Jackery Portable Power Station Explorer 300. 293Wh Backup Lithium Battery. Solar Generator for Outdoors Camping Travel Hunting Blackout (Solar Panel Optional)

I purchased the explorer 300 after my explorer 240 died and is unrepairable after five years of use. After charging it up the first thing I wanted to do was make sure I could hook up my Solar briefcase to it like I did with the 240. I have a rock pals hundred watt foldable solar panel that worked well with the 240. The 300 however has a different plug for charging and it doesn’t match any of the plugs for the rock pal supplied connectors. The closest one I have is the 8 mm which is supposed to work but even in the documentation the Zachary 300 has a 7.9 mm connector. I don’t know if it’s a big deal but the 8 mm I have will not fit, even though it looks identical. I can only now charge with the wall plug or the car charger. This does not help me when I am camping and using Solar.

It claims to be 293wh, yet I've had a single load running on it, that has run between 8 and 10 watts, according to the screen, and in 11 hours, it's used 73%. That's about 15h of total capacity with a 10w load, making the usable capacity in that time 150wh, just about half of the rated 293wh. I need this to run continuously with this load, 24/7, and will have a 100w solar panel on it to charge. Hopefully, that's enough to keep it running with the apparent 9w phantom drain.

After peeling back the layers of carsboard, box within a box within a box, I finally to the Jackery battery bank. First immediate impression was, that's a lot of boxes, second was, hmmm thanks kinda small. Small unit mean small battery, but a according to the formula posted in the description, I should still get some juice out of the orange red unit.

I bought this battery bank to power from decorations for a trunk or treat event. Using the formula provided, I calculated just over 2 hours, which should have been enough.
300 *.85 / 120 = 2.125 working hours.

I powered on the unit as soon as it was out of the box, and it was charged to 40%. I ran a test, and immediate notice the battery drain, about 1% of drain per minute at a draw of 120w. I fully charged the unit over night and tested it again, same results. Some quick math later and I was looking at a +$230 battery bank that could only keep things powered for approximately 1.6 hours. I did not run the battery down to test if I would even get that much, but this point I already concluded this unit would not work for my needs.

Item was returned. I will instead used a cheapcar powe inverted to power my trunk or treat decorations.

Did the research, lots of it. Selected the Jackery 300 from among many competitors due to reputation for reliability and availability of a pure sine wave. If you are plugging complex electronics into this, such as computers, a CPAP, etc., as opposed to simpler/mechanical items like lights or a cooler, you need a pure sine wave to avoid damage to your equipment - clean power, vs dirty, in simple terms. This was purchased to provide emergency power for a CPAP.

Form factor is excellent. Feels good in the hand and is highly maneuverable and very well balanced. Lots of thought went into the design. Make sure you read the instructions to avoid draining the battery: you need to turn the specific outlets you want to use ON when you need them, and OFF when you are done. Each group of outlets has an independent button to power them up/down.

I had hoped to get one full night of CPAP use out of a single charge. Sadly, this is not the case. I got about 6.5 hours from a full charge the night before to 1% in the morning (see photo). For reference, the machine I was powering is the most common CPAP available: ResMed AirSense 10 with the water chamber. Pressure at 10.2, chamber and tube heat off. The unit charges quite quickly at 79W draw, plugged into a surge protector via 110V outlet at home (see photo).

I had hoped for a bit more use time, but 6.5h will do. When we lose power it most often happens during the night, so it is unlikely I would need to use it for a full 8 hours anyway. Still though, if you want a guarantee of more than 6.5 hours uptime for your CPAP, maybe get the next model up. It turns out the Jackery 500 is currently really expensive, so you are better off getting two of these, provided you don't mind switching from one to the other when the first one runs out of juice.

One more thing which bugs me: the unit comes with two power cords for charging it (AC110V and DC12V with a 12V/lighter adapter). These fit nicely into a zipper pouch. Unfortunately, the unit does NOT come with a storage bag for the unit itself. I will be needing to purchase a separate storage bag/box to hold both the unit and the cable pouch. To not provide one at this price point feels like Jackery cheaped out here. Also, the Jackery-branded 100W solar charger is ABSURDLY overpriced. Literally $100 more than it should be. I will be waiting for that to go on sale, if I get it at all.

I do recommended this unit. I am giving it only 3 stars because: A) 8 hours would be much more useful - this is a VERY common application for this unit (read the comments) and the fact this does not provide 8 hrs of power for the most common CPAP at this price point kind of sucks. B) The lack of a storage bag/box (aside from the cardboard packaging) also sucks. C) The ridiculously overpriced recommended 100W solar charger is a joke at that price. 3 stars MAX.

Bought it to use with solar panels in emergency or just emergency for my EV. Learned the charger needs 20 not 15 amos so the Sine thing doesn't matter. Had to get car towed again. Please check any device before you leave no matter what rush you are in. Dead and freezing for 16 hours waiting for a tow truck I am lucky to be alive. I plugged my charger in and it just said error, the description said it charged my vehicle.

== Anker 521 vs Jackery Explorer 300 ==
tl;dr look at my photos.

Similarities/comparable points: price (anker coupon), usable capacity, physical size, weight

Notable differences:
* Design/aesthetics: Anker is so much more modern
* Screen: Anker has a way better and larger screen
* Charging port: Anker is located in the rear (which I prefer). Can also fast charge with USB-C in the front.
* Light bar on Anker. It's pretty useful, I use it when carrying around the power pack.
* UI: Anker by a long shot. Way more responsive and the screen tells you all the information you need.

Overall: I much prefer the anchor due to the better OLED screen (higher contrast, brighter, larger, etc) and the UI.

Overheats constantly which affects charging convenience. Cannot push more than 75watts to charge it. Unless you charge it inside an air conditioned house, it's worthless!

Keeps my ARB fridge at 34’F for 27 hours, at 10’F for 10 hours (indoor test)

Changing my review to 3 stars, because all 4 of my silicon feet fell off. Now I have a sticky mess and the Jackery slides around on the table and is unsafe.