >13v. ?
It is, yes, but that was not super recent actually...2021 I think. There are better options now. I'd recommend a 200W panel. I have 2 or 3 reviews on 200W you might want to check out. You just need something with an XT60 connector (or adapter to one) or MC4 where you can easily buy an XT60 adapter for it.
What up Doe Mr Dave Outdoors!? I think uGreen hit a home run with the 1200w inverter and 400w solar charging. I would probably use it for everything you mentioned at the end of the vid. Also, does it allow duel charging? I sure would like to see what they could do with a 2000w power station?? Great job👍🏻
Thanks man! Nope...does do dual charging. If you have solar plugged in and then connect AC, it will switch over to AC only charging - which, really, is quite sufficient on this power station since it'll pull in 1100W+ off of AC and fast-charge...so you wouldn't gain much with dual charging here and only add stress to the battery cells. I feel like dual charging is something I'd ever want to do on a power station with limited AC input (ie long charge times)...like the Jackery E1000...which of course doesn't support dual charging. :P
@Joel & Laura Sears I just got the 200w panel from UGREEN and it is top notch. Just like the EcoFlow panels only way easier to setup and take down. I haven't compared the cost on them yet, so I can't really speak on that.
I have just bought the PowerRoam 1200, but I overlooked one issue related to AC charnging speed, and I am struggling to find a solution. Does anyone know a way to lowqer the AC charging speed down to around 200watts max (much lower than quiet mode normally lowers it to). I mainly want to use these as long-run UPS devices to allow me to run all of the systems in my scuba diving center when the grid goes out here in Mexico - Particularly if this happens overnight too keep the CCTV running and allow me to open the electric-only roller shutters in the morning. THE PROBLEM that I have found is that normally after a while of no-power, we will typically start our Honda 2200i inverter generator, which works great to power the essential systems and some extras like lights and fans... However, when we start to power the shop from the generator, the high AC charge rate of the UGreen (>600 watts even when quiet mode is enabled) means that my generator stuggles to power everything. So with this in mind, does anyone know if/how it is posisble to manually drop the AC charging rate down to something much more modest like 100-200 watts?)
The EcoFlow Delta 2 offering higher wattage for the same price as the UGreen 1200W model sounds like a good deal, especially if the Delta 2 also has better solar input capabilities. Consider your specific needs and use cases to determine which features are more important for you. If you rely on solar input frequently or need the extra power capacity, the Delta 2 might be the better choice. However, if you have different priorities or a specific budget, the UGreen could still be a solid option.
But honestly 1200 W as standard output is not perfect due to most gear (espresso maker) need more, about 1260 to 1300.. This is cost reduction at the wrong place.
Thanks for another great review. I think you mentions this quick charges. Can this also be charged with a generator? Or generator and solar at the same time? thank you.
Hi Colin - I know they sell these in UK, but not certain if they're outputting 240V or not. I would assume they are, but would definitely be worth dropping a question on their support email to see what they say.
Probably...but also going to be posting a review on their PowerRoam 600 on Monday (most likely) so it's also likely l have a new discount code I can give you if you want wait a few days. :)
Ok -so it doesn't look like they'll have active promo codes during Prime days because they've got Prime Days specific deals going on for July 10th only. Here's the Prime Day deal link for the 1200: amzn.to/3JI6Mr2 I hope this helps!
I just received my UGreen Power Roam 1200 Portable Power Station. I used your link for the purchase. Now I need solar panels to go with it. I am researching solar panels. Do you have any recommendations? Coupon codes?
Thank you for the great review. This power station instruction sheet looks very well done. For my 1st power station I have a lot to learn. This unit looks great and seems very sturdy. The packaging it comes in is top notch. I will be trying it out on my Cpap machine in July when I go camping in Yellowstone. 😊
Hi guys! As I mentioned in the video, you can actually get by with 200W, but a 400W panel does give you quicker charge times and 2x the output which is handy in less-than-ideal sky conditions. So my recommendation would be a 400W panel, if you've got the space for it (they're hefty and big when unfolded). I do like the Allpowers 400W panel: amzn.to/3OHu7fD for price/performance/quality. If you go with 200W, both the Ugreen 200W amzn.to/45ypDxJ and the Rophie 200W are very similar amzn.to/3oBucqs (the Ugreen is a bit better build quality...but just a bit). I have a recent video on the Rophie - which I think does have a coupon code that might still be valid. I haven't done a video on the Ugreen yet, but I'm impressed with that panel as well.
Can anyone explain to me how these products can claim to be 1,200 wh for instance, but only yield roughly 80% of that upon actual testing and usage? Is this simply deceptive marketing on their part? If I truly need 1500 wh, it looks like a I need to buy a 2000 wh power station.
Fair question, Jim. Basically what's going on here is that all these companies are quoting the raw capacity rating of the battery cells in their products. But because fully discharging a cell will have a significant long-term negative impact on that cell's life-span, there's a battery management system built-in to help optimize battery health and longevity...and maybe also reserve some power for other essential functions like the bluetooth app connection. All of that adds up to a usable capacity that is something like 80-85% of rated capacity on average. It's not all that different really from buying a 100Ah lead-acid car battery that you really can't utilize much more than about 50Ah unless you want to dramatically shorten its service life.
yeah, up to about 1000Wh of capacity, that is definitely true. Anything over that though, you'll want more than 200W of solar input if you need to fully charge in just 1 day...or in 1 full day of partly cloudy conditions....that's where having a solar input voltage range higher than 30V definitely comes in handy.
@@ReeWrayOutdoors In reality most people probably don't wait until completely or near empty before they recharge their power stations, so I think 200watts still still enough. It doesn't take long for me to charge 100ah lithium iron phosphate battery from 13.1 to 14.3 volts
Hi Nancy! That little "My Heat" heater draws a continous 200W (after about 30 seconds of start-up). So some simple math...if we divide that 200W into the USABLE capacity of 878Wh, we get just under 4.5 hours of runtime. For camping/RVin/etc in cold, I find it's a lot more power efficient to heat yourself with an electric blanket. ;-) which will get you WAY more runtime than a space heater - which is a great for load-testing...but a heavy-lift for battery powered energy sources from a practicality standpoint.
Very helpful info on U-turbo mode. How you noticed that the U-turbo setting cannot be permanently turned off? If you turn it off in the app per your instructions that works, but then if you power off and power on the unit the U-Turbo mode appears to automatically turn back on.
I have a question. I'm going to utilize this mostly in my Mercedes Sprinter van when doing deliveries where I'm out two or three days. Will it hurt this unit if I just leave it continuously plugged up to the 12 volt charging system from my van?
The charge controller should simply cut-off charging when it's topped-off. Technically, keeping these LiFePO4 batteries in a constant 100% SOC is not considered 'ideal' as it's tends to be more stressful on the cells than when at, say, 50% SOC. That said, for 2 or 3 days a time...I think there's no problem there that I'd be concerned about.
@@ReeWrayOutdoors by the way I ordered mine with the carrying case. I enjoy your content, as I am not very knowledgeable in the things you cover. You do a great job of of explaining the technical things I don't fully understand.
There's no "BEST for EVERYONE" answer here since people have different needs and budgets. I explain all that in detail in this recent video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NWWI9DgT8qM.html